Officials: North Country child care services in crisis

Sep. 30—PLATTSBURGH — The pandemic continues to poison the region's already ailing child care system, evidenced by a loss of nearly 900 child care slots in the tri-county area over the last two years, making it harder than ever for North Country parents to find care for their kids at a time when they need it most.

Sara Allen Taylor, project manager for the Child Care Coordinating Council of the North Country, said child care was sparse pre-pandemic with an average of six kids per open slot. Child care capacity has since shrunk about 16% in Clinton and Franklin counties and more than 30% in Essex County.

"It was already something that we were beating our heads against the wall, saying, 'This is a crisis. People need to pay attention.' It has only gotten worse."

CAN'T AFFORD IT

Allen Taylor noted various causes for dwindling child care options, including the difficulties of becoming regulated in New York State and being able to charge enough for the service.

"The average median income here is about $50,000. A family that has two children in care is paying, on average, $15,000 per year. If they have an infant and a preschooler in a child care center. . . they could be paying 35% of their income just for child care," Allen Taylor said.

"In other words," Executive Director Jamie Basiliere chimed in, "parents cannot afford the true cost of child care."

While many child care programs are altering tuition costs to meet parents in the middle, Allen Taylor said that in turn took away from of their own income.

CALLING INTO WORK

In the continued days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many school-age students across the region have been sent home to quarantine after coming into contact with a positive classmate or school employee.

It begs the question, how are working moms, dads and guardians handling when their kids are quarantined from school or daycare?

"Employers have been more flexible in structuring work so that parents can be working remote when need be, but that depends on the type of job that you're doing," Allen Taylor said. "If that isn't available. . . someone needs to be able to stay with that child."

Which has led to parents calling into work or not working at all to be home with the kiddos.

"That's also why we're hearing there has been such a mental health crisis around this, as well, and why employers are struggling to fill empty positions," Allen Taylor said.

Basiliere called child care a key piece of the economic development puzzle.

"There are people who can't go to work right now, who have just come off of unemployment for a year or thereabouts who would love to go back to work, but who gave up their child care slot. If they have a baby or a toddler, a child under the age of two years, there really is not a slot to be found."

OPPOSITE SHIFTS

Kelly McDonald, mom of three and town clerk for the Town of Mooers, called her family lucky.

Her husband, Derrick, currently works an overnight shift at the border and her part-time day job offers some flexibility.

"We don't usually have to find daycare. We're very lucky because we do have someone home all of the time."

Which has bode well in COVID times, allowing her three Mooers Elementary School students to avoid the bus last year and stay home with a parent in the case of a COVID exposure.

Daughter Amelia, 10, was recently stuck home for three days for that very reason.

"I do think that's a lot of the reason that some people have had to leave their jobs and why a lot of businesses are having trouble," McDonald said. "I'm hoping that gets better for them with the remote options not being there in most of the districts, but, as a parent, what can you do? And as a daycare provider, how do you teach different levels of kids and keep everybody online? I don't know."

'UNSUNG HEROES'

Many area school districts went remote last year to keep kids at arms length in hopes of slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus and several have begun this year to shift classrooms, grades and/or entire buildings to virtual learning on a more short-term basis as they respond to COVID exposures in their schools.

"Largely child care providers and programs took on the remote learning responsibilities," Basiliere said of the 2020-21 school year. "They would have youngsters lined up with their laptops and Chromebooks at the kitchen table and every nook and cranny.

"They didn't always feel confident or competent in what they were doing, but they did their very best and parents had to rely on them to handle the remote learning."

That was why Basiliere referred to child care professionals as the pandemic's "unsung heroes."

"We thanked the frontline healthcare workers, we thanked the frontline retail workers and we need to thank our child care professionals. They are under resourced and stepped up to this pandemic and worked very, very hard to maintain safe and healthy and appropriate environments for kids.

"They played roles, such as teachers, which they have never played before."

RECOVERY PLAN

The Child Care Coordinating Council of the North Country, a nonprofit headquartered in Plattsburgh, hopes to construct a pipeline to rebuild area child care opportunities.

The hope is to find funding opportunities enough to support the addition of a recruiter and a developer, and to help individuals get registered to become providers and trained in financial bookkeeping.

Basiliere thought it would take $300,000 split across three years, so $100,000 annually, to do so in Clinton County. The plan would be replicated in Franklin County.

"I think that in probably 18 months we could probably build back what we've lost and then go from there and seriously build the supply," the executive director said.

"We have the plans and the passion," Allen Taylor added. "We're working on finding the funding to be able to support it and make it happen. There are people who want to become child care providers, are willing to become child care providers, but that can seem like a daunting process."

Email McKenzie Delisle:

mdelisle@pressrepublican.com

Twitter: @McKenzieDelisle

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