Child care: critical to help us move forward from COVID

The health of the area child care centers in the Northwest Corner can be seen as a good bellwether of the health of the entire region as far as social fabric goes. If the centers made it through the worst of the pandemic, and continue to get back on track now, it should give us hope for our communities as we begin to move forward from the many effects of COVID-19 and its variants. It is even starting to seem as if we are beginning to understand what normal life will be like in its aftermath. But to confirm that sense, this writer decided to check in with one of our critically important child care centers.

When Tonya Roussis, the director at the Housatonic Child Care Center (HCCC) in Salisbury, was asked in a recent interview what her greatest challenges are right now in keeping the center going, she didn’t hesitate. “Staffing is difficult,” she said. “We were short staffed for a while, but then we were so fortunate to find two new teachers. We could still use at least another one.” Roussis said that while the HCCC was down in staffing, there were six or seven spots for children they could not fill in order to maintain proper ratios of teachers to children.

Now, they can begin filling those spots, working to shorten their waiting list of families. Roussis said that parents call her every day looking for child care for their families, and that they are a varied group of people moving here. They live mainly in Lakeville, Salisbury and New York state.

Kathy Hawley, the finance person for the center, agreed, saying, “If we can’t bring in staffing, we can’t bring in new kids.” And there are new kids coming into the area, now and over the past two years. Hawley confirmed the center is slowly bouncing back financially from the years of the COVID pandemic, and that parents are keeping up with their payments for their children’s time at the center. It also helps that Connecticut’s Care 4 Kids program is in force, helping families who apply with paying their child care costs. Roussis noted that she is always looking for grants to help with the cost of child care.

The staffing issue the center is facing is, of course, one that’s affecting many employers in the region. Roussis said, “There is a critical need for child care now for parents who work. COVID has put child care in the spotlight because without it, parents can’t work. If centers close, it is a ripple effect to fewer employees being part of the work force.”

Hawley pointed out that there are people who don’t have children who may not support their town’s child care center, thinking it wouldn’t affect them. But for companies to meet the challenge of staffing, parents need access to good quality child care. That will help in filling positions that aren’t now staffed. “So if there are two cashiers at LaBonne’s instead of four, don’t be annoyed, think about what might affect that,” she said. And a lack of available workers means services like child care aren’t a given, but should be.

To give people incentives to work at the HCCC, Roussis said, they have enhanced the benefits. There is now a matching IRA retirement program, in addition to health benefits for which the center pays 70%, and a discount for child care for staff of 100%. Quite a discount.

Fundraising events couldn’t happen during the pandemic, so the annual appeal was the key outside revenue source during the past two years. Now is the time to look at the child care center in your town and step up to support it, so there is good care available for working parents. Parents need child care, and until there is universal pre-K and wider child care that is affordable or publicly funded, the centers now operating need to fulfill that need.

— Janet Manko