Survey: Whatcom child care providers struggling amid COVID-19 could close for good
More than half of licensed child care providers in the region that includes Whatcom County fear they won’t survive economically because of the additional strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey from Child Care Aware of Washington.
The advocacy group’s survey results were broken down by region. It showed that for the five-county northwest region — Island, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish and Whatcom — 64% of providers “believe they are at risk of permanent closure,” Marcia Jacobs, representative for Child Care Aware of Washington, told The Bellingham Herald.
More than 2,500 of the state’s roughly 5,400 licensed providers responded to the nonprofit’s survey.
Overall, 41% of those who responded in the state believe they might be closing their doors for good “due mainly to the financial impacts of the crisis,” according to the survey results.
The survey results also showed that just a small number have been able, so far, to get federal money meant to help small businesses weather the effects of the coronavirus. Results revealed that:
▪ In the region that includes Whatcom County, 44 applied for an Economic Injury Disaster loan from the Small Business Administration and 74 applied for a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan. Six received SBA loans and 42 received PPP loans, according to Jacobs.
▪ As of Tuesday, May 26, a total of 53 child care programs in Whatcom County have closed. There are also 424 vacant spots at existing child care programs in the county, according to Jacobs.
It is believed that those spots are vacant because parents are either working from home or they’re at home because they’re unemployed, according to Jacobs.
The vacant spots represent a little over 11% of the 3,716 licensed spots in Whatcom County, as of Dec. 31, 2019.
Child care programs were allowed to remain open during Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order to care for children whose parents are still working outside their homes as first responders, health care workers or in essential businesses.
As Washington state continues to move toward a phased reopening of its economy and daily life, Child Care Aware of Washington is calling on the state to help.
“Our state must recognize the crucial role child care plays in reopening and sustaining our economy because most parents of young children work. Investments in the child care industry are investments in all other industries because investing in child care allows parents to work and employers to operate,” said Deeann Burtch Puffert, chief executive officer for Child Care Aware of Washington, in a statement.
The pandemic has worsened what was already a tough situation for licensed child care providers and, in turn, the working parents that depend on them.
“Washington’s child care providers have financially been hanging on by a proverbial thread for decades,” Puffert said. “The loss of much of their income from so many children being kept at home, combined with the increased costs of running a child care small business during the pandemic, have forced hundreds to temporarily close their doors. Those that have remained open are struggling to operate on reduced incomes and without personal protective equipment and health insurance.”
