Supporting caregivers through a national child care crisis
Before starting her presentation on financial models, Lauren Small, CEO of Early Education Business Consultants LLC, gave an important reminder.
“These are not widgets. These are people’s children. The quality of child care has to constantly come into the conversation.”
The business coach was invited by Virginia Tech and First Steps to speak to local leaders in government, business, and early childhood education joining the New River Valley Regional Childcare Summit in January. They came to learn how child care centers work differently from other businesses, why their model has been failing, and how the community can help.
Virginia Tech’s commitment to child care
Over the last three years, Virginia Tech has explored new ways to expand child care options for caregiving employees and students through the Early Childhood Education Initiatives (ECEI) — and they are gaining traction. Since last fall, the university has expanded partnerships with two more child care centers and began offering discounts toward au pair services through Cultural Care Au Pair.
But ECEI's fall 2023 child care survey showed that the majority of Virginia Tech families with young children currently rely on local child care centers, which are facing fallout from nationwide labor shortages. To address the industry’s current challenges and ensure caregivers’ options continue to grow, the university is collaborating with community partners to build a network of support for child care professionals.
The semi-annual Regional Childcare Summit is a part of the ongoing strategy to raise awareness around this vital service.
A fragile model
Small explained that the child care industry is highly regulated for health and safety – “as it should be,” she said, when it comes to child welfare. While that does mean more paperwork, it also ensures there are higher teacher-to-child ratios than you can expect in primary or secondary education.
For example, in Virginia, child care workers can be assigned to monitor four infants at most. Anyone who has cared for twins knows that even just two can be overwhelming, but for program directors juggling spreadsheets, these caps mean staffing and attendance are linked.
On average, over half of an independent child care center’s expenses go toward paying workers, said Small, with the remaining costs going toward essential maintenance, such as utilities, insurance, food, and classroom supplies. Even while paying their workers minimum wage and often with no benefits, most centers only just break even.
The COVID-19 pandemic placed even more strain on this fragile model. Child care centers compete for workers with other industries that offer more pay for less stress and training.
In those other industries, a company could cut costs or increase the price of its product in order to offer a more competitive salary. But child care programs already run on razor-thin margins and cannot allow budget cuts to impact their quality of care. And families – who pay $226 a week for infant care on average in Montgomery County – cannot afford to pay higher tuition.
This has resulted in a nationwide crisis in which child care centers are unable to staff their centers and cannot affordably meet the demand for care in their region.
But the reaction to it has not been passive, and at the end of her presentation, Small challenged those present to envision how they could be a part of the solution, saying: “In your community, you already have organizations – like First Steps and Virginia Tech – modeling what you can do.”
Resources for caregivers and community
Lack of child care has economic and social consequences that ripple across all of society – not just parents. And community collaborations are key to easing the strain felt by child care programs.
Alongside its partners in the New River and Roanoke valleys, Virginia Tech not only finds new ways to help the university’s caregiving employees and students find care that meets their needs but ensures our local child care workers are supported. Some of the ECEI's work includes
- Partnering with five locally owned child care centers and providing them with an essential funding stream – four in Blacksburg and one in Roanoke
- Hosting monthly virtual lunch and learns for caregivers with upcoming topics on raising a child with a disability and past topics covering school readiness and early arts education
- Centralizing a yearly list of summer camps available at Virginia Tech for school children
- Piloting a grant for dependent care when faculty travel for work
- Creating free professional development opportunities for current and future child care professionals
If you want to learn more about your child care options through Virginia Tech, visit the caregiving website, schedule office hours with ECEI, or join the Working Parents at VT Facebook group.
