Fayetteville, N.Y. — Rachel Hill pauses as she talks in the hallway of the East Area YMCA in Fayetteville. It’s so weird not to be talking over the noise of the kids.
This day, it’s quiet as night. Most of the coat hooks are empty.
Instead of 110 kids, there are just 22, says Hill, the director YMCA’s childcare programs in Syracuse’s eastern suburbs.
When the schools closed last week, there was an immediate hustle to find emergency childcare for the kids of essential workers. So far, officials have prepared for a flood that has not come.
Onondaga County and Child Care Solutions worked together, furiously, to create a real-time database of openings for families in urgent need. There are more than 1,000 slots available.
It’s a sudden glut in what used to be a childcare desert, fueled by the coronavirus shutdown.
Instead of the shortage of people worried about, most of those spots are sitting unused. People who once needed child care are suddenly working from home or unemployed.
Childcare sites are struggling to stay open with skeleton crews to help the few families that depend on them. About two-thirds of child care centers and school-aged programs have closed. Those that are open are finding it hard to fill their spots, said Lori Schakow, executive director of Child Care Solutions. Many have laid off large chunks of their staff.
They are frontline workers in this crisis, but the 1,600 people who work on the books in childcare in Central New York have found themselves in the same economic uncertainty as so many other industries.
The sites that have stayed open are wondering how they can continue as already-thin margins continue to shrink. The operators are trying to balance kindness to families in crisis with taking care of their own.
Many aren’t charging families, as they normally would, to keep slots open. But most operators have no reserve for this kind of economic catastrophe and have had to send staff home to wait it all out, unpaid.
Little Lukes usually takes care of 500 kids between preschool and afterschool, said Abby Weaver, director of operations.
Now, the sites in two counties have between 10 and 30 kids each. The company was asked by Onondaga County and the city of Oswego to be ready to help.
“They said, ‘Please stay open. We need you to stay open,’ ” Weaver said.
She said the locally based company is eager to do its part. They are not charging families to hold spots until April 14, the date that schools are expected to reopen, Weaver said. And they have offered free care to essential workers who needed it. So far, a handful of families have taken that offer.
For now, the reality is a struggle. Little Lukes has had to lay off about half of their staff of 200, Weaver said. But if need swells, they’ll be ready.
“We’re waiting for the wave to hit,” Weaver said. “We don’t know what’s coming, or how long it’s going to last.”
When the schools shut down, everyone seemed to recognize how essential childcare would become. Companies, agencies and governments in Central New York all worked together to remove the barrier.
They’ve even made the care cost-free.
Little Lukes offered to provide free care, but the city of Oswego and Onondaga County both decided that childcare was so important during the pandemic that they found a way to fund it for anyone who needs.
Onondaga County has $20 million it can use to fund childcare during the pandemic.
“Every decision we made is getting to the point where we are today, so we can hold up our medical infrastructure,” County Executive Ryan McMahon said. “We looked at every challenge. Childcare was essential.”
At this point, the spots are available to anyone who has to go to work. So it’s not just first-responders and medical workers. It’s also childcare workers, grocery store clerks and others.
“If childcare was grandma and grandpa, we don’t want grandma and grandpa watching the kids now,” McMahon said.
Anyone who needs care can call Child Care Solutions and ask for help, he said.
The county has worked with Child Care Solutions to keep a real-time database of spots. People who need spots are directed to Schakow’s office, where they are given options of caregivers that fit their needs. From there, the parents make the decisions and arrangements.
McMahon said Onondaga County’s approach has worked so well that others, including Albany County, are asking for tips.
Schakow said having that pot of money readily available to pay for care will help as the burden on the healthcare system increases in the coming weeks.
“I hope people will think money last – and make sure people who need to get to work can get to work,” she said.
At the YMCA of Central New York, the situation is similar to Little Lukes. They used to provide care to about 1,000 kids a day. Now it’s more like 500.
The YMCA has laid off much of its nonessential staff. The childcare for the programs in the eastern suburbs had a staff of 50. Now there are fewer than 10 people working.
The kids and the workers get their temperatures taken three times a day. The doorknobs get wiped down every hour. The rooms are quieter. There’s no tag. No holding hands. The kids know the word “coronavirus,” and some are scared of it.
But so much has stayed the same.
Someone else needs help with the blocks. The big kids do school work. Someone wants a snack before lunchtime.
I’ll find you a snack in a minute, Hill tells the little girl.
Do she and the other workers worry as they cross a parking lot that’s as empty as the mall on Christmas Day? Maybe some.
But not enough to stay home, Hill says: “We’re here because we love what we do.”
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Marnie Eisenstadt is a reporter who writes about people and public affairs in Central New York. Have an idea or question? Contact her anytime: email | twitter| Facebook | 315-470-2246
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