Oct 08, 2020 — State agencies and child care advocates are warning that the state’s child care system is on the verge of collapse, with centers financially stressed, and parents struggling to find or afford care.
But the North Country, already a child care desert, has a lot to lose if even one center closes.
Photo courtesy of the Champlain Children's Learning Center in Rouses Point.
One center in Rouses Point
In Rouses Point, a small community that borders Canada and Vermont, there’s a single licensed child care center, the Champlain Children’s Learning Center. The center typically cares for between 60 and 70 kids.
In March, when the coronavirus hit, that number plummeted when everything shut down, says Director Rebecca Filion.
“We went from having about 65 kids to 4, in about a week.”
The center has been hobbling along since March. Though it seemed financially impossible, Filion fought to stay open, for several reasons. She feared if they closed, the center would never reopen. And she felt it was vital to stay open for the few children they were still serving, and for the families that would eventually need care again.
She says the center plays a particular role it played in her community.
“There’s very little day care around here, in our little corner. There’s a few home-based day cares, but nothing like us until you get to Plattsburgh.”
Staying open and cobbling it together
So they stayed open and stumbled forward. But the financial side of that has been really difficult. The center had a tight budget to begin with.
“When we say not for profit, it’s definitely not for profit. It’s a break-even sort of budget most years.”
Director Rebecca Filion. Photo courtesy of the Champlain Children's Learning Center in Rouses Point.
As the economy reopened, they started caring for more children, but social distancing rules means more teachers for less kids, and they couldn’t operate on tuition alone. They needed outside help, and they did get some.
Filion says a grant from the Adirondack Foundation got them through one payroll, and the Payroll Protection Program (part of the first coronvirus federal stimulus package)got them through another. They expanded their line of credit.
But then the Payroll Protection Program money was expiring, and they were still far from breaking even without it. They banked on a second federal stimulus package, which proposed another round of PPP. But Congress never passed that second package.
Photo courtesy of the Champlain Children's Learning Center in Rouses Point.
'They are on the edge...we don't want them to fall off'
The story in Rouses Point is the story of EVERY center in the region, says Sara Allen Taylor, of the Child Care Coordinating Council of the North Country. Taylor says many centers will not survive much longer without significant aid.
“They are on the edge, they were already at the edge of the cliff, and we don’t want them to fall over. The estimate is that we could lose 50% of centers.”
That would mean less available child care slots. The trouble is, that’s already been happening. And it’s accelerated rapidly due to COVID-19. Taylor says in the last 12 months, “in Clinton-Essex-and-Franklin counties, we have lost 542 child care slots.”
Compare that to 2019, when the system lost 200 slots. While Taylor says none of their centers have “officially” shuttered, a number closed in March and have not reopened. Those that are operating are operating at deficits. If they close, she says the ripple effects would be enormous.
“If we lose even one program, one child care center, that leaves a much larger hole in comparison to the capacity of the entire system and it affects far more families and employees.”
Photo courtesy of the Champlain Children's Learning Center in Rouses Point.
Borrowing money to provide a public service
This is exactly the case in Rouses Point, at the Champlain Children’s Learning Center. Right now they’re operating at 70% capacity, looking after 43 kids. Their being open has allowed people to return back to work, says director Rebecca Filion.
“A lot of our families are single parent, and we have quite a few through social services. It would definitely be a disruption to the economy if we weren’t here.”
As a last measure to stay open, Filion applied for and received a federal EIDL, an economic injury and disaster loan. It’ll keep the center open through the next six months, which she says is a relief.
“But it’s a thirty year loan. And we’ve never really had debt before, so it’s kind of disappointing that, you now, we have to go into debt to get through this. But it’s what we had to do or we wouldn’t have been able to keep our doors open.”
So this is the position child care centers are in right now - not making money, even paying off loans to stay open and caring for children. Filion says it's increasingly dispiriting.
“So we’re like, okay, you’ve told us we’re essential, but you’ve given us nothing to stay open with.”
Filion and other providers are asking: how can we be essential and unsupported? In the North Country, if they disappear, the picture is this: imagine fifty communities like Rouses Point, and fifty families in each of those communities left without child care.
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Child care centers in NY and North Country face closures with no stimulus aid in sight - North Country Public Radio
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