The Affects Low Staffing Has on Daycare Centers

Daycare centers have become an essential part of a lot of households, especially for parents who work nine-to-five jobs. Still, since COVID daycare centers have been experiencing a shortage in staff members, from teachers to cooks and it has caused some daycare to close down, and others to turn parents away on add their names to long waiting lists, which has no estimated time on the waiting period.

From February 2020 to July 2022 a total of 90,000 providers left the childcare industry and another 2,000 from August to September 2022, leaving almost 16,000 childcare programs across the U.S. to close, meaning more than half of childcare programs are serving at their full capacity, And someone who knows the feeling all too well is Athena Osoko a childcare director at Covenant For Life Daycare Center in Saint Louis, Missouri.

When I spoke to Athena, she called the experience a vicious cycle and said, “I almost wish that the government would get involved and just pay for daycare assistance for everybody.” Athena also said that finding quality workers with children at heart is also very challenging. According to Fox 2 News Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed off on a $78 million childcare boost to help low-income families, but parents are fretful that it still isn’t enough to cover daycare costs.

While talking to Athena she said, “Daycares had no other choice, but to raise their cost, so that they can be able to pay their bills, rent, and staff, but it’s costing parents to have to pull their child or children out of daycare, because they simple can’t afford it.”

So, what is the solution to the issue, parents, jobs, and communities that are affected by this, need to make more phone calls to their local and state family service offices, write letters to their state capital and attend townhall meetings, make enough noise to make an impact for change.