Marketplace | Janet Nguyen “The child care system can seem like a paradox: parents spend thousands of dollars, while the workers looking after these children receive insufficient salaries.” The shortage of providers in the child care industry has resulted in these long waitlists for families. It is difficult to recruit and retain child care providers…
Parents Report Declines in Academic, Social-Emotional Skills of Young Children
The Hechinger Report | Jackie Mader “Jumping to closing these gaps without close attention to the social and emotional needs of children will likely only exacerbate any disruption-related behavioral challenges.” The pandemic’s academic and emotional toll may have left a greater impact on the youngest children in the nation. Parents are noticing a negative shift…
Half of Coloradans Lives in A Day Care Desert. Here’s How That’s Straining One Mountain Community.
The Colorado Sun | Shannon Najmabadi “More than half of Colorado’s population lives in a day care desert, and the shortage of licensed care has intensified as the pandemic decimated underfunded providers and forced many parents to leave the workforce to watch their kids.” In some Colorado towns, there are limited child care services which…
Colorado’s Kindergarten Math: How A Pandemic Plus Lower Birth Rates are Changing School for Young Learners
Chalkbeat Colorado | Ann Schimke “Tangled up with COVID-related enrollment changes are declines associated with Colorado’s shrinking child population, particularly in school districts with aging populations or pricey housing.” Before the pandemic, the population of 5- to 7-year-olds has declined in several large Colorado counties. Thus, many experts worry that the pandemic will create more…
Daycare Is Costly In The U.S. — So Is Biden’s Plan To Fix It
NPR | Andrea Hsu “I’m doing high impact, high intensity work for less money than I could go make milkshakes at Burger King.” Child care providers are aware that the federal relief funds will only be temporary. President Biden plans to make child care affordable or even free for working parents through his American Families…
How Going Remote Led to Dramatic Drops in Public School Students
EdSource | Karen D’Souza & Daniel J. Willis “Nationwide, the steepest kindergarten losses were seen in neighborhoods below and just above the poverty line, where the average household income for a family of four was $35,000 or less. The drop was 28% larger in schools in those neighborhoods than in the rest of the country.”…
Return to Work? Not With Child Care Still in Limbo, Some Parents Say.
The New York Times | Claire Cain Miller “As the Delta variant spreads, many parents of young children — those under 12 who cannot yet be vaccinated — say they’re unable to return to workplaces or apply for new jobs as long as there is uncertainty about when their children can safely return to full-time…
‘We’re Back to Panicking’: Moms are Hit Hardest with Camps, Day Cares and Schools Closing Again
The Washington Post | Heather Long “When children have to stay home, the burden typically falls on moms. Economists are warning the United States may be on the verge of a massive second wave of women dropping out of the labor force if the delta variant of the coronavirus cannot be stopped.” Mothers are once…
What Should Colorado’s New Department of Early Childhood Look Like? Leaders Want Parent, Teacher Say.
The Colorado Sun | Erica Breunlin The Department of Early Childhood want to hear from parents, preschool providers and educators about what they need from the state to ease the process of getting kids into preschool classrooms. The Department of Early Childhood’s first major initiative will be providing an implementation plan for universal preschool. The…
More Than 36,000 Colorado Kids from Low-Income Families Could Miss Out on the Child Tax Credit
The Colorado Sun | Thy Vo & Erica Breunlin “The advance payment is a great opportunity to help our families in need…Unfortunately, those that are in most need because they may not have filed taxes in the previous year may not be automatically enrolled.” The child tax credit included in the American Recovery Plan is…
