Although childcare workers and experts have warned of a staffing shortage for years, the crisis is now being felt more acutely than ever before as the school year ramps up.
“Pre-COVID, there was a waitlist for kids to come in and all of the classrooms were up and running,” said Jennifer Curtis, executive director of South Shore Stars, a non-profit organization that hosts early childhood and youth programs.
Now, she said, “two of our early childhood programs… have classrooms that remain empty because we still have staffing needs.”
According to a study released earlier this year by the Boston Opportunity Council, Boston saw an 11% drop in the number of seats available for children since the end of 2017, and had permanently lost 13% of its licensed childcare programs that were open pre-pandemic.
One study from the Center for American Progress estimated that only 28% of infants and toddlers statewide could be served by licensed childcare providers pre-pandemic.
Curtis said staff have turned over because they had to take care of their own families, were concerned about contracting COVID-19, or, reconciled whether they wanted to be in the workforce or whether they want to be at home. As a nonprofit organization, she’s not able to pay her workers as much as private or public centers can.
“You’re teaching your little ones in a prime developmental phase that’s really going to make them successful for the rest of their educational career,” she said. “It’s very frustrating when the salaries aren’t where they should be so you can attract and maintain staff.”
Researchers have known about the “expensive childcare, low worker wages” paradox for a while, according to Alicia Modestino, associate professor at Northeastern’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and the Department of Economics.
“At this point in time, we’re going through this ‘Great Resignation,’ where people are really rethinking what they’re doing with their lives. They’re burnt out, they need to recharge,” she said of early education staff.
This childcare shortage is already having a ripple effect on the labor market, particularly for women. According to a recent study conducted by Modestino and other researchers at Northeastern University, 26% of working women had to leave their jobs during the pandemic due to a lack of childcare. Low-income families are hit particularly hard when they can’t afford a private babysitter.
Andrea Wagner, chief technical officer at Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing, said she has had trouble filling the company’s open slots, partially because the daycare center inside the manufacturing facility where many employees send their kids at a discount has been short-staffed throughout the pandemic.
Although Wagner is working closely with staff, who can’t work remotely, to rearrange shifts to accommodate childcare, “we have a lot of jobs that we need to have filled,” she said. “We have had employees leave because they haven’t been able to manage the childcare, and it’s a tragedy.”
Last week, the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care moved to alleviate the pressure by temporarily loosening some professional qualifications for childcare roles.
In the long term, policies and workplace changes such as childcare subsidies, remote work flexibility and in-house workplace childcare will all help alleviate the childcare gap and keep women in the workforce after millions have left, experts said.
But to really effect change, researchers said childcare must be seen as infrastructure, said Jamie Ladge, associate professor at Northeastern’s business school. Just like road or bridge closures, she said, “How can you get to work if you don’t have childcare?”
