PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Emergency child care funding enacted early in the pandemic as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) helped improve workers’ compensation and cover expenses including rent and costs of personal protective equipment.
The funding will expire on Sept. 30, which is expected to force the closure of 70,000 child care programs and cause 3.2 million children to lose care, according to a study by The Century Foundation.
The study also found in Pennsylvania, approximately 3,000 child care programs are set to close, meaning 11,000 child care jobs lost and more than 150,000 children without access to care.
“I think, regardless of what happens by Sept. 30, there's a need to keep the pressure on and to keep the conversation happening, because even if the money goes away, the problems won't,” said Krista Scott, the senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a nonprofit community advocacy organization.
Many child care providers are already feeling the effects. Child care program owners say staffing has been their biggest challenge, even with ARPA funding, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Scott believes, even though people can recognize how important child care is, the government does not invest in it the way it should.
“If we want to have the workforce that we have, we're going to have to pull in collectively around the care that needs to happen for children and families to get us all at work,” she added.
Scott talks about the need for child care funding and what ending this funding could mean for the future of child care on the latest episode of KYW Newsradio In Depth.
Listen to the full conversation in the player below, on the Audacy app or wherever you get your podcasts.