Keeping A Safe Learning Environment, From The Homefront, Vol. 25

September 2, 2020

Dear Leading Ladies,

Last Friday, Massachusetts state education officials announced that “families can form small remote-learning co-ops, after-school programs can operate during typical school hours, and churches and community centers can host students who might otherwise be unsupervised when out of school this fall,” according to a recent article in the Boston Globe. In addition, daycare providers will be allowed to service older children during school hours, and caregivers will be allowed to form learning pods of up to five families, as long as no money is exchanged.

This action is meant to ameliorate the difficulties that will be faced by caregivers who need to leave the home to work and have children who will be receiving at least some of their schooling remotely.

This all sounds promising, but here’s the thing.

Caregivers with school-age children who must leave their homes to go to work need to find quality supervision for their kids. Caregivers may be executives or lawyers, doctors, or financial analysts who can well afford the extra expenses of care for their children. But they are also teachers and nurses, bus drivers and nurse’s aides, house cleaners and servers, who can ill-afford another dollar expended because of Covid-19. 

What if any of these caregivers wanted to quit their job to take care of their child and those of four of their neighbors? They could receive no payment for this? How does that seem fair or equitable? 

If the doors of a school are not literally open for a child, then isn’t it the state’s obligation to provide care for that child during school hours? We risk having millions of children unattended at home while they are supposed to be tuning in to school on their computers, instead left with no support or supervision, not because their caregivers do not care but because they need to work outside their home. 

There must be a better way. 

In July 2020, The Urban Institute published a paper, “Meeting the School-Age Child Care Needs of Working Parents Facing COVID-19 Distance Learning,” which includes many suggestions for private and public funding options to meet the needs created by the pandemic. Expanding the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) figures largely on suggestions from the authors, Gina Adams and Margaret Todd. CCDF is a federal-state program. 

We encourage you to read the study and then write to Governor Baker, commending his intent to provide daycare for school-age students whose caregivers must go out to work, but asking him to provide more funding so that paying for daycare does not add another burden to already strapped families. 

Stay safe and well,

Therese
Judy
Mary
Kim
Leading Ladies Executive Team