A new scholarship could help more Michigan families place their school-age children in childcare centers while classrooms remain closed.
The program aims to alleviate the burden of the pandemic on working parents, many of whom are in an impossible bind: What do you do if your child’s school is online, you need to work, and you don’t have — or can’t afford — care for them during the day?
One solution has been to open child care centers to school-age children.
In Michigan, after state officials began to offer childcare subsidies to online learners from years old to 12, nearly 20,000 children enrolled.
This gives children a place to go during the school day and helps support childcare centers that have seen their enrollment plummet. But it can take more than a month for the subsidies to reach the childcare providers, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Education said.
That is where the scholarship comes in.
A group of community organizations, including the city of Detroit, and United Way of Southeast Michigan, among others, will help cover the cost of childcare for families until the subsidy payments arrive.
The program is currently available to Detroit residents who qualify for Michigan childcare subsidies.
“Parents right now are being asked to do the impossible — at this point for a very long time,” said Monica Rodriguez, director of children and youth for the City of Detroit.
Backers of the program say they hope childcare subsidies will be available for school-aged students through June with help from new federal funds.
Pandemic learning has been especially hard on younger students, many of whom may be ill-suited to online learning. Childcare providers know that as well as anyone.
Felicia Legardy, who operates a childcare center out of her home in Detroit, said two of her eight students are school-aged. They work on online assignments in a separate part of the house from the younger students.
The tuition she receives for those students has helped her finances, she said.
But she admitted it is hard to celebrate the additional funds when all of her students are struggling with online learning.
“Money right now doesn’t matter,” she said. “The children don’t want to be online. They’re stressed out, they’re depressed.”
Koby Levin writes for Chalkbeat Detroit, a nonprofit news organization that covers education in several American communities. These stories are part of the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous reporting about responses to social problems. It originally appeared here.
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