Funding raises the quality of Savannah-Chatham child care centers, but help still needed

“By the time I make it home, I can just cook and make sure they’re ready for the next day of school,” she said.

When asked what the challenges were being a working mom, Brown chuckled and said “We’d be here all day.” But, Brown said she’s glad she has a flexible schedule and, first and foremost, has a place to send her kids to after school when she’s putting in hours at her job.

Day care centers such as Tiny Hands Big Hearts make up a crucial link in the workforce, giving parents like Brown the flexibility to work in order to support their family and the children a place to receive quality care.

This twofold need was recognized in Propel Savannah, a 2019 strategic plan by the Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA), which found that affordable quality child care centers with flexible schedules was a top concern for employers.

What came out of that plan was a $375,000 Workforce Initiatives Fund launched in December 2019 that would help licensed child care facilities in Chatham County become Quality Rated through capital improvement mini-grants.

Quality Rated status depends on certain physical standards, enhanced curriculum and professional development.

Another catalyst for the fund was federal and state mandates requiring licensed child care centers to be Quality Rated by December 2021 in order to accept children who require subsidized tuition through state-funded CAPS grants (the previous deadline of December 2020 was extended after the COVID-19 pandemic hit). CAPS or Childcare and Parent Services serves children in foster care, those with special needs and those living in poverty.

"If child care centers fail to become Quality Rated, Savannah could lose many, much-needed subsidized child care funds and it could have an immediate disruption to families and people's ability to work. Long term, it could impact a child's readiness for the school environment," read the Workforce Initiative Fund's description.

Since the program’s launch, it has drawn praise for tackling that issue, upping the number of Quality Rated facilities in the county from 42% in 2019 to about 68% currently.

Approximately $91,000 of the funds have been distributed to 54 licensed child care facilities. Of that, 36 facilities have become Quality Rated so far and 17 are still in the process (one facility closed).

Among the centers that rated, about one in five attending children rely on CAPS funding.

Credit: Courtesy of Tiny Hands Big Hearts

Credit: Courtesy of Tiny Hands Big Hearts

Tiny Hands Big Hearts was one of the beneficiaries of the program. After receiving about $4,000 for capital improvements including mulch for the playground and new fencing, that gave it the final push to becoming Quality Rated in 2020.

That designation allows the day care to accommodate Brown’s three children, who all qualify for CAPS-funded tuition.

“We’re trying to get as many programs as possible to be Quality Rated so that they will be able to accept CAPS, so that families in the workforce can receive some type of assistance in paying for childcare,” said Melissa Cole, executive director for Child Care Resource & Referral of Southeast Georgia at Savannah Technical College (CCR&R).

The average cost for daycare services in Chatham County is around $125 per week, a hefty price for low-income families.

Cole said they expect at least 70% of the 252 licensed child care facilities in the county to become Quality Rated this year.

“(Then) we’d have enough people out in the workforce to keep everything moving and production moving accordingly in Chatham County,” said Cole.

COVID-19 impacts on workforce and child care services

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic wrought harm upon nearly every industry, including the already-wanting child care sector. Combine that with a rapidly growing region like the greater Savannah area, and the demand for services far exceeds the available supply.

As the economy gradually reopened and parents made their way back to work, the need for child care services not only grew, but also seemed to shift.

Chatham County lost about 23 available licensed child care programs through the pandemic (after a number of closings and openings).

Statewide, the numbers looked more stable, with a net loss of seven licensed programs (lost 43 and gained 36 programs) between May 2020 and March 2021.

However, according to the report by Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS), the state ultimately gained more capacity, as the programs that opened were mostly Child Care Learning Centers (CCLC), which serves more children.

However, Cole notes that some centers in Chatham have also reduced their capacity in an effort to socially distance, a practice that some have continued.

"Especially with COVID, everybody's looking for more of a personal, intimate setting where it lessens the children for viruses and colds and things like that," said Priscilla Todd, director of Tiny Hands Big Hearts, which is an in-home CCLC.

Todd said her waitlist is about 20 people long. She said she opened her facility in 2018 because there wasn’t a daycare in Port Wentworth at the time and she’s still one of the very few in the area.

“My facility sits in the middle of the school zone for Rice Creek, Port Wentworth and a middle school,” Todd said.

Port Wentworth residents have lamented the lack of family-oriented services that they say have not kept up with the population boom in their city.

Several factors put a strain on the daycare industry. For one, Cole said, the added cost of PPE, which skyrocketed during the pandemic, as well as the lack of teachers and employees, many of whom left during the pandemic and haven't returned.

For such a vital industry, the average pay of $8 to $12 per hour for child care employees does not reach the threshold of a livable wage, which is $15.46 an hour for an adult with no children.

An adult with one child needs to make $29.23 an hour to meet basic needs. However, local non-profit Step Up Savannah, puts that estimate slightly higher at $29.34.

“An important part for us is to find ways to support business models or build in pieces to … keep child care affordable for the workforce,” said Cole.

What's next?

In response to hardships of the pandemic, CAPS raised the income threshold for children that can receive funding. Additionally, all children who qualify will have their tuition fully covered for the time being, whereas, before, some received partial payments based on need.

Although applications for SEDA's workforce initiative fund closed in December 2021, child care centers are still able to apply to become Quality Rated under another CAPS policy that puts them under either a probationary or provisional status.

The CCR&R focuses on coaching and mentoring licensed programs on their Quality Rated journey. Efforts to address better wages for child care employees are in its very early stages, Cole added.

Local efforts are also underway. The City of Savannah is launching its Emerge Job Training Program in spring 2022. First on that list is a scholarship program for 160 early childhood workers to earn their Child Development Associate National Credential, which would increase the number of qualified teachers who can teach at Quality Rated facilities.

An early childhood learning center for up to 150 children ages 0 to 3 is also planned to open on Savannah's east side in 2024.

Nancy Guan is the general assignment reporter covering Chatham County municipalities. Reach her at nguan@gannett.com or on Twitter @nancyguann.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Funding raises the quality of Savannah-Chatham child care centers, but help still needed