As we talk about reopening the states, we’re looking at a completely new childcare landscape.
Many in-home centers will remain closed; typically, 70% of those centers had one week of financial runway. While we were in a childcare desert in many cities before COVID struck, now many of the smaller, in-home centers our employees used for primary care will be closed or delayed in re-opening due to recovering losses for start-up costs.
Additionally, we expect to see a 20% decrease in available slots for center-based care once fully reopened. In the meantime, there will be alternating schedules to keep class-sizes lower.
While we continue to see more information about re-opening, now is a great time to put the following on your team’s radar in regards to personal options and decisions:
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Is their current daycare opening, and will there be spots for their children? Centers are having to open at lower ratios, which affects families’ ability to start when they do re-open
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Are they comfortable sending their children back into group care? If not, are there resources you can have available to help them start looking for a 1:1 situation?
Things to reflect on as a company:
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Are there ways you can help? Do you have a parent resource group (even if only online)? Do you offer help finding quality childcare? Backup care? Parenting resources?
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Are there little things you can add that make a huge impact?
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Are you checking in on your team members who are juggling work without full time care right now?
Getting your team set up with resources for childcare, mental health and transitioning back to work is imperative. Start small - acknowledge that the transition that is surfacing is overwhelming and you are here to help.
Society is cautiously starting to gear back up, deeming this a crucial time to continue adapting to “the new normal.”
During this stay-at-home period, we, at Helpr, have had major success with our virtual platform, Helpr Online. We’ve received resounding positive feedback as we’ve been able to keep children engaged and on academic course, parents less stressed, and sitters working.
In addition to virtual offerings, we’ve maintained our in-home backup care offering primarily through utilizing our app-based tool, Upload Your Own Provider (otherwise called Out-of-Network) so that families could find help within their own quarantine communities. We’ve also been able to find long-term solutions for families looking for regular hours (even if for a few hours/week for deep work) via our Core Care program.
If your team would benefit from any of these solutions, we’d love to speak with you about your feasible opportunities.