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WHEREAS, many child care programs have operated their business with razor-thin margins, which are now significant losses due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; and,
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WHEREAS, teachers and staff at child care programs make an average of less than $11.00 per hour, wages that are not commensurate to the value of the services they provide; and,
WHEREAS, roughly 50% of early child care workers are eligible for government assistance programs to afford the growing costs of daily living which means that a large number of child care workers leave their jobs in search of higher paying jobs; and,
WHEREAS, the struggle to recruit and retain a qualified workforce is the number one challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 92% of child care programs statewide reporting staffing shortages which affects more than 34,000 children that could be served in their programs; and,
WHEREAS, the retention of quality early child care workers impacts availability of high-quality care and education for children and families across the Commonwealth; and,
WHEREAS, the publicly funded child care system and private pay model does not provide financial stability for child care providers; and,
WHEREAS, child care providers have lost revenue due to under-enrollment; and,
WHEREAS, only 15% of subsidy-eligible infants and toddlers are served in Pennsylvania through the Child Care Works (CCW) subsidy program; and,
WHEREAS, child care is essential for working families and subsidy copayments are often a burden on low-income families; and,
WHEREAS, in Pennsylvania 70% of children under the age of five had all adults in their household in the labor force prior to the pandemic; and,
WHEREAS, over 850 child care programs are now permanently closed and over 350 temporarily closed across the state; and,
WHEREAS, child care is vital for local economic recovery and stability; and,
WHEREAS, Pennsylvania received $1.2B to provide critical relief to the child care industry and to ...
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