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* From the Illinois Directors and Owners of Childcare Centers…
ILDOCC is strongly urging Governor Pritzker to allow businesses in Illinois to reopen now and to put childcare centers at the forefront of the effort.
“Even now the state is forcing us to turn away parents who need childcare to go back to work,” said Sarah Stoliker, President of Illinois Directors and Owners of Childcare Centers (ILDOCC). “We need to be open now, and businesses need to start re-opening for parents. They can’t put food on the table.”
Governor Pritzker says schools and childcare centers won’t be back to full capacity until the state has reached Phase 5, when a vaccine or treatment is available.
“We can’t wait that long. Less than 1/3 of early childhood education centers are currently open,” Stoliker warned. “We need all of the centers open now, or they are in danger of being permanently closed. It’s a crisis.”
She explained that under the governor’s emergency orders, centers can only operate if they take in the children of essential workers and also limit room space to 10 children– conditions that are not enough to keep a center running.
“Centers already have robust health and safety standards we work with 365 days a year,” said Stoliker, who owns a center in Will County. Now, there are even more specific standards put in place because of Covid-19. We are well-equipped for this crisis, but the governor is undercutting us by limiting room space to 10 children, as well as dictating who can be open or not. Currently only 10% of space statewide in centers is being utilized…”
Janice L. Martin, Owner of Under Carrey’s Care Centers in Riverdale, said, “We need action taken quickly to re-open centers in order to assist our families that are in fear of losing their jobs. One mom in particular is a CNA and is afraid because she has to leave work early to pick up her child from family members who don’t know how to care for a child with challenging behaviors.”
Cindy Mahr, a director and owner of In A Kid’s World in Rock Island, is looking at Iowa opening up just across the river. “If those centers are open and most of the ones in Illinois are closed, the families will drive 5 minutes to find care as they go back to work. Our programs won’t just be closed for the short-term,” Mahr stated. “Considering what the border states are doing is imperative.”
Robin Moore, a center director/owner of the Robin’s Nest centers in southern Illinois, is also very concerned. Moore says Gov. Pritzker’s phased reopening plan is not a good approach for families trying to get back to work. “Now we’re moving into June and July, they’re suggesting. We don’t have enough childcare in southern Illinois to provide childcare for people returning to work,” said Moore.
Stoliker concurred. “We just need all centers open and a thoughtful, stair-step approach to opening up state businesses right now. It is costing people their mental and physical health, their livelihoods, and, ultimately, their lives.”
“The governor needs to do the kind of math that ‘we, the people’ are doing at our kitchen tables,” Stoliker suggested. “Governor Pritzker needs to get out of his news conference and look around or at least talk to people on the phone who have much different information than he has. It’s destroying people’s jobs and lives.”
ILDOCC is a statewide organization of directors and owners who work in childcare centers every day. The group formed to be a voice for those “working in the trenches”, who have no voice in policy-making at the state level.
“Not only are the states bordering Illinois doing things differently, but even New York has kept childcare centers open during their state’s pandemic.” Stoliker lamented, “Only in Illinois do we kill the goose laying the golden egg and the egg itself.”
* From Jordan Abudayyeh at the governor’s office…
The administration convened a working group to create guidance to expand childcare safely in phases three and four of the Restore Illinois Plan.
Currently, providers may open under emergency rules and we encourage them to do so as a way of increasing capacity. Less than 25% of licensed providers have reopened under the emergency care rules. We expect the working group and IDPH to have guidance for childcare facilities ready to move into the next phase in the coming weeks.
* Illinois Action for Children…
As an organization on the front lines of early care and education every day, Illinois Action for Children understands how critically-important child care and child care providers are to our state. They are, in many ways, the lifeblood of the economy. We strongly believe that during this pandemic, however, the best and safest place for children to be is at home or with their relatives. Our state cannot recover if children and their families are not healthy and safe.
When COVID-19 began to spread in Illinois the Governor closed all child care effectively immediately, correctly citing the danger to providers, children, and their families if COVID-19 was able to spread unmitigated throughout the child care system and into communities in every corner of the state.
A new emergency child care system for Illinois’ essential workers was created in a matter of days. More than 2,500 child care centers and homes have enrolled in this program and are continuing to be paid by the state in full for the children they are currently caring for as well as for the slots that have been left vacant to ensure a safe care environment.
As Illinois continues to flatten the curve and move toward Phase 3 of the Restore Illinois: A Public Health Approach To Safely Reopen Our State plan, the reopening of child care must take place under the same science-based approach. The Governor has created a task force that will incorporate the input and voices of providers throughout all of the state to determine the safest approaches for reopening child care as we move through the phases of reopening Illinois.
We recognize the economic and financial hardship the COVID-19 pandemic is causing businesses throughout Illinois. The challenge, however, is that an attempt to return to full operations of child care without effective treatments or a vaccine will result in a dangerous and potentially deadly spread of COVID-19 in our state.
Illinois Action for Children stands with the Governor’s science-based approach and will continue to work closely with his administration to identify ways that providers can be assisted throughout this crisis. We also support the Governor’s calling of the Illinois House and Senate back to work to pass legislation that would support small businesses like child care. IAFC has also joined our many partners to strongly advocate for at least $50 billion in the next federal relief package to help ensure the financial stability of child care providers throughout our state.
We must do everything in our power as a state to ensure we have a safe child care system that is ready when Illinois’ workers return to work.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 11:37 am
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Key word in Illinois government for the past 8 weeks
Dictating
no legislating
Comment by Lucky Pierre Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 11:39 am
In my opinion, this is the issue that will define how well the administration and the General Assembly handle this crisis. Before COVID-19 Illinois was already lagging far behind the rest of the nation in access to childcare and affordable childcare. This crisis is going to exacerbate an already strained system and women will likely be the ones forced to make decisions between career and childcare.
Parents have been told it’s your responsibility to figure it out with little to no assistance. In the city and suburbs there are waiting lists at most facilities, and it is nearly impossible to find a facility that has room for an infant. Plus it is not cheap and on average a person pays $12,000 for toddlers and up to $24,000 for an infant.
Now centers have even fewer spots and they’re having to raise costs because they are being told (rightfully) to reduce the size of classrooms. When shutters centers reopen they’ll have to contend with rehiring staff, many of whom likely took other part time or full time jobs to keep a paycheck or decided to take nannying positions.
Comment by southsider Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 11:45 am
=New York has kept childcare centers open=
Which may be why that state has over 100 cases of a rare and dangerous pediatric inflammatory syndrome linked to the virus, including three deaths.
Comment by JoanP Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 11:45 am
These kinds of stories will be more common as we go forward. The unintended consequences of shutting down the economy and then trying to “manage” them from the governor’s office
Comment by RuralKing Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 11:49 am
This whole episode would make a great case study. It can be called “Why Rigid Centralized Planning Never Works; or Why I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Daily Press Briefings”.
Comment by essentially working Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 11:53 am
Child care reopenings has to occur at the same time that workplaces are reopened. Otherwise, what is the point?
Dr. Michael Osterholm, a frequent expert on cable TV, has a good point. We are not reopening until there is a vaccine or effective treatment. In the meantime, how do we live our lives?
Comment by Butler Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 11:58 am
“In the meantime, how do we live our lives?”
One day at a time, making do as best we can under the circumstances. Staying at home to protect ourselves and neighbors.
Comment by Huh? Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 12:02 pm
But we all love the lockdown. And no one wants to go back to work anyway. And why do you want everyone else to die?
Comment by JB13 Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 12:06 pm
JoanP New Orleans pediatricians are also reporting cases of this post-COVID syndrome with children.
Comment by former southerner Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 12:06 pm
One had to question the wisdom of placing a child in a child care center that puts profit ahead of safety.
Comment by A Jack Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 12:09 pm
ILDOCC is strongly urging Governor Pritzker to allow businesses in Illinois to reopen now…
Nice to start your press pop with something that ignores science and reality. And why should I give my child to someone like this?
Comment by Jibba Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 12:11 pm
Without child care some of these workers cannot work, so they cannot buy groceries, pay the rent, etc. What is the answer? I don’t know; but something has to be done…
Comment by wondering wendy Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 12:12 pm
==Without child care some of these workers cannot work, so they cannot buy groceries, pay the rent, etc. ==
Unfortunately that’s been the case for far too many families long before COVID-19 complicated the issue further.
Comment by DownSouth Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 12:17 pm
=== Nice to start your press pop with something that ignores science and reality. And why should I give my child to someone like this? ===
Newsflash - many people in Illinois are still working and have to work or face homelessness. Do you know how many essential employees are married to essential employees and can’t find childcare right now? think every person working at Target or a grocery store is childless? What do you want them to do with their kids if they have no other choice?
Comment by southsider Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 12:19 pm
There are several countries (Switzerland, Australia, Sweden and others) in which their infectious disease experts are saying they haven’t been able to identify a single case in which a child has passed the virus to an adult. That’s why they’ve kept daycares and elementary schools opened.
Comment by Dave W Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 12:23 pm
Southsider… this part might help..
===The administration convened a working group to create guidance to expand childcare safely in phases three and four of the Restore Illinois Plan.===
I recognize the problem, and JB apparently does as well. But it does no good to come out and say “..allow businesses in Illinois to reopen now…” because that simply ignores the science and the reasoning/timetable behind the current policy.
Comment by JIbba Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 12:28 pm
Like I said last week, this is the sole area where Pritzker’s plan fails miserably. Look, many of you have the luxury of working from home. That’s great. And I encourage y’all to keep your kids home with you if you can. But whether the Capfax commentariat likes it or not, millions of Illinoisans - many of them Dem voters - simply cannot afford for DPH and the govs office to mess this up. These workers are going to be told to come back to work because JB says they can, and if they cannot because they have no one to watch their children, they will be fired. You know what that means? That means no unemployment for them. Then they have no work, and no possibility of getting work, because they have no daycare.
If JB and his people don’t understand this, and fast, he is going to appear to be another out of touch billionaire who doesn’t understand or care what working people go through. Just like the last governor. You know what we’re going to have then? Governor Ricketts. Do you want to go through the Rauner years all over again? I sure as heck don’t
Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 12:35 pm
The “Liberationists” must have realized that the rabid, gun-waving, mask-less 40 person demonstrations were hurting their cause, so now they’re trying a slightly softer approach.
She gave it away with the “We the people” dogwhistle, though.
Comment by northsider (the original) Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 12:39 pm
@Lester Holt’s Mustache
The real culprit here is that so many fundamental necessities (health care, medical care, education, food, shelter) cannot be left to unfettered free markets when there is a crisis. Hard to blame Pritzker for the underlying basic functionality of our economic system that large swaths of the country seem unwilling to address/
Comment by Homebody Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 12:52 pm
== cannot be left to unfettered free markets when there is a crisis==
I agree, and I wish there was a better answer to this. I wish everyone could continue to work from home and keep their kids there with them until we get a treatment or widely available vaccine. I wish that instead of thousands of daycares across the state supervising 50+ kids, there were tens or hundreds of thousands of daycares so that people can all send their kids to a daycare with only 4 other kids. But that’s not where we are, and this talk of “well, we have some emergency daycare licensing options” simply isn’t going to cut it. JB is going to be issuing directives to employers that says “bring your people back to work”, so it’s on him to figure out how to do right by the people working for those employers. I don’t blame Pritzker for the underlying problems, I blame him and his staff for seeming to disregard the plight of people (again, many of whom voted for JB) who won’t be able to work and won’t be able to collect unemployment insurance if they are terminated from their jobs.
Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 1:12 pm
All the good arguments here in the comments aside, it really comes down to risk. How much risk are we as a society willing to accept? Sometimes the level is clear and overwhelming, sometimes not. As a society we have come to expect zero risk. example #1, when Chicago gets a forecast for a 2″ snowfall many of the news outlets will promote a Winter Storm Watch. But this approach is illogical unless you can actually control all variables. There is still much we don’t know about COVID 19 but the evidence so far indicates elementary and younger school age children are minimally impacted by this. People over the age of 60 and with underlying conditions are most impacted by it. So if that is the case then a societal response that protects the most vulnerable while opening up business would be the logical and responsible course to take. Will there be risk, yes. Is it reasonable, From an objective perspective yes. Are seniors ready to do this for their country and for htemselves? I don’t know. From a politicians perspective, I doubt it in this country. Finally, it’s very easy to be a critic but none of us have been in this situation before so I am giving all leaders the benefit of the doubt.
Comment by NeverPoliticallyCorrect Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 1:19 pm
“but moooommm… all the other lemmings are going to jump over the cliff first before I can get to it… that’s not faiiirrrr…..”
Comment by Give us Barabbas Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 1:20 pm
===COVID 19 but the evidence so far indicates elementary and younger school age children are minimally impacted by this
This is not true. We are seeing new symptoms in kids with the virus including Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome which is scary.
We do not know whether kids pass the virus as easily as adults, but the best evidence is they are reservoirs of the virus despite poorly reported news stories.
The reality is we need to do what successful countries have done with testing and contact tracing. That reduces the risk reasonably and with the ability to reopen many businesses with limits.
Comment by ArchPundit Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 1:41 pm
Lester Holt’s Mustache, you are my hero today. Thank you.
Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 2:40 pm
I agree that Lester Holt’s Mustache hit the nail on the head. I couldn’t say it better. I’m watching my granddaughter because my son is able to work and I’m working from home. Her daycare is closed. But what happens if I’m called back to work? There aren’t enough of these emergency centers if businesses reopen.
Comment by LTSW Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 2:52 pm
This debate is about one simple question - what is best for children and their families? It is NOT about how much money can for profit providers make, it is NOT about what is best for the economy. It is about babies, toddlers and pre school age CHILDREN. Also, I think there is a cautionary tale in terms of Nursing Homes here. Both Child Care Centers and Nursing Homes rely on very underpaid, often exploited women workers to do the actual caregiving…
Comment by Intrested Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 4:05 pm
== This debate is about one simple question - what is best for children and their families?==
Agreed. So tell me, what is best for children and their families? Is it to force parents to stay home with their children for a year or two years or four years until there is a vaccine? Is it to force daycare providers to immediately become non-profit organizations, since for-profit businesses seem to annoy your sensibilities? Is it for JB to change unemployment rules (which I don’t think he is able to) to allow people to collect unemployment not because they can’t get a job, but because they have small children who can’t be left alone all day and there are no daycare spots available to them? Is it to recruit an army of people to open home daycares, and pay them with tax dollars?
I’m not smart enough nor qualified to answer any of these questions. Are you?
Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 6:30 pm
It would probably help if the Governor’s inner circle had a few more parents from the private sector in it.
Comment by Nick Nolte's Beard Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 9:37 pm
Children are supposed to matter most. Sorry, but that has to be the bottom line, not your bottom line.
Comment by Intrested Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 9:54 pm