Research Brief

Covid-19 Relief to the Child Care Industry: Perspectives from Child Care Directors and Owners Seeking Support

Summary: During the first year of the pandemic, we interviewed 76 licensed family child care providers and center directors in Illinois. Most programs in our study received at least one form of pandemic-related assistance, including three main programs of focus 1) Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) attendande waivers, 2) the Child Care Restoration Grant (CCRG), and 3) the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Our findings indicate that these programs were critical for child care programs’ survival during the pandemic, despite ongoing financial instability. Particularly with the CCAP waivers and CCRG, which were Illinois-specific programs, providers indicated less burden with applications as compared to prior experiences accessing aid. Given providers’ uptake and reliance on this emergency aid and their relatively positive experiences accessing it, we conclude that it is critical for states to identify ways to translate emergency funds and processes for streamlining access into permanent investments with ambitious goals to not just stabilize, but greatly improve our child care and early education infrastructure moving forward.

Research Brief

Impact of COVID-19 on Child Care Programming and Practices

Summary:  Our interviews with 76 licensed family child care providers and center directors in Illinois indicated that providers and children in their care generally adapted well to new public health guidelines during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, though challenges included changes to space and staffing to reduce exposures, supporting children during remote learning, and financial challenges of meeting safety guidelines. Providers indicated that the federal and state stimulus dollars designed to support them in adapting to safety guidelines were appreciated, but insufficient to address the severity of their financial needs, especially given that many providers already faced financial insecurity and staff shortages before the pandemic began. Many providers stepped up to care for school-aged children during school closures, providing technical support for children learning remotely and restructuring their own spaces and programs to accommodate these additional children—a support that many providers felt was not adequately acknowledged or supported by the State. Moving forward, we conclude that programs’ well-being requires stable public funding and adequate support to both help programs recover and to stabilize the industry beyond the pandemic.

Ongoing Research on Providers Responding to Covid-19

Family Friend and Neighbor Provider interviews and surveys: We conducted interviews and surveys with 19 License-exempt Family, Friend and Neighbor providers in Cook County, IL in May-October, 2022 to add to our understanding of how child care providers responded to and were impacted by the pandemic.

Follow-up surveys with licensed programs we interviewed: From January-May, 2022, we conducted follow-up surveys with 54 licensed family child care homes and center directors who we interviewed during the first year of the pandemic to better understand changes they had made since the first year of the pandemic and how they experienced ongoing State and federal funding to provide relief to the sector.

Administrative data analysis of the pandemic’s impact on home providers: We analyzed provider administrative data records to better understand how the pandemic impacted the composition of licensed and license-exempt child care providers across Illinois.

***Publications on these results are forthcoming.