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Parents Run Ragged: As public schools across the United States are weighing whether or not to reopen at all or with staggered in-person schedules, parents who are returning to full-time jobs are faced with the question of where to send their kids, reports The New York Times and The Huffington Post. And for those with very young children, the question is whether or not it’s too risky to send their kids back to child care, reports NBC News. The pandemic has already taken a toll on working parents –– especially mothers –– who have had to juggle work and parent responsibilities while kids stay home, reports The Atlantic. Illustrating the changing child care landscape, 27% of parents expect to quit their jobs due to parenting pressures related to COVID-19, a number that has risen 21% since April, reports Fortune. Additionally, with 40% of child care centers facing permanent closures without public assistance, and demand skyrocketing due to staggered school schedules, working parents who need it the most are faced with soaring child care costs, reports MarketWatch.
Saving Child Care: The child care industry, which was already rocked by the pandemic, is entering a new round of uncertainty as they await federal aid, as reported by Salon. The CARES Act dedicated $3.5 billion to the industry but it was barely enough to cover a month’s worth of costs for existing providers. Two opinion pieces in The Hill outline potential child-centered solutions, and another argues that bipartisan action is urgently needed, stating that the fragile industry can’t wait until the third or fourth round of relief funding. Additionally, providers are facing increased costs to implement necessary safety measures while keeping class sizes small which lowers revenues. The Los Angeles Times editorial team underscores this reality in an op-ed, calling on congress to pass the Child Care is Essential Act which would provide $50 billion to child care providers before and after the pandemic. “Child care is too often an afterthought for the nation’s political leaders. But for families, safe and high-quality child care is truly essential,” the Los Angeles Times editorial team writes.
Child Care Union: Tens of thousands of child care workers will vote this month on whether to unionize –– a move many hope will reinvigorate California’s ailing child care system amid the crisis of the pandemic, as reported by The Los Angeles Times. Unlike a typical union, the child care union would be an open shop, representing independent workers where membership is voluntary. According to the union organizers, their demands are to negotiate with the state for more pay, have a greater hand at shaping rules and policies and radical expansion of the state’s alternate payment plan voucher program for low-income children. The vote comes at a time when child care is more important than ever in economic recovery and allowing working parents to return to work. Additionally, child care providers have played an outsized role in pandemic response as they have supported frontline workers while schools closed. But still, child care providers face below-market subsidy rates and have taken on additional costs to stay open with new safety precautions during the pandemic. Organizers hope a union will help them negotiate for higher subsidy reimbursements to offset some of the costs. “People need to understand, we’re not any regular union,” said Zoila Carolina Toma, a longtime organizer with Child Care Providers United, which could soon represent home-based child-care workers in negotiations with the state. “We’re not just fighting for us as workers; we’re also fighting for our children’s future.”
Local Schools Remain Closed: In opposition to the Trump Administration’s demand to fully reopen schools, the California Teacher’s Association (UTLA) as well as United Teachers of Los Angeles, which represents the country’s second-largest school district, pushed back last week, reports POLITICO. In an open letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, legislative leaders and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, CTA said bluntly, “California cannot reopen schools unless [children] are safe,” reports EdSource. And in an interview with KPCC’s Larry Mantle, UTLA said “the health risks of in-person learning are too great.” Affirming the union’s concerns, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintended Austin Beutner announced Monday that Los Angeles campuses will no reopen for classes this fall, reports The Los Angeles Times; San Diego Unified also announced that it will not reopen for in-person learning. Sandwiched between the two counties, the Orange County Board of Education, on the other hand, voted to reopen schools in the fall, without masks or social distancing measures, illustrating the wide variety of decisions municipalities are making, reports The Sacramento Bee. Note that despite the OC Board’s vote, Districts are still able to make their own decision however, reports The Washington Post. In a press conference on Wednesday, Supt. Thurmond acknowledged that districts should remain closed if they cannot reopen safely, reports ABC Los Angeles.
School Reopening Debates: The national debate on schools reopening has laid bare deep schisms among politicians, professionals and parents alike, generating a dizzying number of opinions and recommendations both for and against reopening. In a report issued Wednesday, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine recommends that, wherever possible and with common sense precautions, younger children and those with special needs should attend school in person, reports The New York Times. This is because young and special needs children struggle the most with virtual learning, said Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a member of the committee that created the report in an interview with NPR. The New York Times Editorial Board also published a lengthy opinion piece about why schools should reopen, but acknowledged that it “will be a huge undertaking,” and followed that outdoor spaces could provide a level of safety. In an opinion piece for The 74, the co-founder of Bellwether Education Partners, Mary Wells, urged districts to save their energy, and focus on building better virtual learning experiences. “Instead of re-spacing desks, teachers should concentrate on deep and detailed planning to deliver high-quality, content-rich instruction online,” said Wells. And as is the case with LAUSD, most big school districts are not ready to reopen, reports The New York Times, because of the mounting virus cases in their region.
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The Promise of Preschool: High-quality preschool experiences can narrow the racial achievement gap, according to a new study from Rutgers University and as reported by The Chronicle for Social Change. According to their findings, attending high-quality early education programs, even for just one year, virtually eliminated the reading skills gap between Black and white students and cut the math skills gap in half by the onset of kindergarten. Black children are less likely to have access to high-quality early education programs which underscores the need for universal, high-quality preschool if America is to close the racial inequities gap, according to a co-author of the study. While some argue that preschool doesn’t have long term impacts on education outcomes, the benefits of high-quality preschool extends past kindergarten, according Sarah Baray CEO of “Pre-K of SA,” a public early education program for low-income, military and English-learning families, in an interview with NPR.. According to Baray, data on Pre-K of SA shows that children who enter their program below the national norm in key cognitive and academic indicators exit the program above the norm and retain these benefits well into third-grade. “So you can take children who some might label as the most educationally vulnerable, and if they have access to a highly skilled teacher and an evidence-based curriculum, they can learn at very high levels. And it sets them on a path for success,” she said.
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Kids and COVID-19: Much is still unknown about how the coronavirus impacts children, however Mercury News provides a breakdown of what we know so far, including the fact that kids are not immune to the virus and express different symptoms than adults which can make it hard to pinpoint. One of those symptoms is a multi-Inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) that is occurring in a small number of children who have been exposed to COVID-19. Doctors are continuing to research why it occurs and the long term impacts of the disease, as reported by NPR. According to doctors, MIS-C may be an immune system overreaction response to the virus and most children make a full recovery, but extensive follow-ups are needed to observe long term effects. As cases continue to rise, more children will need to be tested which can be a scary experience for them –– The New York Times offers advice on how to make testing less stressful for kids. A general refrain has been that children are not impacted by the virus as much as adults, but that is not taking into account the impact pandemic has had on their education, emotional and social well-being and drop in routine well-child health visits, as reported in an op-ed co-authored by a health and policy law graduate and physician for ABC News. All these impacts are likely to be more pronounced in children from families facing economic hardships or with parents who are at-risk or increased exposure risk during the pandemic. With this in mind, the co-authors argue that policymakers need to pass policies that put children first.
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Pregnancy, Infants and Coronavirus: The Nationals Institutes of Health published a study this week explaining why the coronavirus rarely passes from an infected mother to a fetus or newborn, detailing the lack of a critical RNA molecule. But rarely does not mean never, as evidenced by a baby born in Paris in March to a mother with COVID-19 who also contracted the illness, illustrating that the virus can be transmitted from a pregnant person to a fetus, reports The New York Times. And while both mom and baby recovered fine, the incident as well as a small Italian study suggests that the virus can be transmitted in the womb, reports The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times. The Italian study also looked at why babies have such minor reactions to the virus, reports Scientific American. “The thinking is that infant cells have only a few ACE2 receptors, whereas those of an elderly person might harbor thousands,” reports Scientific American about why babies typically exhibit only a slight cough, runny nose or fever for a short time. Still, not enough is known about pregnancy and coronavirus, reports The New York Times. “A lot of our recommendations are not built on solid data,” said Yalda Afshar, M.D., Ph.D., a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at the Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A. Medical Center.
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Lead in the Water: UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation in partnership with First 5 LA released a report detailing how California can advance it's lead testing and remediation program. Click here to read the press release and here to download the full report. Also, stay tuned for next month's Early Childhood Matters newsletter, First 5 LA's signature newsletter, which will give an in-depth account of our work on California’s mandate requiring child care facilities to test their water for lead, known as AB 2370.
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Parent Survey: First 5 LA has partnered with local magazine L.A. Parent to find out how parents are coping during this challenging time. If you are a parent in L.A. County or have friends who are, please take the survey and/or share with your networks!
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ICYMI: In Case You Missed It, More Great Reads
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