DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. — The worst may be yet to come for daycares as its crisis is only expected to grow over the next few months in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Center for American Progress is estimating that half of daycares could be out of business soon, which would mean that once parents need daycare spots again, we will have lost more than 4.5 million seats.
Florida is one of the states at highest risk -- 56% of daycare slots is what the independent policy institute is predicting it is at risk of losing.
In fact, some Duval County daycares have already closed like the KinderCare in Atlantic Beach.
When it shut its doors back in April, Anglea Keene said she had to scramble to find her son Keith a spot at a new one.
“I sat there for two days straight calling places," she explained. "'Do you have openings? Do you have openings? Do you have openings?'"
The single mother was in a rush so she could work on finding a new job and keep her financial assistance from Early Learning Coalition (ELC) of Duval.
“And thank God, Bethlehem Lutheran preschool had some openings," Keene said.
President and CEO Denise Marzullo said ELC of Duval has only seen a handful of closures among its 550 partner providers and beyond, but more could be on the way with how things are going right now.
“Attendance is lower. A lot of families are working from home and so they didn't necessarily need the childcare right now, and we also know that there's the fear and children coming to the child care.“ Marzullo explained.
To put it in perspective, she said Duval County enrollment for the coalition’s free, pre-kindergarten education (Florida VPK), which started a few weeks ago, is down about 40% this year.
“Not only is it financially impacting our early learning providers, but the educational gaps within our children are getting more and more significant," she said.
Although, over in Brentwood, Minds of the Future owner Cynthia Smith is having the opposite problem.
“People were driving from close and afar to have their child enrolled in our facility," she said.
Smith credits the growth to the fact it was able to stay open during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic to help care for essential workers’ children, but now her ELC daycare is full, has a waitlist of about 10 kids and needs more teachers.
“Now that things are getting back to normal, the ratio is a little bit lighter. However, with the increase in numbers, we need to have more teachers so that we can ensure students are properly social distancing as well," Smith explained.
Marzullo said some ELC daycares have been able to hold on since they’re getting paid – right now -- based on enrollment and not attendance, but she’s afraid that won’t last.