Rebuilding the Economy by Investing ARPA Funds in Child Care

By investing in a strong child care infrastructure the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 funds will rebuild our economy.

RECOMMENDATION: The endorsing organizations recommend that the County of Santa Barbara and each city within the County contribute a portion of their ARPA funds to developing a strong child care infrastructure that will rebuild the current systems of care, support the ability for parents to return to work, and create county-wide emergency response systems that integrate child care in order to prepare for future community crises.

It is imperative to our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that local governments work together to shore up the child care sector so children have safe, stable, and equitable environments to learn and grow and parents can return to work. This past year highlighted that child care is a pillar of our local infrastructure, and how the economy is negatively impacted when child care is not available. Investment in the first five years is critical to our recovery from the pandemic.

Endorsing Organizations

For more information contact: essentialchildcaresb@gmail.com

For more information contact: essentialchildcaresb@gmail.com

Key Points from Recommendation

 

Many working parents, particularly mothers, lost the ability to work due to lack of child care during this pandemic creating a mass exodus of women from the nation’s workforce - an estimated 865,000 women (four times more than men).

Our economy cannot fully recover unless women fully participate in the workforce. Without access to reliable, equitable, and quality child care, parents cannot return to work, food and housing insecurity persist, child poverty is exacerbated, and the resulting family stress increases the incidence of child maltreatment, substance abuse, and family fracture. Investment in our child care sector is an essential prevention and recovery strategy that is critical to our community’s overall recovery.

Child care is essential to our economic recovery.

During the pandemic, child care workers remained open, putting their lives, and those of their families, on the line to keep the economy open and serve essential workers. They suffered loss of revenue, incurred extra costs for cleaning supplies and PPE, and were asked to expand services and their scope of work beyond what they had offered.

Children have heightened critical needs due to the pandemic, and child care can help.

Researchers expect a tidal wave of behavioral health needs, especially from children of vulnerable and marginalized communities. High quality, inclusive, affordable child care is critical to mitigating and addressing children’s poor outcomes.

The pandemic exacerbated the pre-existing shortage of needed child care, which cripples parents’ ability to return to work and impedes on our local economic recovery.

Prior to the pandemic there were more than two children (0-5 years old) needing care for every space available and almost six children (0-2 years old) needing care for every infant-toddler space available. 

Child care programs have struggled to maintain operations due to COVID-19.

Some programs will survive, however many may not, which will further limit access for parents and amplify the inequities among disadvantaged and higher risk populations.

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Building on Lessons Learned to Prepare for the Future

The lack of affordable, quality child care spaces for children age 0-5 is a serious issue during normal times. The pandemic revealed how this everyday systemic weakness puts our community at higher risk in disasters. This is a challenge that requires attention and concrete solutions that are founded on rebuilding existing child care spaces and establishing a child care infrastructure that is strong enough to withstand emergencies. The availability of high-quality child care for working families is critical to the strength and health of our community and will also make us more resilient in times of community crisis.

Lessons learned from the Emergency Child Care Initiative (ECCI) represents a potential new strength in our local emergency response system. Disaster planning focused on child care is essential to prepare us for future emergency events and to sustain our economy.

The Santa Barbara County Emergency Child Care Initiative, which was formed in April 2020 with the support of United Way of Santa Barbara County and a consortium of local philanthropic partners including The Natalie Orfalea Foundation and Lou Buglioli, Jane and Paul Orfalea/the Audacious Foundation, Linked Foundation, James S. Bower. Foundation, Ann Jackson Foundation, Zegar Family Foundation, Henry and Lola Monroe Foundation, and Santa Barbara Foundation, as well as local early childhood advocacy organizations including Children’s Resource & Referral, First 5 Santa Barbara County, and the Santa Barbara County Child Care Planning Council. The initiative’s aim was to offer funding for emergency child care programs in response to the urgent need to provide safe child care for health care providers and essential food distribution employees. Through the initiative’s efforts, a framework was created to begin developing and implementing a child care emergency response system. Santa Barbara Foundation and First 5 Santa Barbara County have provided funding to support the leadership role, critical convening, and mobilization of the essential activities ECCI has accomplished.

For more information about the collective accomplishments achieved during the COVID-19 pandemic see the following reports: