"I had a parent tell me to f*** off last week," Cori Berg said. She directs the Hope Day School, a church-affiliated early childhood program in Dallas.The unhappy mother took her two children out of Berg's center after each of their classrooms were closed for quarantines, saying she'd hire a nanny. Wanting to return, she emailed, called and finally showed up in the middle of the day. Just as Berg had warned her, her spots were taken.The mother, according to Berg, threw a fit before coming back and apologizing. "She was like a toddler — she was jumping up and down."The people who take care of and educate children under 5 years old — both parents and providers — are in a special kind of hell right now. These children are too young to be vaccinated, and it's difficult for them to wear masks consistently. Many child care directors, like Berg, are still following 10- or 14-day quarantines, closing entire classrooms after a single positive test, which has caused nonstop disruptions given the current record numbers of COVID-19 cases. Recently, Berg's infant room had "double-decker" quarantines: closed for two weeks, back for one day, then closed for another two weeks.Meanwhile, caregivers told NPR that they can't get hold of enough rapid tests and that they're struggling to apply the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's safety guidance. Child care directors say they have few substitutes to cover for those out sick, and early childhood educators typically don't have union protection. Providers say they are spending out of pocket on equipment such as masks and gloves.Parents, meanwhile, are losing their tempers, losing sleep and losing jobs when the child care they pay for is canceled, over and over. About 1 in 6 parents told pollsters they had experienced either a school or a day care shutdown in the past few weeks, in a national poll from Axios and Ipsos released on Jan. 11.
Child care centers are struggling with repeated quarantines
The child care crisis in the U.S. predates the coronavirus pandemic. Average annual public spending on early childhood care across rich countries is $14,436 per child. In the U.S., it's $500. Child care is scarce, expensive for most families and of varying quality; and providers earn an average of around $25,000 a year, even with specialized training and degrees.Still, as hard as things have been, advocates, parents and early childhood educators like Berg told NPR that January 2022 has been the worst month of the pandemic.The latest job numbers show child care workers leaving the workforce, even as other sectors are hiring. The federal incentives for employers to offer paid leave ran out in September. And while the American Rescue Plan provided $24 billion in stabilization grants to child care programs in 2021, the Build Back Better plan, with its $400 billion in federal child care and preschool funding, is stalled in Congress."This is the worst it has ever been," Berg said. "It is so fractious between parents and centers. Last week in particular, every single director I know got really beat up."Berg spoke to NPR while she was quarantining at home after being exposed to the coronavirus at work. (She has since returned to the classroom.)"I've got
