Nikki Esty noticed the change a day before temporarily closing her family daycare in Gibsons. As she discussed the situation with a client, nearby, a five-year-old sneezed. “Time stopped,” she said. “Sneezes never felt like that before.”
With many parents still working, child-care providers and parents are grappling with how best to deliver care for children while keeping them safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some centres are staying open, others have shut their doors, while parents devise strategies for respite as they adjust to working from home.
“Things are changing around here at lightning speed,” said Catherine Bunce, program coordinator at Sunshine Coast Child Care Resource and Referral.
On March 17, the province announced that after spring break, in-school instruction would be suspended. Two days later, public health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry urged parents to keep their children at home. “All daycares do not need to stay open,” she said, assuring parents policies were on the way to protect their placements if they chose to pull their children.
By March 31 the province had announced relief was coming for parents working on the front lines of B.C.’s COVID-19 response. The province’s 38 referral centres, such as the one for which Bunce works, would be used to match parents to the child-care providers still open in their communities.
As of April 1, the directive to keep children home had caused a sharp drop in available spaces on the Sunshine Coast. Of its approximately 30 child-care facilities, four licensed group and four family child-care centres were staying open, according to Bunce. Only frontline workers are being referred to those operators and other parents are being asked to keep their children away.
As those changes were being implemented, however, some frontline workers had to adapt on the fly.
One health-care worker Coast Reporter spoke with said her spouse quit his job to take care of their two children after the child-care facilities they depend on closed. She is aware of three other health-care workers on the Sunshine Coast who had to miss work because of a lack of childcare.
Bunce said her organization is now “busily matching workers with child-care centres” – even as some centres run at reduced capacity because staff are staying home and there’s no one to replace them.
School District No. 46 (SD46) has also stepped in for families with school-aged children. As of this week, the district has made care available for families with frontline essential service workers through its Community Schools in Gibsons and Sechelt. So far, between five and 12 families are using the service, depending on their scheduling needs, according to district principal Kirsten Deasey. Next week, she anticipates opening spaces for social service and other essential care workers. “We are pleased that we are currently meeting the needs of our school-age community of families with children,” she said.
Karen Gaze, who runs a small licensed family daycare in Roberts Creek, is one of the operators to keep her doors open, adhering to public health measures specific to child care facilities.
Stuffed animals have been put away, since they’re harder to sanitize. The children sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star when washing their hands.
She told Coast Reporter she still has fewer children in her care since before the pandemic, but decided to stay open because she has essential worker clients. Gaze now depends on temporary emergency funding from the province.
Despite initial hesitations, Nikki Esty chose to reopen April 6 because she too has essential workers as clients and, she said, because she needs to pay her bills.
Child-care centres that have closed are also eligible for financial relief.
The Roberts Creek Child Care Society, which runs the only preschool in Roberts Creek, as well as after-school programs and day camps, has shut down temporarily, since it operates on property owned by SD46.
The non-profit’s chair, Grace Carter, told Coast Reporter its staff have been temporarily laid off and will be receiving a combination of federal emergency benefits, wage subsidies and salary top-ups. “We are going to lean on the government a bit but we’re also going to fill in the gaps. We’re lucky we have a well-managed budget,” she said.
As for the parents who aren’t essential workers, it’s up to them to find their own solutions. “There is a lot of creativity happening around us in terms of child-care options,” said Carter, who is a mother and working at home, as is her spouse. Their solution was to hire an au pair. Other friends are relying on grandparents, who are now doubling as live-in caregivers.
But as the pandemic continues, Gaze believes a lack of sustainable child-care options could lead parents to seek child care outside the home. “My numbers are definitely lower but there is still a need out there, and I think as people settle in for the long term a lot of the casual child care, having a friend look after your children or your grandparents – that only lasts so long.”
