By Jackie Mader

This week’s newsletter comes to you from my colleague, Cayla Bamberger. I’ll be back in two weeks with the next newsletter.  -Jackie
 
Renaldo Sanders was determined not to let the coronavirus pandemic stop her from serving kids. That meant she kept the in-home day care she runs in Compton, California, operating this spring even as the virus closed businesses and schools across the country.
 
More recently, she has bought extra tables so her students can sit at a social distance and a high-tech UV sanitizing wand to disinfect supplies and surfaces. She also upgraded her internet to accommodate the Zoom classes of the school-age children who are now spending the day in her care because their school buildings are shut and their parents have returned to work.
 
“I even bought a new computer so if theirs aren’t working, they have another one to use,” said Sanders, a licensed child care provider who has worked in the industry for more than 30 years. 
 
Sanders’ experience is shared by child care providers around the country, 70 percent of whom have been forced to pour additional money into their businesses to keep them operating safely, according to the National Association for the Education of Young Children. But while their spending has increased, incomes have not. The median hourly wage of a self-employed, home-based child care provider before the pandemic was $10.35, and many providers lost clientele this spring, further depressing their earnings. Although the federal CARES Act provided some relief, advocates say it isn’t nearly enough to keep many providers from shutting their doors. By one estimate, half the country’s licensed child care centers are in danger of closing for good.
 
The public health crisis has added new urgency to a push to unionize the industry, which has long struggled with low pay and poor working conditions. This summer, in-home or “family” child care workers in Sanders’ state of California became the latest to form a union. The union, Child Care Providers United, represents workers who care for children receiving government subsidies, enabling the professionals to collectively negotiate with the state on matters such as compensation, benefits and working conditions. Advocates say the bargaining power could offer a crucial lifeline at a time when the industry is under severe strain.
 
The child care industry, which is made up of many small businesses with high employee turnover, is largely nonunionized. Just a quarter of home-based providers belonged to an association or a union last year, according to a survey conducted by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley. Roughly a quarter of states have collective bargaining rights for family child care workers, but only six have agreements: Washington, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Connecticut and Illinois, according to the National Women’s Law Center. Some states, like California, haven’t drafted contracts yet; others had agreements that expired or were canceled.
 
California’s family child care workers fought for 16 years for the right to bargain with the state before finding an ally in Gov. Gavin Newsom, who signed a law last year allowing collective bargaining for home-based child care workers. This July, approximately 10,000 child care workers voted overwhelmingly to join Child Care Providers United, a partnership of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Union members are now working on a list of demands, although the dual crises of the pandemic and the wildfires have postponed their first meeting with the state on a contract.

• “Covid-19 has nearly destroyed the child care industry— and it might be too late to save it.” TIME
• “The pandemic is a ‘mental health crisis’ for parents.” The New York Times
• “Fearing distance learning, many parents opt for preschool instead of kindergarten.” EdSource
• “Why Denver isn’t offering virtual preschool in a pandemic—and why it might in the future.” Chalkbeat Colorado