The return to the classrooms for the nation’s schoolchildren did not mean for many of their parents a return to work, which, with working days lasting the school days, found after-school programs and short-term care.
School-based providers list difficulties in hiring and retaining staff members as the biggest reasons they did not fully recover from pandemic stoppages, and they say they are as frustrated as the parents who dismiss them.
“We are in a constant state of flux. We will hire one employee, and another will resign,” said Ester Buendia, assistant director of after-school programs at the Northside Independent School District in Texas. “We just did not finish this year.”
Prior to the pandemic, the San Antonio District’s after-school program had 1,000 employees who served more than 7,000 students in its approximately 100 elementary and middle schools. Today, less than half of the staff oversee approximately 3,300 students. More than 1,100 students are on waiting lists for the program, called Learning Tree, which offers academic, leisure and social enrichment until 6:30 p.m. each school day.
Surveys point to a cycle of parents, mostly mothers, staying home for their children because they are unable to find after-school programming, which in turn causes staff shortages in such programs, which rely heavily on women to run them.
“There is really no doubt that these after-school programs – the lack of after-school programs at this stage – are particularly limiting for women to regain labor,” said Jen Rinehart, vice president of strategy and Programming in the Nonprofit Afterschool Alliance, which works to increase programming.
“If women do not come back into the workforce, we will not have the staff we need for these after-school opportunities, so everything is very comprehensive,” she said.
A survey by the Afterschool Alliance found that an all-time high of 24.6 million children at the end of 2021 was not able to receive a program, even though costs as well as availability were a barrier. Of the more than 1,000 program providers surveyed, 54% had waiting lists, a significantly higher percentage than in the past.
Wells Fargo reported that labor shortages in childcare, where women make up 96% of the workforce, are more acute than in other industries, which are also struggling to find reliable employees. Employment was 12.4% below its pre-covid-19 level in early March, forcing an estimated 460,000 families to make other arrangements, analysts concluded.
“Access to affordable childcare has been repeatedly demonstrated to strengthen labor force participation among mothers,” the report said.
A Census Bureau data survey in January found that 6% of parents with children 5-11 years old do not work because a child was not in school or day care. Data analyzed by the Pew Research Center found that in the last quarter of 2021, 6% fewer jobs were held by parents of children between 5 and 12 years of age.
Rico X said the school-based pre- and post-school programs he oversees at the YMCA of Central Tennessee have to hijack enrollment due to staff shortages, leaving capacity at about 70% of what it was before. Pandemic was. One of its 105 sites used to have as many as 85 students; now it is less than 60.
“On some of our waiting list sites, we have some parents who are just in despair,” he said, “and there is not much we can really do unless there is a place that opens up.”
The YMCA, which sends staff to schools to run the programs, is considering another pay rise in hopes of attracting more applicants, he said. The provider has already raised the minimum wage for site directors from $ 13 to $ 16 an hour, and other employees a $ 2 per hour increase, to $ 13.
“For a good part of our families, this is a lifeline for them, and it gives them the ability to work, but also to have the peace of mind that their children are in a safe and committed environment. It is 100% a lifeline . “, sot X.
A survey by the Afterschool Alliance found that 71% of programs took action to attract and retain staff. The most widespread was the increase in salaries, and in some cases federal pandemic aid money was used in the form of childcare stabilization subsidies. Some have also offered free childcare for staff as well as sign-up bonuses or paid leisure time.
“We came into the pandemic with a huge unmet demand for after-school and summer programs and of course, like almost every other challenge out there, the pandemic only exacerbated that challenge,” Rinehart said.
Kasey Blackburn-Jiron, extended teaching coordinator for the West Contra Costa Unified School District in California, said the provider would skip neighborhoods to describe applicants who skip scheduled job interviews or even go through the hiring process only to disappear after landing the job, presumably to work some place that pays more and demands less.
“My best idea is that we are not paying them enough money. We are not offering them enough hours,” said Blackburn-Jiron, who said the program now serves much less than the 5,000 students enrolled before the pandemic.
“We’re asking these 17-, 18-, 19-dollar-per-hour people to do miracles,” she said. “Most of them do not have a bachelor’s degree and yet we say we want you to be an amazing youth development practitioner. You have to be able to learn and model social and emotional skills. You have to be able to learn 21st century. Skills, you have to able to deal with young people coming from generations of trauma. “
She said state lawmakers have recently increased funding for the program, which could lead to better pay, but the money will not go to programs until the end of the school year.
“Working families need school-based after-school programs, and we just could not meet the need,” Blackburn-Jiron said, “and it’s heartbreaking.”
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