For businesses at the state and national level, staffing, as well as maintaining employees, has proven to be difficult no matter the industry. Many of these problems are exacerbated by a scarcity of suitable child care options for parents, whose lack of alternatives then negatively impacts the overall economy.
Unable to balance both without the proper support, those with children, especially mothers, must choose their families over finances — this effectively eliminates them from the workforce in a time of inflated prices and higher costs.
To help educate those on all sides for how to best address this, the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) and Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) are hosting a Zoom webinar on Thursday, April 28, from 9 to 10 a.m.
“Moving Beyond the Pandemic: Business’ Role in Child Care” will feature child care providers, businesses, and a county resource and referral agency as a means of sharing information on these matters exacerbated by the pandemic. Online registration for the free webinar is available at njbia.org/events/moving-beyond-the-pandemic-business-role-in-child care.
The guest speaker, Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz (D-29), is also sponsoring a new $360 million bill package for child care in New Jersey. As ACNJ’s website describes, the proposal would extend child care subsidies to families earning up to 300 percent of the federal poverty line, give tax incentives to employers who provide child care in their workplaces, reimburse parents for child care expenses, and form the Department of Early Childhood to support the unique statewide needs of infants and toddlers, among other policy actions.
Partnering together with shared expertise from their respective organizations, Cynthia Rice is an attorney and the senior policy analyst for ACNJ who focuses on early education issues, while Alexis Bailey is the director of government affairs with NJBIA.
ACNJ has built its platform as New Jersey’s largest multi-issue child advocacy organization since the merging of the Citizens Committee for Children and Child Service Association in 1978. But its roots go all the way back to the Newark Orphan Asylum in 1847, meaning the group has witnessed child care as it evolved for more than 150 years.
The Newark-based ACNJ advocates for all issues affecting children and their families, including expanding health coverage, strengthening the state’s early learning system, addressing children’s legal rights, as well as other forms of assistance and awareness to speak for children without political voices or votes.
“I think that we are certainly in the midst of a child care crisis,” Rice says. “The pandemic didn’t cause this crisis, but it has exposed it and many of the problems that existed for an industry that has been under-resourced and undervalued for too long.”
Part of those troubles, she continues, concerns the staffing crisis and its “ripple effect” on working families. Since families cannot find “an adequate supply of quality child care,” they encounter difficulties in going back to work. This is compounded by “child care deserts,” or areas where a major, or complete, absence of centers causes complications that result in parents having to choose between an income or keeping their children safe.
The National Association for the Education of Young Children found in July 2021 that of those surveyed, four out of five national child care centers reported being short-staffed.
“We have classrooms that are empty, not because of parent demand, but because of the fact that programs can’t find teachers to work because most cannot afford to pay over the minimum wage. There are many, many options for potential employees that would provide a higher salary and benefits, and in some cases, tuition reimbursement for college,” Rice explains.
“[A] part of that has to be making sure that our employees have reliable child care, and that has not been the case. It’s having them look at child care differently. After all, child care is the workforce behind the workforce. You want your workers there, you have to have care for their children,” she says. “Thinking differently about their role in this is critical.”
For Trenton-based NJBIA, which advocates for the business community in New Jersey, its role involves uplifting the childcare industry that has struggled throughout the pandemic. NJBIA aims to support all workforces as they continue to navigate hurdles and shortages, Bailey explains.
“[Child care] had a lot more restrictions than other areas of business, especially with classroom closures, quarantines, all of that, so they really had a hard time,” she says. “We really want to make sure that, across industries, we’re helping people get back to work. A big part of that is child care.
Rice and Bailey explain that they hope the webinar helps reframe the issue of child care for businesses, helping them see new initiatives as a way to ensure the stability of their workforce rather than a new hassle or responsibility.
“We want to give employers the opportunity to think differently,” Bailey says of the childcare benefits they can offer their employees. “We want to give them some options, information, and resources that we can share with them.”
She notes that it would be a success if attendees took these tools and tips to then support their employees, therefore helping not only their business, but New Jersey’s economy.
“That really became the impetus and our goal for this webinar on Thursday is ‘how can we provide that information to employers to let them know what options are out there? What child care centers might be in their area that they can partner with? What county resources are there that they can tap into to try to get information to their employees?’ We’re really looking forward to just sharing that information, as all different options that employers can look at to see what is feasible for them to include to support their workforces,” Bailey says.
As Rice adds, the business community is encouraged to understand the nuances of child care, such as the “impact of an unstable child care provider” and how “to make that link between their productivity and a stable child care system for their staff.”
Rice knows that for smaller companies, providing onsite child care can be an obstacle both in terms of space and financial assets. But including child care support as part of employee benefits packages can result in a positive shift for the workforce — given that the importance of child care trickles down to every industry.
For everyone from nurses to therapists, the healthcare field has suffered during the frontline fight against COVID-19 and a global decline in mental health. All of these professions still need child care so they can return to work.
“The issue of child care access across our state touches on every aspect of our economy, every aspect of our workforces across industries, and that’s why it’s so critical,” Bailey says, and Rice supports that with a simple yet powerful phrase.
“You don’t have to build the building to provide support to your working staff who have children,” Rice says.
For Sen. Ruiz’s bill, NJBIA and ACNJ both worked with the majority leader, even supporting her at the press conference announcement in early April.
“We really see it as a comprehensive plan across the board of trying to support employees, employers, parents and their children, and the workforce of the child care industry,” Bailey says, calling it a “win-win” for everyone involved.
“Our goal going forward, from an advocacy perspective, is we really want to support this bill package and really champion it through the legislature. We hope to see it move when the legislature is back in session later next month,” she adds.
“The majority leader really has been the face of this issue,” Rice says, noting that the package recognizes the reality that the child care industry has suffered enough. “It’s a long time coming. We can’t put band-aids on this problem any longer.”
Rice also expresses ACNJ’s full commitment to supporting the initiative, similarly hoping it goes forward as fast as possible to help expedite the entire process.
“These problems were in existence before the pandemic, but it’s become so critical now because there have been other things that have come into play. We don’t want to underestimate the importance of the federal dollars that were provided and that the state effectively used, but even with all those dollars, you have a system that was starved for so long, and that’s what the child care system really went through for so many decades,” she explains of the federal funds allocated thus far towards child care.
In terms of widening that state assistance for child care, Rice notes that families who do not fall under the current income eligibility are left out of the conversation.
“If you make $1 over the amount, you’re over eligibility, you get nothing. What we hear over and over again, that there are so many families that are middle income who cannot afford child care, particularly for infants and toddlers, the age in which care costs the most,” Rice says. “I think one of the beauties of one of the senator’s bills is that it recognizes that there’s not just low-income families and wealthy families, there’s a lot of families in between.”
By increasing access across the state for all, as well as effectively bridging the gap between employers and employees, it’s expected that child care services can only improve.
To help facilitate this, Rice says that reaching out to legislators also helps those in power know what to do next, whether it’s a parent or a child care provider to speak of their experiences. This way, they can personally explain how funding and other needs are integral to the functioning of child care services.
“I think finding the voice of those who are most affected is critically important in making sure that we have sound policy, whether it’s at the legislative level or the executive branch,” Rice explains.
By the same token, advocating for change can help New Jersey in helping employers and employees find solutions that provide more accessible child care, whether on an individual basis or through the power of a bill package — only then may the state “move beyond” the problems affecting parents, children, and the economy.
