The state has lost more than 8,500 licensed child care sites in the last year and three in ten jobs in child care have been lost during the pandemic. Advocates say the sting from those closures hasn’t truly been felt, but will be when the economy fully reopens and parents start to look for care that is no longer there.
That’s why child care providers are so frustrated by the slow process and point to federal stimulus payouts to Americans in need that happened seemingly overnight.
For Sylvia Hernandez, who runs Blossom To Success Child Care in Van Nuys out of her home, the stipend will be a lifeline.