After a major advocacy effort and an analysis of child care’s impact on the economy, Santa Barbara County will release $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds over the next three years for the child care sector’s pandemic recovery and resiliency.
“The child care sector struggled pre-COVID and of course, COVID made it worse. I’m proud the Board of Supervisors is taking it seriously and saying they want to help,” First 5 Santa Barbara County Assistant Director Michelle Robertson said.
First 5 will help allocate the funds through an application process where organizations can apply for help in four different areas: child care workforce needs, facility needs throughout the county, child care expansion or start-up funds, or emergency planning to prevent shutdowns, Robertson explained.
“This is really just a drop in the bucket of what’s really needed to strengthen the child care sector as a permanent solution, but it’s a start. I’m optimistic; it’s starting the solution [but]
$2 million doesn’t go very far in a sector that takes hundreds of millions of dollars to operate and sustain,” she continued.
In California, a family’s average annual cost of infant child care is more than $16,000 (about $1,400 per month), according to previous Sun reporting. Currently, Santa Barbara County has 9,767 licensed daycare spots for infants and toddlers, but according to the Santa Barbara Child Care Planning Council, more than 16,700 children under 2 live in the county. Oftentimes people can’t afford adequate child care and end up leaving work, Robertson added.
“People forget that the economy runs on people being able to work. We found that when schools shut down and child care shut down, and parents were at home and had to juggle both their child care and trying to do work, it was very stressful. It prompted the mental health crisis and [it’s] very difficult for employers to retain and recruit employees,” she said.
The $2 million, three-year investment is an important gesture from elected officials, but Robertson said she hopes more funding will come in the future.
“Everyone has been asking the same question: What comes after ARPA? Once we have these infrastructure pieces in place, the goal is to advocate for the cities and counties to do sustainable investment,” she said. “Those conversations will happen in the 2024-25 fiscal year as we get more results from this allocation.”
United Way Santa Barbara County Vice President Melinda Cabrera agreed that this allocation is just the start to resolving the child care sector’s long-term issues.
“It’s a layered effect. It’s expensive; low- and moderate-income families aren’t able to afford high expenses or high costs. What we are left with is centers being understaffed, [child care worker] burnout, and people leaving the workforce or leaving our area because they can’t live and work and afford child care,” Carbrera said. “This funding allows us to take a deep dive into these issues and look for high impact solutions.”
She said she hopes this funding will prompt more partnerships across various sectors, set up structures that can be sustained through public and private funding, and draw attention to the various issues plaguing the sector.
“[It’s important to] leverage expertise and experiences from the players who have been active for so long, but also working with county leadership, cities, [and] the business sector. The issues facing child care are so pervasive it affects everyone. By working with new sectors, we can work toward new, innovative solutions, perhaps,” she said.
It won’t be an easy problem to tackle because the issues hurting the sector are “massive,” but First 5 is looking for applications that address key areas and will allow longer-term solutions to be successful. Currently, United Way is developing its own application materials to submit, but details aren’t ready for discussion yet, Cabrera added
“It’s definitely not enough money to solve the problems, or even make a large dent, but what this money allows us to do is to convene those partnerships and set up structures that can be sustained through public and private funding. This is the stepping stone to a larger, more long-term solution,” she said.
Editor’s note: This article has been edited to correct the attribution in the second to last paragraph.
This article appears in Aug 25 – Sep 1, 2022.
