Santa Barbara County is struggling to meet new child care needs created by the pandemic, but local organizations are finding ways to support providers.
Children’s Resource & Referral of Santa Barbara County, a nonprofit that provides services to both families and child care providers, is teaming up with First 5 Santa Barbara County for the organizations’ fifth supplies distribution event since the onset of the pandemic.
The Dec. 5 event is open to all child care facilities in Santa Barbara County who register, and there will be distribution spots in both Santa Maria and Santa Barbara.
Children’s Resource & Referral Chief Operating Officer Jacqui Banta told the Sun that it’s their largest distribution yet, and they’re expecting to supply 350 licensed child care facilities with face masks, hand sanitizer, disinfectant, and other essential supplies.
Prior to the pandemic, Santa Barbara County already had a significant child care need for infants and toddlers, Banta said.
“But now, we have this huge need for school-aged children: those first, second, third graders who are not old enough to be left alone but are needing to do distance learning and have supervision,” Banta said.
The county currently has the capacity to serve 18,000 children, Banta said, but more than 9,000 infants and toddlers, 10,000 preschool-aged children, and 25,000 school-aged children need care. This leaves the county with a child care deficit of more than 25,000.
“The weight on the shoulders of these child care providers is unimaginable,” she said. “The majority of child care providers have either expanded their licenses to support more children, or they’ve expanded their hours of operation. Many of them are working 24-hour shifts, they’re working over the weekends.”
The supply distribution event will ensure that teachers and children stay healthy and safe as they continue to provide unprecedented levels of care.
“Doctors need to work, paramedics need to work, grocery store clerks need to work, and the only way they can work is to have safe and healthy child care options,” Banta said.
In retrospect, Banta said, the child care crisis that many communities are experiencing would have been less severe if these services had been better prioritized before the pandemic.
“With the pandemic, it seems like there’s a lot of catch-up work from the state,” she said. “We wish that the value would have been placed on early care and education prior to the pandemic.”
Children’s Resource and Referral offers free child care for qualified families, parent training classes, individualized referrals, and professional development to providers. Visit crrsbc.org to learn more about the organization’s services.
This article appears in Dec 3-10, 2020.
