Cumplido serves only low-income families who get state-subsidized care. This means she relies on subsidies to fund her business. Typically, she says, she gets $257 a week per child under the age of two.
Employment benefits are also often more scarce for childcare providers like Cumplido, who run small businesses out of their homes. According to the, less than half of childcare providers have time off as part of their agreements with family. Only about a fifth have retirement savings and at least 16% have no health insurance, that’s compared to 8% of the entire U.S. population who is without it.
"When the pandemic first started, in-home childcare providers and nannies were not even addressed," said Borne."When it came to closing everything down, the schools, the preschools were addressed, they were given resources, they were given information, but early childhood education and in-home childcare providers were not.
According to research from Child Care Aware of America, her center was one of about 16,000 closures that happened nationally between December 2019 and March 2021. In San Diego, just in the first six months of 2021, 37 centers closed their doors with just 20 opening up. The closures hit the most vulnerable neighborhoods the hardest.
Tostado-Kenshur is talking about subsidized care but there are many families that not only don’t qualify for the benefits but cannot afford child care.