ChildcareTennessee, State Ensure Child Care Programs Stay Afloat During Pandemic

Vivian Bynum, owner of Wartrace Wee Champs, received appliances during the second year of ChildcareTennessee’s Support and Enhancement Grant.

In 2020, child care went from backburner issue to front and center.

The turbulent year served as a painful reminder that there is no CEO of child care, no one entity in charge of making the system work.

A patchwork of family and group home programs, child care centers and Head Start programs — constructed to help keep working families working and the economy pushing forward — started to strain and crack.

In early March, the worldwide coronavirus pandemic knocked on Tennessee’s door and overstayed its welcome, as stay-at-home orders quickly were issued in metropolitan areas and lasted for months.

As fears of the virus spread, families pulled their children out of child care and began to care for their children at home. Lower enrollments led to dwindling revenues, and child care programs began to shutter one by one.

Child care centers and the families they serve were in crisis, particularly working mothers who so often shouldered the brunt of the child care burden.

To help both working families and child care providers, ChildcareTennessee — an initiative of The Community Foundation

of Middle Tennessee — and the Tennessee Department of Human Services (TDHS) expanded their partnership in 2020 through Disaster and Emergency Grants.

Children gather at Wartrace Wee Champs, a family group home child care program (top photo).

These grants provided income and operational support to child care programs affected by the pandemic throughout the state. This included a separate set of recovery grants for programs also impacted by the March 3 tornadoes that struck Nashville and the surrounding Middle Tennessee area.

Initially, $8 million was committed to assisting child care programs.

As the pandemic deepened, more money was added, eventually making available nearly $61 million in grant funding to more than 2,500 child care programs statewide.

The grants helped child care programs buy PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) for their staff, pay for sanitizing services and provide back pay for staff during shutdowns.

No one could predict how long programs would need to stay shuttered. Many programs had to close for much longer than originally anticipated.

ChildcareTennessee eventually processed 5,400 applications from 2,065 agencies across Tennessee over the course of 15 months.

The relief money proved to be a safety net.

A classroom features items purchased with Support and Enhancement Grant funds in 2020.

“This grant was everything to us,” said Amber Collins, director of Colonial Heights United Methodist Church Preschool in Kingsport. “We feared we would not make it out of this pandemic.

“We serve 70-plus children and were so afraid our doors would permanently close,” Collins continued. “The grant also allowed us to back pay employees who had gone several weeks without pay.”

Other child care centers remained open but suffered lower enrollment due to parents working from home and fears about the virus.

“Without these grants, I-Rise Christian Academy would not have been able to keep our doors open,” said the Memphis organization’s executive director, Sebrina Denton. “ChildcareTennessee and TDHS have been instrumental in providing job security for our staff.”

For essential workers keeping Tennessee running — from law enforcement officials to bus drivers to grocery store clerks — open child care programs remained a must.

“We [care for] a tremendous amount of essential workers’ children,” Denton said. “Because we were able to stay open, their children could remain in care, and they could work.”

A child draws at Wartrace Wee Champs in Wartrace, Tennessee.

To perform the important grantmaking task, ChildcareTennessee hired two additional team members and pulled in other Foundation staff to assist with the grant process throughout the year.

“During a tumultuous time, ChildcareTennessee provided stability by working with TDHS to support our child care agencies through these grants,” said Gina Tek, senior manager of ChildcareTennessee. “Programs were determined to stay open, and we were determined to help.”

“Through this partnership, we were able to help keep child care programs afloat during the pandemic,” Tek continued. “It meant families could take a deep breath and continue to rely on their child care programs.”