‘It’s dicey’: Lehigh Valley child care centers weather challenging summer of lower enrollment, increased safety measures

Jill Volkert watched quietly as about a dozen children shrieked and bounced their way around the playground behind the Sayre Child Center in Bethlehem Thursday afternoon, waiting for their parents to arrive. Compared to the norm for this time of day, it was a calm scene.

“We would be ducking because they would be throwing balls, playing dodgeball, throwing frisbees ... You have to enter at your own risk in the afternoon,” the site director said, picturing the organized chaos of about three times the amount of kids.

“This is a very different summer for us,” she said.

It is for many child care providers in the Lehigh Valley, who are adding safety measures and reporting less than half their usual enrollment upon opening their doors during the yellow phase in Lehigh and Northampton counties.

It spells mixed confidence in the future, with some larger providers optimistic they’ll climb back to normal levels, and others skeptical as they face a workforce forever changed by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Things are changed permanently,” said Tina Siegfried, Sayre’s executive director. “It’s a major hit. It’s dicey -- there’s no doubt about it.”

Most are hanging on so far. Of Lehigh County’s 284 licensed child care providers, only eight remain temporarily closed, and three have reported to the state that they are closing for good, according to a Department of Human Services spokesman. Of Northampton County’s 133 providers, 11 remain temporarily closed, and none have indicated to the state plans to close permanently as of June 18.

DHS’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning has been reaching out to providers as counties make transitions to the yellow and green phases of reopening to find out their status, spokesman Brandon Cwalina said.

“As the impacts of the pandemic continue to unfold, we expect ongoing updates to operations and closures,” he said.

A different look

Some larger operations are doing better than others. Lehigh Valley Children’s Centers opened all 11 of its full-year centers across the Lehigh ValleyJune 8, and in its second week is reporting about 70% enrollment of its usual 1,300 children, marketing and communication manager Shawn Deiter said. The Greater Valley YMCA’s combined summer day camps and child care programs opened June 8 with 30% enrollment, which notched up to 40% in the second week, CEO David Fagerstrom said. Sayre, in continuous operation since 1899, closed in March with 95 children enrolled. It opened June 8 with 30 children and has crept up to 45.

“After 120 years, I’m not willing to say we’ll go out of business,” Siegfried said. “But it’s definitely going to look different.”

In the immediate sense, their procedures also look different. In accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for child care providers, parents and children get their temperatures checked at the door, where hand sanitization stations are set up. Staff wear masks, though children don’t have to -- for the youngest of them, it can be a breathing hazard, and for the rambunctious, a tool rendered ineffective. In some places, water fountains are swapped for water coolers; buffet style meals for individually wrapped.

“It’s crazy how many things you have to think through,” Fagerstrom said.

At Active Learning Center’s four Lehigh Valley locations, staff go into the bathrooms between each child to wipe down touch points, said Dana Eldridge, vice president of operations. Once an hour, it’s someone’s job to wipe down every touch point in the whole building.

Active Learning Center went as far as to purchase air purification systems that use ultraviolet light and ionization technology and run through the air ducts, she said.

“It’s an expense we’re willing to go to because parents have to feel safe dropping their kids off,” Eldridge said. “We’re in the child care safety business.”

At least during the yellow phase, child care centers are by and large not allowing outside visitors. For some, that includes parents -- staff at Bethlehem Early Learners meet the parents in the parking lot.

Parents, for their part, have been attentive, executive director Tiffany Pujols said -- asking the daycare about their new procedures and educating their kids about germs and social distancing. The task is also made easier by lower enrollment: after having 98 kids in March, the daycare saw about 30 return June 8.

But there’s only so much that can be done to socially distance children at play. At the Y, counselor-to-student ratios are smaller, and they no longer assemble more than two groups of children for activities.

Field trips, a common feature of summer camp, are out of the question until at least the green phase, providers say, leaving counselors and teachers to have to get creative to occupy the kids.

“We’re brainstorming already,” Sayre’s Volkert said, such as buying sprinklers and hoses for outdoor fun. “We’re just waiting to find out what’s what.”

Questions about the future

July looks to be a bigger question than June. At that point, at Sayre, Siegfried’s Paycheck Protection Program loan runs out. Monica Cruz, who has run a small family daycare out of her home in Bethlehem for nine years, knows DHS’s Early Learning Resource Center will subsidize her kids who didn’t return to daycare through at least June, but she doesn’t know about July.

She usually takes care of six kids. Next week, she’ll re-enroll her third.

In preparation for reopening, she bought a thermometer, masks, bleach and a sofa cover. She told the kids to bring shoes and masks specifically for her house.

To the question of what she would do if she had to close her business, she said, “I don’t think about that.”

Deiter said LVCC has received some new clients who said their previous provider did not open. Like other providers, many of their clients have reported dropping off due to job losses or furloughs that rendered them unable to afford child care. Some others have told Siegfried they are simply waiting for the green phase of reopening, now scheduled for Friday.

Unemployment claims have skyrocketed across the country since the pandemic forced business closures. In Pennsylvania, more than 2 million have applied for benefits since March.

“Even for those families we lose for being furloughed, we may gain families whose centers closed,” she said. “There will always be a need for child care.”

For the kids, too, the need may be greater than ever. After being cooped up for two months, Jean Yerger’s three grandchildren, whom she fosters, were bouncing off the walls.

“Once they reopened, I was thinking about ‘Should I? Shouldn’t I?‘” said Yerger of Freemansburg, about to pick up her 5, 4 and 2-year-old up at Sayre. “Then I thought, they’re going to have to go sometime. They needed to come back.”

While she worked, one of her daughters watched the kids while working from home. For many parents, this is not a permanent situation.

That includes Alison Holliday of Bethlehem, who has to return to work at Moravian College and faced leaving her husband at home with their 2-year-old and his full-time job.

“We weren’t going to wait until there was a vaccine to have her come back to daycare, and so, what do you wait for?” she said.

The children certainly had no qualms about going back. They ran with glee under the balloon arch and large welcome sign at the entrance of Bethlehem Early Learners on the first day back, not skipping a beat, Pujols said.

Though it can be difficult to explain to Holliday’s almost-3-year-old that the pandemic isn’t over.

“That’s one of the hard things -- coming back to daycare, she now thinks things are normal,” she said, holding Anna Marie’s hand.

Morning Call reporter Kayla Dwyer can be reached at 610-820-6554 or at kdwyer@mcall.com.

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