In anticipation of President Biden’s State of the Union this evening, FKO along with our colleagues in the early education and out of school time sector are hopeful to hear family focused sustainable plans to support the overall health of children and their caregivers and the essential infrastructure of child care. Since the onset of the pandemic, our field has been working tirelessly to find solutions to meet the needs of parents and caregivers as they work or pursue opportunities to support their family. Despite the challenges and stress, the child care industry stepped up.On top of existing operations, FKO provided emergency childcare shortly after the pandemic began, offered a remote learning program, CONNECTedCare, to provide a safe and supportive space for children whose parents had to work and enhanced our afterschool and summer programming to meet the mental health, social and emotional needs of all children.The impact of the pandemic is anticipated to remain for years to come. We hope that the stabilization funding and attention child care has received during Covid continues in order to allow all childcare providers to not only deal with the implications of the pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of children and families, but to attract and retain a qualified workforce that has endured too much for too long.Finally, we know that investments in childcare is a sound investment for all. For example, the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs has found that high quality early childhood programs can yield a $4 – $9 dollar return per $1 invested. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/…/related-activities/ We are all ears, Mr. President!
