HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 6/16/2020 - Memorandum From Adam Molzer And Emily Pearson Re: Childcare Sector Update And City ResponseSocial Sustainability
222 Laporte Avenue
PO Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522
970.221.6757
MEMORANDUM
DATE: June 10, 2020
TO: Mayor Troxell and City Councilmembers
THRU: Darin Atteberry, City Manager
Jacqueline Kozak-Thiel, Chief Sustainability Officer
Teresa Roche, Chief Human Resources Officer
Beth Sowder, Social Sustainability Department Director
FROM: Adam Molzer, City Grants and Community Partnerships Coordinator
Emily Pearson, Human Resources Compensation Analyst
RE: Childcare Sector Update and City Response
This memo provides an update on the status of the childcare sector serving children ages 0-5 in
Fort Collins, as well as related COVID-19 response efforts supported by the City.
Bottom Line: The childcare industry is built upon one of the more difficult business models to
successfully operate and it has been further impaired by the COVID-19 pandemic. As families
return to the workforce in Fort Collins, childcare providers are addressing compounding challenges.
In response to COVID-19, the City has redoubled its role in addressing childcare in the community
and as an employer.
Status: The following updates are provided by Christina Taylor, Executive Director of the Early
Childhood Council of Larimer County (ECCLC):
• Many licensed childcare providers, serving ages 0-5, are slowly reopening their services
under the guidance of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE),
Governor Polis’s executive orders, and local Larimer County regulations.
• Demand for early childhood care is not stacking up to the supply of spots, which is a reversal of
the pre-COVID childcare crisis when there were not enough spots to accommodate the need.
• Providers that remained open as essential businesses, March-May, have been operating at
reduced capacity due to families keeping their young children home. Many are seeing this
continue into June. They are losing money because revenues are not fulfilling operating costs.
• Operating costs are rising due to increased cleaning and sanitation requirements. Small grants
are available from ECCLC to help deflect some of these expenses.
• Providers are at risk of losing their talented workforce. The turnover rate is already high in the
childcare sector. Providers have furloughed classroom teachers and support staff in recent
months, and those employees may be considering career changes out of the childcare field.
• Licensed in-home providers are at especially high risk of not reopening their childcare
services. The profit margins are very lean for serving a small number of children in the
provider’s home, and therefore reduced demands for childcare spots, coupled with increased
cleaning costs, are pushing those entrepreneurs towards untenable cash flows.
City Role: Regarding the Council priority addressing childcare, the role of the City is to help reduce
barriers, increase capacity, leverage City assets, identify and respond to childcare needs, and lead
by example as an employer.
DocuSign Envelope ID: D0DAD2A4-14F8C51D-C283-6407-42C7-463E-B39D-A9C5-AC5D2EE45257 554F593DC06A
2
City Support: The City has supported a variety of activities to help stabilize childcare needs
for the larger community and employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, including:
Community
• Participated in discussions with childcare partners and offered collaboration as shutdown
impacts emerged.
• Promoted local business loan programs and support services to childcare providers.
• Launched Camp FunQuest summer childcare programming, led by the City’s Recreation
Department, in partnership with the Poudre School District.
• Engaged in dialogue with Teaching Tree Early Childhood Learning Center about their
reopening plans coinciding with safety incidents occurring on their grounds related to the
sheltering activities at the Northside Aztlan Community Center.
• Contributed $2,500 to the Boys and Girls Club to pay for custodial costs to operate their Fort
Collins site, which was available for children and youth of emergency and first responders.
These funds were sourced from the Council-approved mid-cycle budget offer targeting the
childcare priority in 2020.
• Reassigned an existing Human Services Program grant award of $25,455 to Boys & Girls
Club to provide summer care services in Fort Collins. These dollars were originally
awarded to BASE Camp for comparable purposes, which BASE Camp needed to forfeit.
• Approved Respite Care’s request to extend their grant funding term, so that grant dollars
can be maximized into the fall for sliding scale scholarships to support low-income families.
• Developed a listing of summer care and camp options for families with children ages 5-15.
City Employees
• Conducted needs assessments of essential employees’ childcare needs.
• Connected essential in-person City staff with a variety of available childcare resources,
including the Emergency Child Care Collaborative, Boys and Girls Club of Larimer County, and
a childcare exchange portal that paired employees with BASE Camp staff for in-home care.
• Partnered with the City’s existing back-up childcare provider, Family Care Connection, to
develop a COVID-19 response for essential in-person staff, which included waiving the
employee copay and lifting the 100-hour annual cap.
• Convened webinars and cultivated online content for the City’s workforce focused on childcare
and parenting needs, challenges, policies and resources.
• Enacted a temporary teleworking policy that allowed employees more flexibility in providing
necessary caregiving activities while working from home.
• Discounted tuition for Camp FunQuest by 50% for essential in-person staff, courtesy of a
philanthropic gift made to the City.
Next Steps:
• Maintain regular correspondence and check-ins with childcare partners to understand
emerging service gaps and respond appropriately.
• Evaluate opportunities to commit the childcare-designated proceeds of the 2019 sale of a
City-owned asset at 906 East Stuart Street.
• Continue to promote Camp FunQuest discount to essential in-person City staff.
• Continue to create and promote online learning and development programming for City staff.
DocuSign Envelope ID: D0DAD2A4-14F8C51D-C283-6407-42C7-463E-B39D-A9C5-AC5D2EE45257 554F593DC06A