Lack of funding, increased costs and fear of COVID-19 all play a role in loss of care providers, officials say
Early Edge California’s Executive Director, Patricia Lozano, was quoted in an article by San Diego Union-Tribune about the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on child care in the region.
The COVID-19 pandemic has closed 535 child care businesses in San Diego County while simultaneously raising operating costs and shrinking revenues for an already struggling industry.
The number of closures represents about 12 percent of child care providers in the county, according to a November report from the YMCA Childcare Resource Service.
“Even before COVID, we were struggling in terms of wages, in terms of funding, and then COVID hit, and it’s even harder,” said Patricia Lozano, executive director of Early Edge California, a nonprofit that advocates for early-learning programs.