The Financial Impact of COVID Licensing Standards on NJ Child Care Providers
Type
Policy Brief or Report
Year
2020
Level
State
State(s)
New Jersey
Policy Areas
Children & Families, Education
As New Jersey tentatively reopens K-12 schools after being closed for over five months, many of the state’s child care providers have remained open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to serve the children of essential workers. Throughout this time, providers have been required to observe more restrictive group sizes and child/staff ratios, while also increasing time and resources spent on cleaning and sanitizing, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. With unchanged tuition rates, these new standards push many child care providers from an already tight financial situation into one that cannot be sustained. This paper examines the impact of new and existing regulations on child care providers’ revenues and expenditures, and the subsidy rates required to financially sustain child care providers in New Jersey.