State of Crisis: A Survey into the Current Landscape of Early Education and Care Programs in Massachusetts

We recently surveyed a collection of almost 50 early education and care center-based programs in Massachusetts to get a snapshot of the current state of the sector through the perspective of their directors. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, this snapshot paints a dire picture of the state of the sector and shows just how badly we need critical investments to keep it afloat. And while the data is from a small subset of providers, their stories and sentiments ring true of those heard from providers across the state, and even across the country, at this difficult time.

Workforce Challenges

According to our survey, most child care providers reported that the biggest challenge they are facing is maintaining their workforce. Many are experiencing a lack of coverage with current staff and open positions are hard to fill. As a result, many respondents have been forced to reduce hours or unenroll children, and there are limited or no new spaces for families seeking care. 

“Next year, we will be closing one [classroom] and may need to decrease another because of staffing,” said one provider. “We are currently looking at decreasing our hours for this year as we never had to before—again because of staffing issues and mitigating COVID.”

The survey revealed that many teachers are leaving due to low pay, increased hours, and stress, and that there are few or no candidates applying for open positions, often forcing administrators to cover classrooms themselves. 

“The field is broken,” one provider said. “There needs to be a way to align early childhood teachers with public teachers, in regards to pay and status, but if the cost solely falls on centers and parent tuition, then it will not happen.”

Providers report that the workforce challenges they are facing are having a negative impact on quality of care, as veteran teachers with decades of knowledge are leaving the field and new teachers are being thrown into roles with high responsibility with no time for on-the-job training or coaching. According to a provider: “It’s been so hard to staff in proper ratios, and provide the training and [professional development] teachers really need right now. And so many kids are having delays and emotional issues that we just aren’t able to support in the way we wish we could.”

COVID Challenges

The second set of challenges faced by providers are COVID-19 related, with roughly half of participants reporting difficulty keeping up with public guidance that is constantly evolving and changing, and at times may be unclear. Providers also reported challenges in dealing with the sheer number of positive COVID-19 cases. 

​​“Each positive case takes about 12 hours of staff time to manage as we jump in to notify close contacts, check vaccination records, test, deliver care packages, call sick families with empathy, and help quarantined families with child care challenges,” said one provider. “In addition, we are doing this at a time when members of our [administrative] team are out with COVID or exposures as well. This has resulted in very long hours, some days are from 5am-11pm, just on COVID issues.”

More than 50 percent of administrators report low and very low morale, with very high burnout, and over 90 percent reported circumstances this year being worse than last year. Additionally, administrators rate current staff morale as a 3 on a scale of 1 through 5 (with 1 being the lowest), acknowledging that many educators and staff have already left their program or the field for other jobs. 

The Need for Immediate and Long-Term Support 

The early education field is currently experiencing a workforce crisis that is directly caused by a wage crisis. Child care centers are losing staff to Amazon, restaurants, and other businesses because they cannot compete on wages. 

Long-term public investment is critical to transforming the early education sector so it’s viable for families, educators and providers. We have a solution before us right now in the Massachusetts legislature: the proposed Common Start legislation, which will put us on a path to building a modernized early education and care system equipped with a competitive 21st century workforce.

This survey also makes clear that we need immediate support for this sector as it grapples with the ongoing impact of the pandemic. That’s why we advocated for extended funding of Massachusetts’ C3 Child Care Stabilization Grants through fiscal year 2023 and were pleased to see Governor Baker add this funding into his supplemental budget.  With these funds, all licensed child care programs can apply to receive monthly operational stipends to support child care infrastructure. According to our survey, more than 80 percent of providers reported they would spend that money on staff salary, bonuses or benefits. While these grants are not a permanent fix, the funds they provide are absolutely essential to keeping child care open and the system afloat. 

Read the full results of the survey here.