While public schools and universities in New York City have shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, some daycares have remained open in the absence of a direct order from the city or state to close.
Catherine McKeown, the owner of Brooklyn-based Little Seeds, said she had kept her two daycare locations in Park Slope and Carroll Gardens open this week because some families couldn't make other arrangements.
But by Tuesday she was anticipating closing the daycares.
"We're pretty much shut down. We have a few parents who absolutely need some coverage. So what we've done is we have like two children in each room, just to kind of keep the distance -- but to also give the parents who are in absolute dire need right now the ability to get something working," she said. "But I think at the end of today, we'll be done with doing that."
The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which oversees daycares, is recommending that private daycare operators suspend operations, but has stopped short from issuing an order to close.
“To protect public health, the Health Department has recommended that childcare centers close," said DOE spokesperson Isabelle Boundy in a statement to Gothamist. "We’re committed to meeting the needs of our first responder and essential personnel families, and will have childcare services available to those families beginning the week of March 23rd."
[Update: The DOE said Tuesday it is opening about 100 regional enrichment centers across all five boroughs on March 23rd with childcare for thousands of children from 3K to 12th grade. The centers will serve the families of "first responders, healthcare workers, and transit workers, as well as students in need of the most intensive support," according to the department.]
In the meantime, McKeown said she's asked the daycare families to continue paying what they can so that she can pay her staff.
"I know it's uncertain for everyone and people are afraid to spend money now in case they lose their jobs. But we're just reaching out to our parents to see if they could pay some sort of percentage of the current tuition, so that we can at least pay our staff a percentage of what they usually make," she said. "We've also reached out to the local government to see what they can do, because our priority right now is to make sure our staff can take care of their families and get food and then have a job to come back to."
One Carroll Gardens parent, Annie Llewellyn, stopped sending her child to Little Seeds last week because she and her husband are working from home -- but she supported McKeown's decision.
"I'd rather those people be using that resource and feeling better about it because there's lower density. And of course, some people have no choice because they'll lose their jobs or their income if they don't send their kid to daycare," Llewellyn said. "I know that a lot of daycares operate month to month -- there's not really a ton of margin for error, or margin for low attendance and low payments at a daycare."
Another parent whose child attends a different Brooklyn daycare said that facility decided to keep operating, though she was worried that the staff there was not going to be paid:
"We've pulled our child -- he's not going to daycare, but we're still paying for it, because in the long run, we assume that at some point he will go back," said Selin Gülgöz of Brooklyn, who declined to name the daycare. "And it's so extremely competitive that we don't want to lose the spot."
"I know it sounds ridiculous, but this is a crazy situation where we're paying for daycare, but they are not going to pay the [daycare] teachers if it closes, which doesn't make sense," she said. "So I've been trying to understand that better."
Part of the confusion is the mixed messages from the city and state governments.
At his press conference Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that daycares should be closed and he was working with them and the state to make that happen quickly.
But Governor Andrew Cuomo indicated that plans to support medical and emergency personnel with families would involve daycare centers. "When you're setting these policies these things are all interconnected," Cuomo said at his Tuesday press conference. "Close the schools, ok how do the essential workers go to work? Close the daycare center, how do people go to work? Leave the businesses open but close the daycares, how do you leave the businesses open when you close the daycares? There is no such thing as a piecemeal isolated strategy that works."
