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Demovictory9

(32,449 posts) Sun Mar 22, 2020, 11:46 PM Mar 2020

Paying for child care while you provide it at home

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/22/metro/paying-child-care-while-you-provide-it-home/

Paying for child care while you provide it at home
By Stephanie Ebbert Globe Staff,Updated March 22, 2020, 12:10 p.m.

With public and private schools already shut down, the news that day-care centers would close Monday because of the coronavirus did not surprise Tom Kelly. What stung was the final line of his day-care provider’s e-mail, which told him where he should mail his next check.

The steep bill for child care — $650 a week for Kelly’s toddler and preschooler — must be paid even when the service is not provided because of a public health emergency. The owner of his day care promises to shave costs in the future but didn’t reduce the current bills.

“It feels like we’re not really being met halfway,” said Kelly, noting that his wife, a schoolteacher, was providing child care for their children in their Norwood home. “You’ve got to keep paying. My wife’s doing the work.”

Beyond its threat to public health, the spread of coronavirus is causing countless complications for small businesses and workers. Few are thornier than child care, an area where the income of early educators — often some of the lowest-paid professionals in a community — is dependent on many other parents getting to work.

State officials are trying to strike a balance that is sensitive to both, urging providers and parents to negotiate compromises. The attorney general’s office, which handles consumer complaints, received 58 by Friday, and advised parents to review the contracts they signed with their day-care providers. But that may require them to keep paying for service they aren’t currently receiving.