Child care aid providing relief for employees and families

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – The child care industry in Kentucky and across the country has been hit hard financially by the covid pandemic during the last year.

Now, Kentucky received $195 million from the federal government to help child care workers and families.

“it’s been rough… rough,” Johnson said.

Kids House Child Care Center opened in Lexington in 2011, but the employees never could have predicted how the pandemic would cause them to struggle.

Director and co-owner of Kids House Tawana Johnson said the child care center has the capacity to hold 66 kids but currently they are only taking care of about 18.

“It’s slow. People scared of the pandemic so parents really don’t want their kids in, I guess since school’s got started,” Johnson said.

She said this aid means more pay for employees and more provided to the child care center.

She said employees are feeling great about it.

Director of Bluegrass Early Care and Education Taryn Wheeler says this aid will help everyone involved.

“We were closed from mid-march to until early June and whenever we were able to reopen, a lot of our students didn’t come back. Whether that be a lot of parents work from home and no longer needed child care or they just weren’t comfortable sending their kids back and so enrollment when we first opened did take quite a big dip,” Wheeler said.

The Georgetown child care center has about 90 kids enrolled and 18 staff members.

Wheeler said there are a lot of people in and out.

She said this aid will help give people a sense of security.

“Financially we will still be able to have jobs to return to and it also gives us the availability to keep up with the extra sanitizing things that we need to purchase that we did not in the past,” Wheeler said.

In the end, this aid will provide some major relief for a lot of people.

Categories: Featured, Local News, News

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