The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread disruptions to the child care market, leaving child care program directors struggling to keep their businesses running while parents balanced caring for their children at home with work and other responsibilities. Returning to prepandemic enrollment and staffing levels has been slow-going for many facilities, with some still struggling to reach their desired capacity for enrollment and hire enough qualified staff to support that enrollment. As a result, many child care directors are struggling to keep their doors open and continue caring for children while also supporting their staff. These issues are widespread across the District of Columbia, impacting the supply of licensed care available for families.

In this report, we share findings from individual and small group interviews conducted in late 2022 and early 2023 with child care program directors in DC to learn about their recent experiences with enrollment and staffing amid the pandemic. We focus on the following questions to understand the challenges programs are facing and how to better support the supply of quality care in DC:

1. What are child care directors’ experiences with enrollment?
2. What are child care directors’ experiences hiring and retaining staff? Which positions are the easiest and most difficult to fill?
3. What strategies are child care directors implementing to recruit and retain qualified staff?
4. What supports do child care directors need to reach their enrollment and staffing goals?

Key Findings

Enrollment

• Nearly all program directors reported significant drops in enrollment during the peak of the pandemic and a slow return to prepandemic enrollment levels over the past year.
• Program directors cited parental unease with group care settings because of COVID-19 infection risk, discomfort with their inability to enter child care facilities, and financial hardship during the pandemic as key drivers of lower enrollment and slow recovery to prepandemic levels.
• Program directors also reflected on the drop in enrollment for three- and four-year-olds as a result of DC’s universal prekindergarten program, which launched in 2008. In response to the decreased demand for care for this age group, child care providers reported changing marketing and recruitment strategies, hiring additional or uniquely qualified staff for infant-and-toddler care, and updating their child care license.

Staffing

• Program directors described their struggles recruiting and retaining qualified staff, finding a limited number of applicants who have both the required credentials and the passion and commitment to caring for children needed for this work. They identified two positions as the most difficult to fill:
• lead teacher positions, based on additional credentialing requirements and demand for higher pay
• infant teacher positions, based on the more demanding nature of the role
• Assistant teacher positions, while easier to fill in terms of finding qualified applicants, were identified as difficult for retention. Program directors shared that the lesser qualifications and experience required for assistants often meant that people hired for these positions were less committed to working in child care long term.
• The center directors we spoke to experienced more challenges with recruiting and retaining staff compared with owners and directors of child development homes as a result of their larger size and need for additional staff members.
• Even when they do find qualified applicants, program directors cite low pay and limited benefits as additional barriers to hiring and retaining staff.