Our fragile child care ‘system’ may be about to shatter
After 35 years as an early childhood teacher and advocate, MaryLou Beaver became the director of The Children’s Place and Parent Education Center in Concord, New Hampshire, last November. It’s a job she loves.
“I’m home,” she said. “I’m with kids. I smile every day again.”
The coronavirus could end all that, perhaps forever.
Because of the spread of the virus, Beaver decided on March 13 to close the center, which is a nonprofit, for two days the following week to do a deep cleaning. She drove to six nearby stores that weekend to find just three gallons of bleach. By March 15, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu had ordered all public schools to close, though child care services were allowed to stay open. Beaver, with four of five staffers over age 60 and the youngest worker managing diabetes, decided staying open would be too risky.
Keeping her staff safe had to be her first priority. “It’s a difficult, difficult decision to make,” she said.
