Childcare Shortage Ahead Of Virtual Classes

Megan Reyna was in Huntsville after asking the president of YMCA about what needs to be done to combat this shortage in childcare.

Jerry courtney says he's been on the phone all day talking to community leaders and parents about what his organization can do to help accommodate parents... especially essential workers who can't stay at home with their kids.

Courtney says:"the reality is, there's not enough childcare, there's not enough school-aged care, to take care of the kids that are needed."

During the summer -- the y- m-c-a provides all-day school- aged programs. but during the school year -- that program typically goes away.

Now -- courtney is finding a way to accommodate parents who can't work remotely or help their kids with virtual learning.

Courtney says:"traditional ways just won't work, so we gotta figure out public-private partnership, in our case in the y, all of our programs in the traditionally run in our buildings are already full for the rest of the fall."

He says finding space is key.

Right now -- daycares can only operate at a 30-percent capacity due to the state's health guidelines.

Courtney says:"we gonna have to have people starting to reach out to school systems, places like us , saying i've got an office space we can convert, i've got empty space during the week at the church you can use, it's going to take all of that."

And starting tomorrow -- those discussion will begin with madison county schools.

The district is holding a virtual meeting with its community partners to discuss options for child care.

Courtney says:"we're going to solve this problem of child care by us all working together, and we gotta get beyond talk, we gotta get people in a room and say, let's start looking at space at our area where we know there's a need, how can we leverage all of our relationships to open up that space to work with the non-profit community or full profit providers to come in and provide the