Groton — At Riverfront Children’s Center in Groton, teacher Shanin Masucci guided a group of energetic preschool students through an activity one recent weekday morning.

The children went around in a circle, tip-toeing, galloping, hopping, crawling, marching, skipping and play-driving cars, as different clips of music played with directions on what to do.

“You guys are smart!” Masucci said in encouragement when the children remembered, without directions, what to do during each music clip.

Masucci, who has worked in child care for 20 years and at Riverfront for eight years, said her job requires constant attention on the children as she gets them ready to start school — and grow up to be confident adults.

Childcare providers like Masucci are in high demand, amid a nationwide and statewide childcare shortage. Pay is low, and the job is challenging.

“I have 17 kids for eight hours a day, and it’s one of the hardest jobs ever, and it’s also one of the most rewarding jobs ever too because we’re creating these little people into kind, respectful, helpful big people,” Masucci said.

Masucci started at Riverfront as a floater and worked her way up to assistant teacher and now teacher, after earning enough early childhood college credits. She got a scholarship to pursue a degree online and Riverfront helped her map out a plan to further her career.

Masucci said she received several raises and makes above minimum wage, which is enough to provide what she needs because she’s married. But she said the wages might be hard for a single mother, though Riverfront offers a food pantry and an employee discount on child care.

The pay range for staff at Riverfront, a nonprofit, is from $17 to $23 an hour, according to Executive Director Jennifer Zubek, which she said is higher than other childcare centers. She said the center made its pay and benefits more competitive to recruit and retain staff. She acknowledged that the employees deserve more, but with expenses rising and the high cost of providing child care, it’s difficult to raise them further.

‘Childcare desert’

Beth Bye, commissioner of the state’s Office of Early Childhood, said eastern Connecticut is a “childcare desert,” where there aren’t enough childcare spots, and also is facing a need for more child care as Electric Boat increases its hiring.

Overall, she said the state has a shortage of about 20,000 infant/toddler spaces. The spaces are expensive ― about $300 to $500 a week ― so sometimes a space may be available, but the parent can’t afford it. Programs, such as Care 4 Kids, sponsored by the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood, can help eligible families with childcare costs.

Bye said low pay for childcare providers is one of the biggest pieces of the childcare shortage. Programs have trouble recruiting and retaining staff, while fewer people are entering the field amid the availability of higher-paying jobs.

Childcare worker salaries in Connecticut range from $24,960 for a starting worker to $36,890 for a top earner, according to careerexplorer.com. The federal poverty level is $14,580 for an individual, $19,720 for a family of two, $24,860 for a family of three, and $30,000 for a family of four, according to healthcare.gov.

Bye said that, on average, states lost about 9% of their childcare programs during the pandemic, while Connecticut lost 1% ― but that’s still too many to lose on top of an existing shortage. Federal COVID-19 relief funds helped stabilize programs, but those are coming to an end, though she noted that the state is investing more in early child care.

The state currently has 1,358 licensed childcare centers, 22 licensed group childcare homes, and 1,824 licensed family childcare homes, according to the Office of Early Childhood.

High demand for limited spaces

Riverfront, which started 40 years ago and is located near Electric Boat, has fully staffed classrooms. But despite the demand for more childcare spots, the center is unable to expand because of the difficulty of finding staff.

“We’ve definitely seen the wait list get longer since the pandemic, and particularly with EB starting to expand their hiring, there’s a lot more families calling and inquiring about care,” Zubek said.

Rather than add classrooms, she said Riverfront is using an extra building on its property for a partnership with FamilyWise, which provides services to children with autism and training to staff.

To close the gap between the cost of child care and what parents can afford to pay, Riverfront raises funds to offer scholarships to families, on top of any government assistance the families receive, so they don’t have to turn families away.

Multitasking

Kaitlyn McEwen, an assistant teacher with infants and toddlers at Riverfront, said the employee discount for child care drew her to work in child care, but then she fell in love with it.

She said the job keeps her busy with multitasking, and if the center is temporarily short-staffed, it can be difficult. But making an impact on the children and seeing them run up to her and give her hugs, makes her happy and makes the work rewarding.

On a typical day, McEwen gets up at 4:45 a.m. and gets herself and her 7-year-old daughter ready for the day. They drive to Riverfront and McEwen drops her off in the before-school program, and McEwen begins her work. Around 8 a.m., she leaves to drive her daughter to school in New London. She returns for the rest of her work day before picking her daughter up from school. They then go home and get ready for dinner.

She said as a single parent, with family in Massachusetts, Riverfront has been understanding when her child gets sick.

She said pay has increased over the last few years, but she feels childcare workers in general should be paid more. She said she is paid a little above minimum wage, and it’s enough to be out of poverty, but not enough for any extras.

Staff shortage is ‘daunting’

Deborah Monahan, executive director for Thames Valley Council for Community Action, which operates centers in New London, Norwich and Groton, said the shortage of childcare staff is daunting.

She said there are educational requirements for childcare staff ― which TVCCA supports to have high-quality child care ― but a smaller pool of people are obtaining these requirements and going into the field.

TVCCA is doing its best to recruit employees, but sometimes high-quality employees stay for a period of time, then move on to higher-paying jobs.

Monahan said TVCCA has long waiting lists for spots in infant and toddler rooms. She said TVCCA is seeking funding to expand its Groton center into a state-of-the art facility with a kitchen to provide hot meals for the children and serve up to 60 infants and toddlers, as well as increase its preschool capacity.

In the region, Electric Boat is hiring thousands of employees, which is good news, but it’s also creating a shortage of housing and child care, she said.

Long waiting lists

Nicole Umphlett, owner of Little Learners Children’s Centers in Ledyard and Norwich ― private, community-based childcare centers ― and the director of the Norwich center, said both sites have waiting lists of more than 100 parents.

“We have parents calling everyday desperate for child care, and we don’t have the space, but even if we had the space we don’t have the staffing to be able to provide care,” Umphlett said.

Waiting lists that long were unheard of before the pandemic. Little Learners took in children from other centers that closed during the pandemic, but can’t accommodate all the children that need care.

Umphlett said the private centers get significantly less resources ― they don’t qualify for federal funds such as Head Start ― so that means the centers tend to pay their staff less. She said the cost of raising compensation for staff or expanding childcare capacity would fall on the families — and then it becomes a cycle where families can’t afford child care.

When child care becomes unaffordable, parents end up quitting their jobs, said Deborah Campagna, director of Little Learners’ Ledyard center.

Keeping a paycheck

Groton resident Katie Griswold, assistant director and preschool co-teacher at Little Learners in Ledyard, said she was on the waiting list for every childcare center in Groton for six months to a year before she found Little Learners in December for her daughter, who is now 2.

Griswold, who previously was watching some of her friends’ children at home, said the job at Little Learners was a good fit. She wanted to work in child care, and the center offered an employee discount that enabled her to have a paycheck at the end of the week — rather than her entire wages going to child care.

Otherwise, she said she wouldn’t break even, and it wouldn’t be worth driving to work.

Her husband works at Electric Boat, and she said her financial situation is better, but it’s still a struggle: “You don’t work for your paycheck in this industry, and that’s what it comes down to. Even in the public school, you’re still not going to be rich.”

Kay Nixon, who has run Kay’s Daycare out of her Ledyard home for more than 30 years, said that for about five months during the pandemic, she lost the enrollment of most kids, whose parents were teachers working from home. She said COVID-19 relief funds helped her stay afloat, and she was able to use funds to renovate the playscape and the daycare floors. Now, she is back up to full enrollment of six kids in the daycare program and has a waiting list of two.

Nixon said she gets most of her business by word of mouth and her customers are interested in a smaller home environment, which is less expensive than larger centers. Her rate is about $250 per week for new children, and she tries to give parents with multiple children a break.

Fewer people going into child care

In the last seven years, statewide enrollment of students at community colleges who want to work in early child care and education has dropped 65%, according to Sheila Skahan, early childhood program coordinator at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich.

Norwich resident Bridget Keller, 20, who is a nanny and is studying early childhood education, said she understands the challenges with early childhood teachers being underpaid and facing poor treatment at times, but is determined to pursue her dream of working with infants and toddlers.

“I’m definitely going into it because I’m passionate about it, and I love it, and I love working with kids and getting to help mold them into the person that they’re going to be when they’re an adult,” she said.

Businesses concerned about childcare availability

At a gathering at Three Rivers Community College on Tuesday, Bye outlined the work being done by the Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Care, commissioned by Gov. Ned Lamont, to develop solutions to the childcare crisis, that will include participation from businesses.

Southeastern Connecticut Enterprise Region Executive Director Paul Whitescarver, a retired Navy captain, said there is no question child care is a challenge for workers and employers.The organization started a program to help businesses expand, including grant funding to help childcare providers.

“Lack of childcare options and the escalating costs may not seem like an economic development issue, but these challenges can limit the workforce and hinder the expansion of businesses,” Whitescarver said.

Electric Boat Director of Communications and Public Affairs Daniel McFadden said access to child care is an issue of concern for all employers in the region. The company is working with the state and local organizations to make child care more available and affordable for current and future employees.

“Much like the challenges eastern Connecticut faces with workforce housing and transportation, child care is going to require a joint effort from all stakeholders to come up with an effective strategy,” he said.

k.drelich@theday.com