Gov. Mike DeWine expected to release reopening plans for daycares during Monday briefing

CLEVELAND — On Monday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to release a concrete reopening plan for daycares across the state and the ways to keep children and providers safe at the same time. But in the meantime, parents are left wondering how the state continues to reopen in phases if there is no one to watch their children so they can go to work.

The state's next reopening phase happens Monday with the consumer, retail, and services sector opening their doors.

Right now, daycares can only operate in Ohio with a special pandemic license that only allows them to have a maximum of six children in each room. To put that in perspective, before the pandemic, Ohio had about 7,400 daycare licenses. That number has dropped to about 1,100, leaving so many parents at home with their children and no income coming in.

Even the idea of getting their children back in daycare in daunting for some as Ohio Policy Matters found childcare costs anywhere from $7,000 to $11,000 a year. They found a single parent will pay the low end of that with a quarter of their income being spent on childcare for one child.

Gov. DeWine said the reopening of daycare is a balancing act of safety guidelines and affordability for facilities to implement those new guidelines under a pandemic.

“I pretty much got put on leave until daycare opens but that’s taking a toll because my income and my husband income is like what we use to provide for our family,” said Crystalina Al-Aqawani, a local mother.

Governor DeWine said he is working with mayors to help in his decision making. The announcement is expected to be released during his Monday briefing at 2 p.m.

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