Parents feel betrayed after LA says it can't keep running most childcare centers

As the news spread from family to family, parents were crestfallen, and then angry.

They were among the first Angelenos to send their kids to free childcare centers that the city of Los Angeles had renovated and reopened during the pandemic. They considered the new programs to be a huge success, and planned to send their younger children to the programs, too.

But just a few years later, the city says it can’t keep operating most of them because the $20 million in federal pandemic relief money used to launch the centers is running out. L.A.'s Recreation and Parks Department plans to transition eight of its 12 centers to non-city providers by the end of this year.

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Parents feel left in the lurch. They say they don't understand how the city will transition without disruption, and they don't have answers on how much the new programs will cost or how they'll be run.

"It feels like a betrayal of the community," said Silvia Llosa, whose 4-year-old attends Evergreen Child Care Center in Boyle Heights. "You receive $20 million to renovate — a lot of money for this space — with no intention of keeping it running."

Parents have been showing up to city budget hearings to protest the lack of funding for most of L.A.'s childcare centers.

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Libby Rainey

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LAist

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The city promises a "smooth" transition

The plans to move the childcare centers out of city control aren't new.

Mayor Karen Bass directed the Parks Department, which oversees the programs, to come up with a plan for the transition in last year's budget. But a year later, that plan hasn't been produced..

City officials say they will request proposals in June and choose new operators for the childcare centers by the end of the year. They also say families that currently attend the childcare centers will get "first right of refusal" when the new providers take over, and that the city does not "anticipate any disruption in service."

"The Department of Recreation and Parks is committed to ensuring this process is a smooth transition for all families and its child care staff," a spokesperson for the department said.

But some parents told LAist those promises don't align with the lived reality of raising a family.

Andrew Mueller and Lucia Fabio, whose 4-year-old Gigi attends Downey Child Care Center, said the lack of clear communication and a plan for the centers present a challenge for already overwhelmed parents.

" It's incredibly destabilizing for the household," Mueller said.

Fabio said one big open question for parents is who the new providers will be, since the city staff that currently run the centers won't keep working there after the transition.

 "How can they guarantee the same type of care that we've been getting?" said Fabio.

Lucia Fabio and Andrew Mueller have a child at Downey Child Care Center.

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Libby Rainey

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LAist

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Questions about affordability

There's also the question of cost. In a landscape of unaffordable and inaccessible childcare for many, the city's childcare programs stand out because they're completely free, no matter a family's income.

The city told LAist it will require the operators who take over to set tuition and fees below market rate for similar services. But Llosa, whose child is at the center in Boyle Heights, said even low rates will push some of the families away.

" How are they gonna accommodate for the families that can't [pay]?" she said.

One example of how the programs may look after the transition is the Joy Picus Child Development Center, a privately-run program in L.A.'s city hall. It charges $1,372 a month for preschool-aged children, with a slight discount for city employees.

Why didn't the city charge for childcare?

Parents told LAist that when they signed up for the city-run programs, they were told that fees would likely be imposed at some point, but that day never came.

Now, those same parents are wondering why the city didn't charge parents that could afford to pay for the service before deciding to stop running the centers directly.

" We're being told that our programs are being privatized, and I find that frustrating because it seems that the due diligence was not done to investigate subsidies, grants, sliding scales," said Lisa Shaughnessy, whose 3-year-old attends Victory Valley Child Care Center in North Hollywood.

How is the mayor’s office responding?

The mayor's office said in a statement that the city had considered all its options before deciding to transition most centers out of the city's domain.

"Contracting with providers provides a more budget-friendly approach for the city to deliver child care services," a spokesperson said in an email. "Service providers are expected to have increased ability to connect with families in the area of each center, to maintain waiting lists and to keep available slots full. The priority for the Mayor’s Office is to ensure that the childcare centers in the City are operated safely and effectively while benefiting the largest number of families."

Parents at Downey and Evergreen Child Care centers told LAist their child's center had physical capacity for more kids, but not enough staff. They also said both centers had waitlists.

When LAist asked the Parks Department how many people were on waitlists at its centers, a spokesperson said none.

LAist also asked the department for more details on how many employees are currently staffing the childcare centers, if staffing constraints limit the number of kids the city can serve, and if the city anticipated external providers would be able to serve more children.

The city did not respond before publication.

What's next for parents?

While the city continues to debate the mayor's proposed 2025-26 budget, parents have shown up to hearings, sent emails to city officials and kept in regular communication with each other. They said their advocacy will continue.

In the meantime, some parents are beginning to change their plans to adjust to an uncertain future.

Gwen Squires, a Boyle Heights resident, had planned to send her child to Evergreen Child Care Center when he turns 2 in August, but now she's not sure.

"It's just a shame to see it renovated really beautifully and in this wonderful location, have all these wonderful little elements, and then just see it all being given basically over to privatization," she said. "I just feel like, what the hell?"