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This story was originally published on LAist.

The city of Los Angeles says it will no longer have the money to run most childcare centers launched during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, the city allocated federal relief dollars to renovate and reopen 10 licensed childcare centers for young kids in economically disadvantaged areas. Eight of those centers are open and running, including in Pacoima, Echo Park, Boyle Heights and Crenshaw. Two more have not yet opened, according to city officials.

It was a small but significant expansion aimed at a big problem: Los Angeles doesn’t have enough affordable childcare options. Before the cash infusion, childcare centers run by the Department of Recreation and Parks had dwindled to two, from 26. But the change, like pandemic funds, was short-term. City officials say that the $20 million of American Rescue Plan Act money the city approved for those childcare programs is drying up.

L.A. doesn’t plan to keep running most of the centers. Chinyere Stoneham, who oversees the centers for the Recreation and Parks Department, said that the city will soon begin looking for non-city providers to take over eight of the childcare spaces.

“At this time the department is not able to continue to operate and maintain all of its childcare centers,” she said. “And we will do our best to make this as smooth a transition as possible for families and staff at these facilities.”

What happens to existing childcare providers?

Some details of that transition remain unclear. Mayor Karen Bass’ 2024-2025 proposed budget directed the Recreation and Parks Department to produce a plan to transition the childcare operations to non-city providers, including a timeline and cost comparisons. One year later, Stoneham said her department had not yet produced that report.

Stoneham said the department plans to continue running four childcare centers in-house: the department’s two long-standing programs, Jim Gilliam Child Care Center in Baldwin Village and Ralph M. Parsons Preschool in Exposition Park, plus two more centers that have not been determined yet.

This plan to continue operating four centers is outlined in the 2025-26 proposed budgetfor the Recreation and Parks Department.

In an email to LAist, a representative for the Parks department said it has approximately $750,000 of federal funding left to continue running childcare programs. The mayor’s office said those funds will be fully used up by late fall 2025. 

But the mayor’s office said that it expected the Recreation and Parks Department to continue running all the childcare centers until the city completes a process to choose who will take over the other eight locations. 

The city said it expects to complete that selection process by the end of the year.

How do parents feel?

Parents at Downey Child Care Center — one of the programs relaunched with COVID-19 funds — said they were unaware of the city’s plans to stop running most childcare centers until they heard about it through word of mouth.

Lucia Fabio, whose daughter has been at the Downey center since 2023, said she has been trying for months to get more clarity on what will happen to that center.

“ The things that we can’t figure out and no one’s been able to tell us is how much does it actually cost for these centers to stay open?” Fabio said.

In response to an LAist inquiry, a Parks department spokesperson said each center costs between $20,000 and $30,000 a month to run. 

Some parents have rallied around the issue, showing up to the city’s budget hearing in Van Nuys last week and writing to the Recreation and Parks Department, City Council members and the mayor. But thus far, they said it’s been difficult getting straight answers on what the change means for their children and for how much they pay for childcare.

The city says about 62 children attend Jim Gilliam and Ralph M. Parsons, while the other eight centers serve about 77 children. And while that’s not a huge number, each center serves a neighborhood where the majority of households are considered low-income.

“ Parents are concerned about the centers closing. As of right now, we’re not closing them,” Stoneham, with the Parks Department, told LAist. “Parents will get ample notice when we start to transition over to the other providers.”

The Parks department did tell LAist that it has some levers to help keep costs lower for the operators who take over. They promise not to charge rent, though providers will pay for utilities, maintenance and waste management. And tuition and fees will have to be set below market rate for similar services.

Why does the childcare sector need this money?

The fate of L.A.’s childcare centers are just one small part of a larger story. The American Rescue Plan Act poured billions of dollars into the childcare sector in the years after the pandemic, but most of that money is now gone.

According to the Center for American Progress, that money helped stabilize childcare programs and prevent daycare and preschool closures. Hailey Gibbs, an early childhood policy expert with CAP, said that emergency funding was always meant to be short-term to keep already vulnerable childcare programs afloat.

“ In the aftermath of the expiration of [American Rescue Plan Act] dollars, many states have struggled to continue those efforts,” she said.

California received $4.7 billion dollars from the federal government for childcare relief in 2021, according to the California Budget & Policy Center — a “six-fold increase in federal child care dollars” compared to pre-pandemic funding.

But the money that the city of L.A. used to refurbish and reopen city childcare sites came from a different pot of the American Rescue Plan Act — $1.28 billion in State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. The city also used this money to provide emergency meals for seniors, support small businesses and restaurants, and improve city parks.

Arabella Bloom with the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment said that the city’s move to use these funds to bolster childcare was similar to other local governments that now have to make hard decisions about what to do, while also facing possible cuts to — or even the elimination of — federal programs like Head Start. The city of Los Angeles is also facing a nearly $1 billion shortfall.

“ We’re kind of in this cycle of boom and bust, where we get maybe this influx of funds, but then when times are tough, a lot of times early childhood ends up on the chopping block again,” Bloom said.

She also said that the city transitioning its newly reopened childcare sites to outside providers wasn’t definitively a reason to be concerned.

“ I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing for the city to step back and not be running it, but it kind of depends who does take it over,” she said.

It’s open questions like those that have L.A. parents seeking more answers. Ana Griffin, who has a child at Downey Child Care Center, said she wants clarity from the city on plans for the programs. She also said she wants the center to stay open long-term so more community members can benefit from the service.

“ I’m not only thinking about my child who’s 1,” she said. “I’d like for her to have access to this in two years, number one. But number two, I also know my neighbors who were not lucky enough to find a preschool, and they’re struggling.”