There is a national child care crisis, and programs are looking for ways to help alleviate some of the issues families are facing when trying to secure child care.

Some parents are needing to wait between nine and 12 months to secure a spot on a waiting list. To help solve this problem, programs are turning towards education for refugees and immigrants to add them into the workforce.

“As refugees and immigrants come into our economy, we want them to enter into jobs right way,” said Deborah Young, the co-founder of Pamoja Early Childhood Education. “There are 27,000 teachers that are missing, so this is a great match. We have a huge talent force, and we have a need for them.”

The Pamoja Early Childhood Education workforce program is made up of refugees and immigrants from all over the world to serve as a pipeline for new early childhood educators.

Fatima Jafari, who is from Afghanistan, is in the program.

“For two years, I have studied early childhood education, and I am working as a teacher in the center,” Jafari said. “The program is so important for all the women in my community. They come into the United States, and they need to learn to communicate with the children and how to live in the United States in a new environment. They also need to learn to grow their kids in a new country.”

According to Child care Aware of America research, it shows that nearly 9,000 daycares closed in 37 states between 2019 and 2021. While there are also less day cares, child care center costs increased across the country at an average rate of 41%.

For this reason, Pamoja Early Childhood is utilizing refugees and immigrants by not only giving them the education to start a new life in this country but to help decrease the childcare worker shortage and promote diverse people in the industry.

“We need childcare, and we don’t have enough childcare. We don’t have enough childcare workers, mostly because we do not give professional wages or living wages even,” Young said. “Really investing in our refugees and our immigrants to get higher education, to get the credentials and knowledge and get into the workforce, they’re contributing in one way or another to our society, let’s get them to contribute in ways that creates the whole increase in well-being for everybody in our communities.”

According to the CDC, 94% of childcare workers are female and 40% of those are people of color.

“Right now, almost two years ago, I started the study of the children,” Jafari said. “One of my children is a little bit delayed, but I just want to learn a lot about the behavior and learn about growing the brain for him. Also, I want to help others who have children like me, and I can help them.”

“We want childcare workers to speak the same language and look the same as the child,” Young said. “We want child identity to really be confident in who they are who their family are and what their background and historical context are. And most of the background of teachers and leadership positions look like me.”

The developers of this program believe that bringing in women of color who speak multiple languages can help provide more options for child care to the country and overcome cultural differences while also closing the work shortage gap.

NEW YORK (AP) — A new report underscores that kids can bring the new coronavirus home from day care and infect relatives.

The study released Friday comes from researchers in Utah and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It focused on three outbreaks in Salt Lake City child care facilities between April and July. The study concluded 12 children caught the coronavirus at the facilities.

They then spread it to at least 12 of the 46 parents or siblings that they came in contact at home.

Scientists already know children can spread the virus. One infectious diseases researcher says the study “definitively indicates — in a way that previous studies have struggled to do — the potential for transmission to family members,” said William Hanage, a Harvard University infectious diseases researcher.

The findings don’t mean that schools and child-care programs need to close, but it does confirm that the virus can spread within those places and then be brought home by kids.

So, masks, disinfection and social distancing are needed. And people who work in such facilities have to be careful and get tested if they think they may be infected, experts said.

Pediatricians: COVID-19 cases down, cases of other viruses up

Doctors say recent rollback of mitigation measures is leading kids to catch viruses often more prevalent in winter.

Updated: 11:57 AM EDT Jun 16, 2021

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NBC AND WD.SU >> IT IS CRAZY IT IS GOING AROUND AT THIS TIME OF YEAR. GINA: AS THE WLDOR RETURNS TO NORM,AL SOME VIRUSES OTHER THAN COVID-19 ARE COMING BACK AS WELL. TRAVERS: DR. SAY THAT IS ESPECIALLY THE CASE WITH CHILDREN. HARRONIS GOLD IN HIS LIFE IN CITY PARK WHERE HE MET PARENTS ALL TOO FAMILIAR COLDS AND FLU’S. HARRISON? HARRIS:ON THOSE PARENTS BY THE WAY HAVE A MESSAGE HERE TODAY. IF YOU ARE THE PARENT OF A KID WHO HASN’T BEEN FEELING WELL LATELY, THEY WANT YOTOU KNOW YOU ARE NOT ALONE. >> I KNOW IT HAS BEEGON ING AROUND. HARRISON: THIS IS STEPHANIE. >> THIS IS BABY JACK. HARRISON: JACKS ITHREE MONTHS OLD, HIS BROTHER IS TWO YEARS OLD. BOTH RECENTLY GOT RSV. SYMPTOMS RESEMBLE THOSE OF COVID-19. >> IT WAS A SCARY TIME. >> IT WAS ALL THE THINGS. ALL THE STUFF IS EXPELLING. HARRIS:ON ANDRE'’ SON WAS SICK RECENTLY, TOO. >> LASTS ABOUT 10 DAYS. IT WAS THE FIRST TIME REALLY. I DON’T KNOW IF THAT WAS FROM AROUND BEING AROUND OTHER KIDS. >> WHEN WE ISOLATEANDD MASKED TO PROTECT FROM ONE VIRUS, COVID-19, WE BASICLYAL PROTECTED OUR CHILDREN AND OURSELVES AGAINST LAL VIRUSES AND THAT WAS FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR, SO THINGS REALLY DIED DOWN. HARRISON: NOW WITH FEWER MASKS, LESS DISTANCING, AND MORE TIVIACTIES, ONE PEDIATRICIAN SAYS MORE CHILDREN ARE ADDING VIRUSES THEY WOULD GET IN WINTER MONTHS. >> IT IS SORT OF LIKE WITH YOUR AND A HALFF O SHUTDOWN, A YEAR AND A HALF OF KIDS WHO HAVE NOT ENBE EXPOSED TO ANY VIRUSES, SO THATAY M AOUNTCC TO WHY WE ARE SEEING SOANY, M ESPECIALLY AT AN UNUSUAL TIME OF THE YEAR. HARRIS:ON THE COLD, FLU, AND RSV SURGE IS HIGHER THAN USUAL, BUT LIKE COVID-19, IT IS FIXABLE. >> WREHE IT WILL END, WE DON’T KNOW, BUT WE DO THINK PEOPLE ARE WISER ABOUT HANDWASHING, MASKING , JUST WHEN YOU ARE SICK SEPARATING FROM OTHER PEOPLE. >> ALL THESE PRECAUTNSIO THAT EVEN THOUGH WE ARE OUTSIDE AND IT IS HOT OUT SIDE, THERE ARE THINGS LIKE THAT GOING ARODUN AND IT IS STILL OUT THERE. HARRONIS DOCTORS STILL SUGGEST YOU COULD GET TESTED FOR COVI19D-, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING A COUGH, SHORTNESS OF BREATH, OR LOSS OF TASTE OR SMELL. THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IS ILSTL A FACTOR.

Pediatricians: COVID-19 cases down, cases of other viruses up

Doctors say recent rollback of mitigation measures is leading kids to catch viruses often more prevalent in winter.

Updated: 11:57 AM EDT Jun 16, 2021

The number of COVID-19 cases may be going down, but doctors remain concerned about other viruses on the rise — particularly among children.Pediatricians report seeing more kids with the common cold, influenza, stomach bugs and Respiratory Syncytial Virus, illnesses that often more prevalent during winter. But Dr. William Lennarz with Ochsner Hospital for Children in Louisiana says more children are catching them now as COVID-19 mitigation measures loosen."When we isolated and masked to protect from one virus, COVID-19, we basically protected children and ourselves against all viruses," he said. "That may be why we're seeing so many at a very unusual time of the year."But Lennarz says the cold, flu and RSV surge, like COVID-19, is fixable. And the fixes may seem familiar."Where it will end, we don't know," he said. "But we do think people are wiser about handwashing, masking, when you're sick, separating from other people."Doctors still suggest kids get tested for COVID-19, especially if they have a cough, shortness of breath or loss of taste or smell.

NEW ORLEANS —

The number of COVID-19 cases may be going down, but doctors remain concerned about other viruses on the rise — particularly among children.

Pediatricians report seeing more kids with the common cold, influenza, stomach bugs and Respiratory Syncytial Virus, illnesses that often more prevalent during winter. But Dr. William Lennarz with Ochsner Hospital for Children in Louisiana says more children are catching them now as COVID-19 mitigation measures loosen.

"When we isolated and masked to protect from one virus, COVID-19, we basically protected children and ourselves against all viruses," he said. "That may be why we're seeing so many at a very unusual time of the year."

But Lennarz says the cold, flu and RSV surge, like COVID-19, is fixable. And the fixes may seem familiar.

"Where it will end, we don't know," he said. "But we do think people are wiser about handwashing, masking, when you're sick, separating from other people."

Doctors still suggest kids get tested for COVID-19, especially if they have a cough, shortness of breath or loss of taste or smell.