All the teachers at Greenbelt Children’s Center wear scrubs.

The uniforms give staff a professional look. But they’re also a cost-cutting measure for teachers struggling to afford clothes for work.

Things are getting worse for some underpaid child care workers who have seen their hours cut as a temporary halt of a state scholarship program means fewer kids are enrolling in care.

Though Greenbelt Children’s Center in Prince George’s County has room for 60 kids, only 45 are enrolled. The center, which is normally at or near capacity, isn’t churning a profit right now.

Director Simone Lovelock said many parents can’t afford child care without financial help from the state, mostly through child care scholarships. The state doesn’t know when it will open the program back up to new families, and early childhood educators fear things are only going to get worse for those already struggling.

“By the families having access to this kind of government assistance, we have higher demand of children that are in need of care,” said Karen Trabanino, board secretary of the Latino Child Care Association of Maryland. “So it does help us continue to grow our businesses.”

Normally, about 70% of the kids at Greenbelt are there on scholarship; today, that figure is below 25%, Lovelock said. The child care center is in crisis mode, she said. And they’re not alone.

Maryland mostly stopped giving out new child care scholarships in May, unable to bankroll booming enrollment. Families use the vouchers to help cover limited, expensive child care. Day cares and preschools get money from the state to take those kids, and many rely on the income.

The state estimated it could reopen the program to new families in September, offering a much-needed reprieve for them and their teachers. That didn’t happen.

When the state paused enrollment, families who already had scholarships kept them, and new families could still apply for when funds became available again. The plan was to partially reopen the program once enough kids aged out or left the program to make room for others. The Maryland State Department of Education can only support 40,000 children at a time, but in August, 45,506 kids were scholarship recipients.

That’s partially because some kids from low-income families receiving other assistance or who had a sibling in the program received new scholarships during the freeze; the waitlist didn’t apply to them. The education department also received a record 2,383 applications in April, a final burst before the freeze. Once those last scholarships were given out, enrollment ballooned to nearly 48,000 kids in June.

“The Child Care Scholarship Program enrollment freeze will continue due to tremendous growth,” department spokesperson Raven Hill said in an email. “At this time, we cannot provide a projected date or timeline due to ongoing enrollment fluctuations.”

The scholarship freeze comes as Maryland sheds federal jobs and more families need help.

Lovelock fears losing her teachers or even closing her doors. She’s already cut hours in half for some staff and tried to raise tuition rates to offset the losses. But because few could afford to pay the new prices, she had to honor last year’s rates to not lose more families. Some still couldn’t pay and left.

“That conversation is disappointing and heartbreaking because early childhood education is important for every family,” Lovelock said. “But because of the crisis, it’s now considered luxury.”

Many early childhood educators qualify for scholarships themselves. LaTonya Hines teaches preschoolers at the Homewood Early Learning Center at Johns Hopkins, managed by Downtown Baltimore Child Care.

She also has an 8-month-old son, Dallas. Originally, Hines planned to have her mother watch the baby. When that was no longer feasible, she applied for a child care scholarship in July.

While she waits, she’s paying $100 a month for her son to attend Homewood — well below the going rate of $2,402 per infant. She’s using a steep staff discount Downtown Baltimore Child Care is offering to employees waiting on scholarships.

The waiting game is stressful for Hines, who without a scholarship would have to sacrifice other bills to cover child care, or find remote work.

“It would suck. This is my life career. This is what I wanted to do all my life,” Hines said. “The pay is not great but I love teaching. I love kids.”

Some day cares are in a better position than others. Trabanino teaches and does administrative work for her mom’s Montgomery County family child care program, Growing Stars Child Care. They’ve filled 11 of their 12 spots. Half the kids are on scholarship and not aging out anytime soon, Trabanino said.

Once families secure a spot, they’re unlikely to risk leaving. Trabanino said that can make things harder for new day cares who are struggling to fill open spots with no new scholarships.

Now, day care teachers and owners find themselves doing more work with less resources.

Anabela Rodas owns Mi Escuelita Child Care in Silver Spring, where a lot of people “heavily rely on the scholarships,” she said. Though she has two fewer kids than normal, she’s employing the same number of staff. She’s giving herself until the end of the year to find two new families with scholarships. If nothing changes, she may open up spots part-time to parents who need care just a couple of days a week to avoid cutting pay or services.

In the meantime, she’s concentrated on not letting the kids at Mi Escuelita feel the panic. They’ll do yoga in the morning, dance and have “silly time.” Sometimes, Rodas throws the day’s plan out the window for a mental health day, filled with reading and relaxing.

“The last thing we need is more stress,” Rodas said. “I want to appreciate the time with them. The kids keep me sane.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.