Real-Time Data: What We Learned in the Nadir

In a continuation of our first post on the subject, we’d like to update our partners on the efficacy of Alliance CORE’s real-time data capabilities. We highlighted that access to real-time data can quickly give information on which providers are open or closed, how their attendance has been impacted, and other quality data points to help inform relief efforts.

As the pandemic continues, we are still using these insights to support our network. At the same time, the longer timespan now allows us to analyze trends. We could cross-section our network across various demographic lines, but we chose a straightforward one for this post: homes and centers.

While this data obviously lacks the nuance of each individual site’s experiences, it teaches us some valuable trends about how the pandemic effected the ELV Network, including:

• Over 30% of homes and over 50% of centers were closed during the nadir of the pandemic (fig. 1)
• As of mid-June, homes and centers have similar rates of open/closed status (fig. 1)
• Centers experienced a steeper drop in average attendance than homes and, as of mid-June, had only rebounded to roughly 50% of their pre-COVID average daily attendance across the network (fig. 2)

This data has been standardized for the roughly 300 Colorado providers utilizing Alliance CORE, acting as a representative sample of the pandemic’s impact on Colorado’s child care industry. Imagine how impactful this data could be in the future as more and more providers and alliances join the network.

Interested in talking with ELV about Alliance CORE?

Funding Survey of the ELV Network

Obviously, not all data for a network can be housed inside of a child care management system. We have supplemented the real-time data we can glean from the system with the provision of surveys (figs. 3 and 4) to better understand our network and resources (masks, direct funding, etc.) to better directly support them.

• Over 50% of providers in the ELV network applied for and were approved for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) grants (fig. 3)
• Non-PPP grants have been distinctly more competitive than PPP funding, further highlighting the need for federal assistance in the industry (fig. 3 and 4)