The Child Care Counts Coalition is dedicated to stabilizing and increasing the number of available slots for high quality child care in Windham County. Recognizing that access to child care is a critical economic and workforce development issue, we seek to engage a broad range of partners invested in the issue.

We are seeking input from our community on your experiences as an employer or sole proprietor.  The questions closely match those of our 2018 survey with a few additions to account for COVID-19.  Your answers will assist the coalition to prioritize our work in the coming months.  This survey should take about 10 minutes to complete.  This survey should take about 10 minutes to complete.   We would appreciate it if you could answer the survey before August 22, 2020.

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* 1. Name of your Business (optional)

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* 2. What sector does your business operate in? i.e. Manufacturing, Healthcare, Finance, Non-profit, Etc.

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* 3. Is your business considered “essential” during Vermont's COVID-19 State of Emergency declared starting March 13, 2020?

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* 4. Did you or any of your employees use or are still using out of home childcare provided for essential workers?

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* 5. Where you aware of the assistance program available for essential workers to locate and pay for childcare?

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* 6. Can you name the program?

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* 7. What days of the week does your business operate?

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* 8. Does your business offer the following shifts?

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* 9. How many employees do you have (FTE)?

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* 10. Which of the following best describes the work schedule you offer to your employees?

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* 11. What is that average number of hours/week your employees work?

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* 12. How much flexibility do employees have in their work schedule to handle family responsibilities?

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* 13. Are you the person in this company employees would come to discuss child care issues?

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* 14. If you are NOT that person who has that role?

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* 15. How comfortable are you talking with employees about child care responsibilities?

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* 16. Think back to before the COVID-19 State of Emergency (pre March 13, 2020). To what extent did child care issues impact your or your employee attendance and job performance?

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* 17. In the past month to what extent have child care issues impacted your or your employees attendance and job performance?

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* 18. Think back to before the COVID-19 State of Emergency (Pre March 13,202).  Which of the following employee behaviors did you observe due to child care issues? This includes school closures/snow days. (please write the number of occurrences within an average month).

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* 19. In the past month, which of the following employee behaviors have you observed due to child care issues? This includes school closures/snow days. (please write the number of occurrences)

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* 20. Did you have to furlough/lay off employees during the COVID-19 State of Emergency?

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* 21. Are you planning to rehire employees as the state allows business to resume?

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* 22. Have you or your employees had to leave their job, change hours, or decline an offer to return to work due to childcare issues

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* 23. Below is a list of workplace supports that are offered by some employers. For each please indicate whether you (1) currently offer it; (2) would offer if employees expressed interest; (3) would probably not offer.

  Currently Offer Would Offer Would Not Offer
Flexible hours
Job sharing
Option to work at home/telecommute
Unpaid leave
Personal time off or other paid leave
Program to set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for child care
Subsidy for child care
On-site child care center
On-site parenting support or education program
Employee assistance program (EAP)
Wellness groups
Social/family activities
Stress management programs
Other __________________________

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* 24. Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your employees and child care responsibilities?

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* 25. If you would like to stay informed about Child Care Counts and local efforts to enhance our early care and education system please feel free to include your contact information.

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