Free child care for many parents ends on July 13, after four months' of federal government support. Instead, the child care subsidy will be restored.
It's been a struggle for Leura Child Care Centre owner, Lisa Rickard, particularly in the very early days of the pandemic.
"A lot of centres were emptying out. People were pulling their children out and you could see they were going to struggle to survive. Some were at just 30 per cent occupancy."
On April 6, the federal government acted.
"They decided whatever our turnover was in the last week of February, the government would give us half of that and all of the staff went on to JobKeeper," Ms Rickard said.
She could not retain a couple of casuals, who weren't able to get the income support, but the rest of her staff qualified.
"We were fortunate we have a lot of long-term staff so most were eligible."
Ms Rickard said governments quickly realised that if the child care sector collapsed, it would be "a disaster" for the economy.
"It [the government scheme] probably saved the sector but centres have been losing money."
At Katoomba Leura Preschool, which has different funding arrangements, there has been no subsidy for fees but the early childhood teachers have been receiving JobKeeper.
Director Alison Staniford said the centre gets start stronger funding from the state government, rather than the federal child care subsidy.
"We're hoping the JobKeeper stays until that end date in September because that's what's keeping us afloat at the moment."
It has also allowed her to offer fee-free preschool from the beginning of this term.
"If we still are able to get JobKeeper, we will maintain that."
She said the preschool has seen a massive fall-off in numbers.
"At the beginning we had between one and three here, in a 60-place centre, but families are gradually returning."
At the height of the pandemic, her educators offered Zoom programs as well as providing the preschool program for those who attended.
"So it's increased the workload dramatically."
At Leura Child Care, they have maintained about 80 per cent occupancy, Ms Rickard said, but it's not been without its difficulties.
"We had to deal with a lot of emotional parents... We don't let the parents into the centre at the moment - they just drop off at the gate.
"As soon as the children arrived we washed their hands. We've had extra cleaning and extra disinfectant.
"And if the children showed any signs of sickness, they had to go home."
Some days there have been more staff than children, but they've used the days to do things there never seems to be time for, like create new programs.
"We've managed to stay afloat but the staff can't wait until July 13 when we can put all our casuals on.
"And the stress level amongst directors and owners has been enormous."