What do working parents do?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any specific information about SACC at Haycock Elementary? I know there's one on site--is there a long waiting list for this center?

[Anonymous]

SACC centers serve breakfast to the AM kids

SACC does not provide breakfast. Children in morning SACC can buy breakfast in the school cafeteria if the cafeteria serves breakfast. SACC does provide an afternoon snack.

On teacher work days, SACC provides a morning snack and an afternoon snack, but children must pack a lunch.

This is all on-line in the SACC Parent Handbook: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/ofc/Docs/sacc_parent_handbook_09-10_updatedweb.pdf

The only way to know about the waitlist at a school is to call the SACC office and ask. Some schools have a waitlist for both morning and afternoon care. Some have no waitlist for the morning. When I went back to work about 18 months ago, there was no morning SACC wait list at our school. We *just* got off the afternoon wait list this month. It is so much easier on her and us now that she is in afternoon SACC. One nice thing about even being in just morning SACC is that you still get all day coverage for teacher work days.

[Anonymous]

SACC also provides morning snack (or cold breakfast) during the Spring, Summer and Winter SACC Programs. Cold lunch (like sandwiches and salads) is offered during Summer SACC.

[Anonymous]

And just FYI, the spring, summer and winter break SACC is not available at all locations AND each location has its own separate wait list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I respectfully disagree about SACC. First of all, SACC isn't even available at every elementary school, so my kids would have to be shuttled to the nearest SACC program. Secondly, every snow day and other days when the schools are closed, SACC is closed. You get what you pay for.
If both parents are serious about working full time, it's not optimal.

We pay $300 a week for our two kids to have reliable before and after school care. Compared to a nanny or an au pair who's trying to study and have a social life too, it's a bargain.

PP, would you be willing to elaborate about your arrangement? Is it in-home care or something else? We are moving our children from private to public and can't quite figure out the morning and after-care. We are way down on the SACC list and might not qualify anyway because although my spouse works full-time, I only work three days a week. I think we might be able to swing the afternoons, but not sure what we can do about the three mornings a week when we both will need to be at work (with lengthy commutes) well before 10:00. Thanks so much.

[Anonymous]

Are looking at K? And it sounds like your school is half day K? I think most schools try to put kids with working parents in morning K vs afternoon K.

Also the morning SACC wait list tends to move a lot faster than the afternoon wait list.

[Anonymous]

One pp posted a question about Haycock Elementary SACC. I am interested in the same. Does anyone have any info on Haycock? TIA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are looking at K? And it sounds like your school is half day K? I think most schools try to put kids with working parents in morning K vs afternoon K.

Also the morning SACC wait list tends to move a lot faster than the afternoon wait list.

I am the pp, and our two children will be in upper elementary school. We need care three days a week, for about an hour before school, and after school until 5:30 or 6:00. That is helpful to know that the morning SACC wait list moves faster although I don't think I will have the 30 work hours necessary to qualify. Thank you for your response!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are looking at K? And it sounds like your school is half day K? I think most schools try to put kids with working parents in morning K vs afternoon K.

Also the morning SACC wait list tends to move a lot faster than the afternoon wait list.

I am the pp, and our two children will be in upper elementary school. We need care three days a week, for about an hour before school, and after school until 5:30 or 6:00. That is helpful to know that the morning SACC wait list moves faster although I don't think I will have the 30 work hours necessary to qualify. Thank you for your response!

Would you consider an au pair? We got one this year and it has been awesome! She drives my kids to afterschool activities so they can take things they couldn't if we had gotten into SACC. Also, one of my kids goes to speech and occupational therapy and she drives DC there. I'd rather not have someone living here but it really as been a godsend.

[Anonymous]

Kindercare instead of SACC.

[Anonymous]

Interesting. I had no idea that Kindercare did before and after care for elementary school kids.

Before we got into afternoon SACC, my DD was taking a bus to an aftercare location. Her teacher was always running over a little and she was having a hard time getting her homework and backpack all organized in time to catch the bus. She found it very stressful. Now that she is in SACC she has no time pressure. And she organized being able to have social time with kids at her school. We still use the other place for occasional care: snow days, a couple days over winter break, etc.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is on the wait list for SACC at Haycock. There is a long list, but it does move. You should call the fairfax county sacc number and they will tell you how long the wait list is. A neighbor told me that she recently moved into the area and got on the wait list and thought it would take a year or so to get on... in fact, it took just a few months and she was called with a spot. I think it just depends.

[Anonymous]

FYI - if you have 1/2 day K at your school and you put your child in after K SACC, you automatically get after school SACC for 1st grade.

We've done combo's of thing, SACC (school and summer sessions), DC, in home care and Tae Kwon Do programs. Overall though, SACC has proven for us to be the best option.

[Anonymous]

Does anybody have any suggestions about Haycock after care optios? I have signed up for SACC with very slim chances of getting teh spot this year. Is anyone willing to share nanny?

[Anonymous]

We live in Arlington, use Extended Day (which as others indicated is guaranteed if you sign up by Aug 1) at a cost of less than $100/week.

Don't know about Fairfax County or SACC but other options would be to get an au pair or perhaps to share a nanny for afternoons with someone from your street or neighborhood. $300/week sounds like a lot to me....

If you shared a nanny (let's say $16/hr for 2 kids) and she watched them 3-6 daily (and 1-6 on Mondays) that's 17 hrs a week @ $8/hr = $136/week....