Daycare delayed opening Friday

[Anonymous]

Is anyone else's daycare delaying opening tomorrow? Ours has a 2 hour delay.

They never commit to following any jurisdiction, but in past years informally they have seemed to follow the Feds. Now they seem much more willing to close.

I sort of understand schools delaying where kids will be at bus stops, but there obviously is no bus here. (Some staff take the bus, but that is only a portion, and there is a big difference between an adult and a 7 yr old being able to bundle up.). The roads have been clear since yesterday morning. All offices are open on time today. The Feds don't even have the option for unscheduled leave or telework.

This really leaves a lot of parents in a lurch.

[Anonymous]

It is what it is. Is it a center or at a home? That being said they will make the call on what is best for their location- maybe a lot of staff have kids and need the extra time so they can figure out where their kids are going for the day if their school is closed.

Just wait till your kid is in school, winter time is a constant scramble for back up care.

[Anonymous]

My daycare has a lot of families that commute by bus, along with staff. It's tough, but I know I'm blessed to have a car and to remember not everyone does!

[Anonymous]

Might be to accommodate staff who have children who have a delay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else's daycare delaying opening tomorrow? Ours has a 2 hour delay.

They never commit to following any jurisdiction, but in past years informally they have seemed to follow the Feds. Now they seem much more willing to close.

I sort of understand schools delaying where kids will be at bus stops, but there obviously is no bus here. (Some staff take the bus, but that is only a portion, and there is a big difference between an adult and a 7 yr old being able to bundle up.). The roads have been clear since yesterday morning. All offices are open on time today. The Feds don't even have the option for unscheduled leave or telework.

This really leaves a lot of parents in a lurch.

+1 to all of this. Ours also used to loosely follow Feds but less so. Yesterday was a three hour delay-not happy about today.

[Anonymous]

^^and it’s especially annoying because they just raised their rates, again, and it’s getting kind of ridiculous. We love it there, but still. If you they want to charge us a crap-ton of money, it would be nice if their hours were a little more convenient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daycare has a lot of families that commute by bus, along with staff. It's tough, but I know I'm blessed to have a car and to remember not everyone does!

Sure, but lots of workers commute by bus - office workers, restaurant workers, retail, etc. All those businesses are opening on time today and those people are expected to be there. Why should expectations be different for adult workers just because they work with kids, who might not be as able to handle or prepare for the cold.

DCPS is open on time. Most of those kids walk to school or take a bus and/or metro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Might be to accommodate staff who have children who have a delay.

Relatively few staff have school age kids. Most are pre-kid and a decent number are older and have grown kids. Even if a couple of people had an issue along theee lines, they could have covered things until they got in.

Also, it is well known that schools close/delay much more freely and teachers (just like every other type of worker) have to make backup arrangements- their work doesn't delay just because school does. This delay was announced yesterday so there was plenty of time.

This puts parents - whose work almost all didn't delay despite schools in the area delaying - in a huge bind.

[Anonymous]

Ours follows City of Alexandria schools, which makes no sense to me. So, they were closed yesterday, while City of Alexandria government was open, and feds were open. I have no idea why the center goes by the school system, which has to consider safety of kids waiting at bus stops, and buses driving on the roads.

When pressed, they say it's for the safety of the staff, who commute from other jurisdictions. To me, that is precisely why they should follow the feds, who take into account the wider D.C. metro area. Why do hyper local buses and bus routes matter for people commuting from another jurisdiction?

So yeah, closed yesterday + a 2-hour delay today. Meanwhile, I safely drove to work yesterday morning, as did every single other person in my office, and everyone else I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ours follows City of Alexandria schools, which makes no sense to me. So, they were closed yesterday, while City of Alexandria government was open, and feds were open. I have no idea why the center goes by the school system, which has to consider safety of kids waiting at bus stops, and buses driving on the roads.

When pressed, they say it's for the safety of the staff, who commute from other jurisdictions. To me, that is precisely why they should follow the feds, who take into account the wider D.C. metro area. Why do hyper local buses and bus routes matter for people commuting from another jurisdiction?

So yeah, closed yesterday + a 2-hour delay today. Meanwhile, I safely drove to work yesterday morning, as did every single other person in my office, and everyone else I know.

I feel your pain. The only, slight, saving grace is that they are at least open with you about following the schools. That at least allows you to know and prepare for closings/delays when the feds and other offices will be open.

Our daycare made a big point about how they do not follow the local school jurisdiction, which are known to close/delay very liberally. That's why today's delay is so frustrating. (In fairness to them, they don't purely follow the schools and did open late yesterday when the schools were closed. But today's delay is puzzling.)

[Anonymous]

Our follows DCPS which is okay. It'd be better if it was the Feds, since so many parents work for the government.

[Anonymous]

Ours technically follows FCPS but the owner makes a call based on the local neighborhood (it's an in home and all the parents live close by as do her assistants). So she opened late last Thursday but was open at normal time on Friday as the neighborhood was just fine. She's open again today but will let us know if we need to come pick up early due to the weather.

I feel very spoiled, I'm getting the best of both worlds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ours technically follows FCPS but the owner makes a call based on the local neighborhood (it's an in home and all the parents live close by as do her assistants). So she opened late last Thursday but was open at normal time on Friday as the neighborhood was just fine. She's open again today but will let us know if we need to come pick up early due to the weather.

I feel very spoiled, I'm getting the best of both worlds.

+1. Ours has an asst that takes the bus to the providers house. But the providers college age daughters also live with her. She makes sure they are included as employees every year. My providers policy is that if we can get to her, she is open.