If starting PK3 in fall 2021, are you keeping your child in daycare?

[Anonymous]

My daughter is going to enroll in PK3 in DC in the fall of 2021, which means we have over a year left of daycare. My daycare is now open so we need to pay for her spot even if we’re not using it. I don’t feel comfortable sending her back yet, and I’m not sure when I will, especially if there is a second wave this fall/winter. If we keep her out and give up our spot at the daycare, I’m worried about the loss of socialization you get in daycare. What are others doing in this situation?

[Anonymous]

Slightly different, but we were set to do PK3 this fall. Distance learning seems likely, so we will keep our son in daycare. We arranged back up care for this summer, so even though his daycare recently reopened, he won’t go back until Sept. We have been paying all along.

[Anonymous]

You may want to check with your daycare and see if your child will have a slot due to restrictions on group size. In our program, parents who'd notified that they were sending their children to school in the fall do not have a guaranteed slot for next year. Many programs in DC have few, if any preschool slots due to children attending PK3 and PK4. And now that the ratios are 1:4 even for preschoolers, who are usually charged at a lower rate, it doesn't make any financial sense to expand those slots.