Reply to Before/aftercare providers need a seat at the table

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[quote=Anonymous]It seems like many families on this forum can accommodate full-time or part-time DL, and it is a question of convenience, effectiveness of DL, safety, etc. However, there are many families who do not have that flexibility of preference whether it be due to their job or otherwise. It's not as easy, in the current environment, to change jobs to one that allows a WFH option. There are many single parents who cannot "trade off" days with a spouse either. Before and aftercare providers provide a critical need for families. Below is a copy of the letter sent by some providers to the MoCo Board of Education and other leadership. I think it's important that people also write to their elected officials to emphasize the importance that these providers are part of the discussion, such as Jack Smith, Mark Elrich, Ramona Bell Pearson, MoCo Council, and the Board of Education.

Dear Community Leaders,
 
We write to you today as a coalition of school-age child care providers who are based in Montgomery County and serve its residents. Last year we served over 11,700 children at 85 MCPS facilities and together we employ over 1000 child care professionals. Before COVID-19 forced the closure of schools, child care centers, and summer camps, we were competitors. Today we reach out to you, united, asking for guidance and assistance.

For decades, our parents and families have enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership with MCPS and the communities it serves. We acknowledge the difficulty in returning children to school, yet we have not had any communication, specifically to us as partners, about possible plans for children returning back to school buildings. Moreover, we are concerned that, as representatives of a majority of school-aged child care providers in Montgomery County, not one of us has been invited to provide feedback or collaborate with MCPS as these plans are formulated. Childcare is a foundational service that needs to be in place for children to return to school, and for parents to return to work, and we want to be an asset to our school system in planning for a successful Fall. We implore you to let us bring our years of collective experience to the table and assist MCPS in making these difficult decisions.

In addition to requesting a seat at the table, we urgently need to know MCPS' decision making framework for reopening the schools. It takes a great deal of time, funding, and intellectual capital to develop new policies, train our staff, procure personal protective equipment (PPE), adjust our enrollment systems to meet the needs of families, and communicate all of this with the communities we serve. In order to provide the high quality of care that we have established in our programs, we need more guidance than what we’re currently receiving.

To put it bluntly, without child care, parents of school-age children will not be able to return to work on the first day of school. Since being forced to close our school-based programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have each taken steps to survive these closures and be able to reopen and serve Montgomery County residents when they return to work. We have applied for the CARES Act funds, we’ve furloughed longtime employees, and those of us with our own spaces have opened our programs for children of essential personnel. We’ve done everything possible to stretch our dollar, but with the razor-thin margins that child care already operates within, we’re simply running out of funds to maintain our businesses until we can generate income again. We implore you to urgently pass an additional child care recovery measure for the providers that offer care in our children’s schools. School age care is critical to the recovery and long term health of Montgomery County. For more than 50 years, before and after school programs have provided families trusted and safe learning environments for their children while they work. It is critical that this partnership with working families is sustained.
Many of us were excited to see Montgomery County proactively looking to assist the childcare industry through the $10 million dollar recovery fund, but were bewildered to find it was only available for early childhood providers (ages 0-5). As we serve working families who rely on child care before and after school, there is a large population which the current funding ignores. 
 
If anything, this pandemic has illuminated the inequities that exist across our very own county and has reinforced the need for high quality before and after school programs to help mitigate the opportunity gap and support children's academic, social, and emotional wellbeing. We all want Montgomery County to be the benchmark for how to learn from, and build upon, the shared-experience of COVID-19. We’re not asking for the work to be done for us. We’re asking to join you in this endeavor and ensure the long term health of school age child care in Montgomery County.

As providers, we are working together and replies sent to this address (mocoschoolagecarecoalition@gmail.com) will be sent automatically to our individual inboxes. We look forward to working together on these critical issues.

In service,

Bob Sickels 
The Big Cheese
Kids After Hours

Brian Rindos
Managing Member
Kids Adventures LLC

Deirdre O'Grady and Elizabeth Lewis 
President & Vice President
Cosmic Kids Inc.

Jay Gerson
Owner
KidsCo, Inc. and  KidsCo, Jr.

Joanne Hurt
Executive Director
Wonders Early Learning + Extended Day

Joe Richardson
CEO
Bar-T Year Round Programs for Kids

Laura Bardini
Executive Director
Rockville Day Care Association, Inc.

Lesley Walsh-Everhart 
Chief Executive Director 
Academy Child Development Center, Inc.

Michelle Martineau Green
Executive Director
Montgomery Child Care Association (MCCA)[/quote]

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