By Scott O’Connell
Telegram & Gazette
WORCESTER – Given the green light by the state last week, local organizations are preparing to offer school-day child care to working parents in the city as the school system embarks on a fully remote model this fall.
Last week, Gov. Charlie Baker announced his administration would allow licensed child care programs to begin taking care of school-age students during school hours. Local parent-organized groups will also be able to offer school-day child care.
The moves are aimed at addressing the lingering question of how working families can care for their children at home with schools closed through the fall.
“A lot of our kids have nowhere else to go,” said Liz Hamilton, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club in Worcester, one of several organizations planning to provide school-hours child care this fall. “I’m worried about kids being home alone, because their parents have no choice but to go to work. I feel we have to be there for our kids.”
The logistical and financial obstacles of mobilizing large-scale child care services will be not be easy for some of those centers, especially on relatively short notice. The Worcester public schools, for example, first floated the idea of starting the school year remotely in early August.
Just finding space is proving to be a challenge for the YWCA of Central Massachusetts, which had to shut down its after-school programs at Worcester’s Roosevelt School and Wawecus Road School this March when the district closed all schools because of the pandemic.
“We’re looking for a location right now,” said the organization’s director of children’s services, Darlene Belliveau. She acknowledged that the long list of safety requirements for such an operation, as well as the need to hire more staff, will make it difficult for the YWCA to have a site up and running by the start of Worcester’s school year on Sept. 15. “I feel like we’re in this big jigsaw puzzle, and we’re just trying to make the pieces fit.”
Belliveau pointed out that the YWCA’s efforts didn’t just begin with the governor’s announcement last week, either. The organization began its search right after the city schools decided last month to begin the school year remotely.
While local school officials don’t know exactly how many families could require child care this fall, “it appears there’s a big need” based on anecdotal evidence, said Worcester Superintendent Maureen Binienda.
“We only know (they need it) if they’ve contacted the schools directly,” she said, adding that the district is referring families to the organizations that are setting up school-day child care.
Some already have waiting lists, Binienda said. That’s the case at the YMCA of Central Massachusetts, which plans to offer school-hours care to around 500 children at multiple locations in the region this fall, according to Pam Suprenant, the Y’s youth development director.
The plan, she said, is to offer a safe, quiet space for students to do their remote work during the school day, as well as after-school activities in the afternoon. The YMCA sites will also provide free meals to students.
But Suprenant has concerns about how the program will handle those responsibilities, considering the potential technical problems posed by the virtual schoolwork, as well as the individualized support students will likely need with their classes.
Providers are beginning discussions with the Worcester schools to at least solve some of those issues.
“There is great two-way communication – especially at the local school level, connecting with principals and teachers,” Suprenant said, adding that the school district has offered training for YMCA staff on the remote learning Worcester will be doing.
Another big question facing centers is how they’ll be able to afford an unprecedented ramp-up in services while also meeting the financial needs of Worcester families. The YMCA’s program, for instance, is charging $225 a week for 50 hours of care, but aims to provide assistance to families who can’t afford that (care for other children may be eligible to be subsidized by the state).
The Boys & Girls Club, meanwhile, plans to offer free care to 8- through 14-year-olds in its 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. school-day program, recognizing that “most of our kids are at or below the poverty level,” Hamilton said.
It’s also unknown just how long those organizations will need to be available for school-hours care, since the Worcester schools are not guaranteed to begin in-person classes after the first quarter. Even if they do, most students will still need care for most days of the week.
“We’ll do everything it takes” to continue offering the service, Hamilton said. “Our plan is to continue to make sure we have the resources to be there for our kids.”
“This is uncharted territory,” Suprenant said. “We’re figuring this out as we go, and we’ll continue to innovate and problem-solve.”
