Child care in a pandemic: Parents manage pandemic child care with pods, grandparents, day care and tutors

Sitting at table divided by plexiglass partitions, Jillian Heimbaugh powers on a laptop for a live online Zoom class.

After a few rounds of “Can you hear me?” the teacher launches into the virtual lesson showing pictures and videos, including a photograph of a muted pink and yellow landscape.

“I know what a desert is,” says Jillian, a second grader at Paxtonia Elementary School. “It’s almost like a beach.”

Around her a half dozen elementary students – all working on laptops, and some wearing head phones – occupy themselves with school work. Their classroom inside Amazing Sports & Activity in Lower Paxton Township is providing a much needed service for working parents struggling to find child care.

As school districts begin the year with remote and hybrid learning due to the coronavirus pandemic, Amazing Sport’s director Charlie Fortney expanded the center’s before and after program to a full-day operation.

“We have a responsibility to provide a program at this time for the people who need it,” he said.

Across the nation, the coronavirus pandemic has uprooted working parents as they attempt to balance children’s educational needs with their own work and household chores.

Some families are relying on relatives for help or “pandemic pods,” small classrooms of kids learning from home with a private tutor or babysitter. Others are juggling work schedules, and in extreme cases quitting jobs to stay home with their children.

A recent survey of parents by Care.com, found 73% of respondent said if schools and day cares don’t remain open, they might have to make major adjustments at work such as amending schedules or taking a different job. About 15% said they would consider leaving the workplace.

“Families are scrambling right now and I think schools are trying to help with that and agencies that can provide child care are trying to provide child care, but there are capacity limits there with providers, with social distancing,” said Stefani McAuliffe, vice president of Community Impact for the United Way of the Capital Region.

Many parents planned on children returning to a regular five-day a week model, but as districts started to factor in the safety of children and staff, plans changed. Some schools moved to all virtual learning or a mix of in-person and remote classes. And in some cases, the changes happened at the last minute, McAuliffe said.

Those schedule adjustments left many working parents of school-age children stuck without child care. Working families who earn just above the federal poverty line and are trying to stay financially afloat are most impacted, McAuliffe said.

Affordable child care has always been an issue, she said, adding the pandemic has heightened the problem. Right now, McAuliffe stressed families have so much on their plates, whether it be child care or affording housing and accessible health care that it may take a long time for some families to recover.

But she said everyone including agencies, school districts and employers, wants to do what’s best for children and their families.

“This is a real community issue - access to child care right now - and I think everybody wants to do what is best for our children and families,” she said.

Some school districts and community agencies, McAuliffe noted are devising solutions such as learning pods, community schools or safe places where kids can go to have their online learning so parents can work. Pandemic pods are small classrooms of kids learning from home, either virtually or in-person, with a private tutor or babysitter.

Several new community classrooms have popped up in the Harrisburg School District.

State Representative Patty Kim introduced a new program to help parents of young children in Dauphin County through the creation of free community classrooms in the city. The program, which relies on volunteers to staff classrooms and assist students with technical problems, follows necessary guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

In the Mechanicsburg Area School District, the recreation department is launching a Wildcat Remote Care Program for students in grades K-5. The program will provide care on remote learning days.

At Amazing Sports, students enrolled in the program can attend one or more days of the week, with time set aside for virtual schoolwork, as well as before and after school care.

Employees help students with technology issues, whether it be password issues, computer glitches or charging devices. Each student works in socially distanced spaces sectioned off by plexiglass divers, and during off-times can participate in open gym.

“Our goal with the virtual full days is to be a compliment to the normal school day,” Fortney said. “This program does a really good job of helping kids stay on task and not get behind.”

Paul John Cernovsky, a single father from Swatara Township, sends his son, Paul Alan Cernovsky, a fifth grader, to Amazing Sports. The younger Cernovsky also attended the program’s summer camp full-time.

Knowing his son is in good hands, interacting with other children and doing school work, Cernovsky said the program gives him peace of mind, even if it comes at a price. He works two jobs including a full-time day job at PennDOT.

“I will say this much, I am putting in nearly double the hours [at work] because I need to pay the bills,” he said.

“This COVID really put a damper on everyone. It has made living a little more harder and I think everyone is feeling the pinch. And I want to say I feel blessed to have a job to go to and an income and a place to take my kid,” Cernovsky added.

Amazing Sports charges between $2,000 and $7,000 for the school year, depending on the program.

Dave and Ashley Doernemann, of West Hanover Township, recognize they are fortunate to be able to afford a tutor for their son, 8, a third grader at West Hanover Elementary School in the Central Dauphin School District. The district is operating under a hybrid model, with students working from home three days a week.

The couple both work.

“We were frustrated because we are both busy. Our time is really, really limited,” Dave Doernemann said. “We had to make sure he was getting a full education without us looking over his shoulder.”

After reviewing options such as private, cyber and charter schools, the couple said they decided to stick with the elementary school. They were encouraged after learning the district’s fall program is more robust than what had been offered in the spring.

The tutor, a former teacher, visits the house twice a week to assist with supplemental learning. Meanwhile, the Doernemann’s three-year-old son attends a nearby early learning center.

Tracey Campanini, deputy secretary for the Office of Child Development and Early Learning, acknowledges working parents and their employers are anxious about schools implementing blended or remote programs.

The office licenses the state’s 7,000 child care centers which serve 386,000 children across Pennsylvania

“Some families, of course, have the flexibility of juggling within their family for care during remote or blended learning days the school has implemented, she said.

But some parents including single parents or dual-income families might be struggling to find care. She noted the state is trying to make it easier by temporarily suspending some regulations on school-age child care to extend care to cover traditional school hours.

Meanwhile, the Department of Human Services is collaborating with organizations such as the United Way and YMCA, to establish part-day child care programs for school-age children. In addition, 19 Early Learning Resource Centers across the state provide resources for parents looking for child care.

Gov. Tom Wolf has also ensured child care centers are able to continue to operate. More than 200 have indicated they are permanently closing their doors since the pandemic began.

Wolf has allocated about $220 million in federal CARES Act funding to support child care providers across the state.

“Pennsylvania has made significant investments to preserve our child care sector to keep providers open and available to working families, but we know that child care providers remain vulnerable to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis,” Wolf said in a statement.

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