HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) -- Anticipating icy weather Friday, several schools changed their schedules: closing, going virtual or changing start times and dismissals. abc27 looked into whether that affected daycares with parents suddenly needing child care for kids usually in school.
Keystone Early Learning Center in Harrisburg does not work with school-age kids, so they did not get flooded with more requests for child care. However, the weather still impacts them, and it's not the only issue they're dealing with.
Get daily news, weather, breaking news and alerts straight to your inbox! Sign up for the abc27 newsletters here!
When bad weather hits and schools close, enrollment at Keystone usually drops for the day.
"If their sibling's school calls off, they'll keep them home. Sometimes it helps them keep each other entertained during the day, but a lot of times it's just parents don't want to make the trip in when they're teleworking right now," Keystone's director Lana Stitzel said.
Keystone only works with kids up to Pre-K, so director Stitzel says it's not a major impact for the families they serve when schools shut down. However, other parents do come looking for options.
"We do get a lot of calls for families looking for school-age, which we don't currently serve," Stitzel said.
Stitzel said the biggest weather impact is when it's bad enough for the daycare to close.
"There are times where we have closed and parents want care, but because we're in a state-run facility, we're not allowed to open. They don't have the staffing to get the sidewalks cleared and it becomes a liability," she said.
However, weather is just a temporary problem. Keystone has struggled with other long-term issues during the pandemic.
"We had a period of time where we were short-staffed for probably about a year straight," Stitzel said.
Challenges in hiring affected capacity.
"There were times that we had to ask parents not to bring their kids for the day," Stitzel said.
Stitzel has only seen improvement recently.
"We just hired like three more staff in the past, I'd say three weeks," she said.
Even with staffing returning to normal, Keystone is still dealing with a waitlist of 15 to 20 kids, so the type of weather the Midstate on Friday is a little bit of a break for them.
"We have a lot less kids than normal," Stitzel said.
Two other child care centers in Dauphin County told ABC27 unlike Keystone, they stayed busy on Friday. One said even when schools close, they do their best to be a resource for parents.
0 Commentaires