Childcare during school breaks: 11 creative child care solutions for school breaks and closings

11 creative child care solutions for school breaks and closings

For some families, spring break and other school breaks provide the perfect opportunity to break up the everyday hustle and bustle with a much-needed vacation. But for many others, it’s time to scramble for child care. Whether the issue is cost or an inability to take off of work, the school break struggle is real for working parents who can’t be OOO when their little one doesn’t have school.

“I kind of dread school breaks,” says Jaclyn Santos, of Hazlet, New Jersey. “We usually wind up making it work, but as a mom who works full time, spring and winter breaks are always a challenge.”   

Before determining how you’re going to proceed with the school break conundrum, it’s smart to weigh the financial options, because, let’s face it, child care is expensive. In a recent Care.com survey,  over 70% of families reported paying more than 10% of their income on child care at the same time as the U.S. government defines “affordable care” as no more than 7% of family income.  

In other words: Does it make sense to shell out extra money for a camp or babysitter during that week? Will it mean you’ll have to forgo something else? If a school break is going to wind up negatively impacting your finances (without a suntan to show for it), you may want to consider taking time off of work — even if you’re not going out of town.

“In an ideal world, we’d always take a trip during school breaks,” Santos says. “But since that’s not the case, ultimately, it comes down to cost and availability. Is the money I earn that week going to be a wash because of child care? Is a friend or family member around to help out and pick up some of the slack? Nine times out of 10, we’re going to go with the most cost-effective, convenient option — and even then it throws our schedule for a loop.”  

If you have to work while your kids are off from school, don’t expect to wing it. Most child care centers and camps need ample notice to have the appropriate amount of staff on hand for such weeks. And if you usually use a sitter or nanny, don’t assume that they will be available for more hours than usual. Researching options or checking in with the caregiver well in advance will save headaches all around.

Ready to ditch the school break child care panic for good? Here are 11 creative solutions for when the kids have off, but you don’t.

1. Use vacation days

For working parents who aren’t jetting off to a sunny locale, sometimes it just makes sense to use the vacation days regardless.

“My son’s day care closes the same weeks my first-grader has off for winter and spring break,” says Shannon Jensen, of Canandaigua, New York. “If we’re not going away ourselves, I usually just use vacation time during those weeks. It’s actually really nice to have time at home with the kids, where we can just be lazy and not have to do anything specific.”

2. Give the sitter more hours

Annie Garland, of Wheat Ridge, Colorado, hires a babysitter for her two daughters now and again, but when the girls have off from school and she and her husband have to work, she enlists her sitter’s help even more.

“My husband and I both leave for work early, so, in addition to my youngest not meeting the age requirement for camps, the hours just don’t work for us,” she says. “Typically, I ask my sitter a few months in advance if she’ll be around for longer hours on those weeks. So far — thankfully — it’s worked out for us.”

3. Consider nanny-sharing

If you don’t use a babysitter or nanny regularly, but you know someone who does, suggest nanny sharing for the week, which will give the sitter a higher rate while reducing the cost for parents. (Nanny sharing is when two families split the cost of one sitter, but pay the sitter a higher hourly rate because they will be caring for more children.)

“My son’s day care closes during spring and winter breaks every year, which always gets tricky since I work,” says Santos. “This past winter, a co-worker and I hired a sitter together. It was great! My son loved having a playmate, and it was much cheaper than having someone care for him alone. ”

4. Check in with the YMCA

Searching for last-minute child care? Check in with the Y.

“Most school breaks, we’re contacted by parents who aren’t part of our usual program in search of child care coverage since we’re always open during that time,” says Shannon McGillis Jackson, director of the Garwood Family Center Y in Garwood, New Jersey. “At our facility, we offer a drop-in care program for children 2 1/2 and up, where parents can call up to 24 hours in advance for availability and can drop their child off anywhere from an hour or the full day.”

Jackson also notes that additional centers in the area offer Vacation Fun Club days for children who are already registered in the school-age before- and after- care programs.

“Parents can register for whatever coverage they need for an additional daily fee that’s then added to their monthly tuition,” she says. 

Community centers, libraries, zoos and even museums often have spring break camps for kids where little ones will get to do out-of-the-ordinary activities at new and exciting places.  For example, during the city’s spring break, the Bay Area Discovery Museum offers spring break camp for kids between the ages of 4 and 6. In Chicago, kids ages 5-10 can head to a week-long culinary spring camp at The Kids’ Table. These cool camp experiences not only expose children to hands-on, minds-on activities but also cover parents from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (The Kids’ Table also offers extended care for an extra fee). Wins all around!

6. Enlist the help of friends and family

Need we even say it? Ask your parents, friends or other family members for help when you’re in need. We know, we know, you don’t want to feel like a burden, but, believe it or not, people love to help.

“My parents recently moved to town, so we often turn to them for help when the kids have off from school, but we need to be at work,” says Lindsay Walsh, of Syracuse, New York. “We try not to ask them to watch the kids too much, but they insist we check with them first. They’ve been lifesavers!”

Walsh notes that, in an effort to lighten the load on her parents, she also tries to mix in a few playdates for her daughters on those weeks.

7. Split the time with your partner

For dual-income households finding themselves in a child care dilemma during spring and winter breaks, divvying up the work is also an option.

“When my kids were off of school last winter break, my husband took three days off from work, and I took off two,” says Jennifer Blau, of Bridgeport, Connecticut. “We both had things we needed to be in the office for that week, so we just worked around each other’s schedules. It worked out great! We both got in time with the kids, and neither one of us had to rearrange our entire work week.”   

8. Schedule playdates

If there ever was a time for playdates, it’s during school holidays. Not only do working parents often need the coverage, moms and dads who are home with the kids are usually itching for ways to entertain their kids. It’s obviously unrealistic to expect a playdate to last from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but it will kill a few hours, providing some time to work. And it goes without saying that the kids will be thrilled.

9. Use a family child care center

Since family child care centers are operated out of the owner’s house, they can be much more flexible than traditional child care centers and day care facilities — and they also may be willing to take on an extra kiddo during a school break if they have room. Ask around at school pickup for local recommendations or search the National Association for Family Child Care for accredited providers by city and state.

10. Use backup care

Companies are starting to empathize with the fact that employee attendance and productivity are not mutually exclusive to child care — and they’re doing something about it. Many organizations are subsidizing the cost of backup child care for when regular care falls through — and that includes school closings. Through employee benefits programs with backup care services, such as Care For Business, working parents can breathe a sigh of relief during school breaks because not only will high-quality care be available to their children, but they won’t be left scrambling or paying exorbitant fees.  

Talk to your Human Resources department about enrollment to take advantage of an employer-sponsored backup care program. If your company doesn’t offer this benefit, ask HR to consider it.

11. Work from home

If push comes to shove — and let’s face it, sometimes it does — see if you can get the flexibility to work from home during school break weeks. Is it always ideal? No. Will you be as focused as usual? Probably not. Will your kids wind up indulging in more screen time than you’d normally condone? Probably. But sometimes the only babysitter available during a conference call is Peppa Pig. The universe will forgive you, and your kids will still turn out OK. Promise.

Balancing Work and Childcare During Summer Break

With summer comes the childhood joys of swimming, ice cream trucks, water balloon fights, and the freedom to do whatever they want for weeks on end. As fun as the season can be, for parents working outside the home, summertime also comes with the added stress of finding childcare for their kids for 40+ hours a week until school starts back up in the fall.  

There is so much that goes into finding and securing childcare for your kid, and it requires a lot of budgeting, planning, and organizing that just isn’t quite as overwhelming during the school year. Some parents also have to find a safe and trustworthy childcare provider in the summer and ensure enough space in the program for their kids, which can be tricky (especially in a post-Covid world). 

How can parents make this task feel a bit more manageable? 

School is Not Childcare

Across the US, around 6.3 million parents rely on childcare centers for their kids (s) before starting kindergarten. Only 37% of children under five years old have a parent as their primary caregiver during the day–this means that most parents have become accustomed to having regular, reliable childcare for their kids while away from the house. So, when their child starts kindergarten, it can feel like a huge relief because they suddenly get “free” childcare after years of paying thousands of dollars for their kid to be cared for by someone outside the home.  

While the budget boost is undoubtedly something to celebrate, what so many of us forget is that school is not childcare. Kids have a constitutional right to an education, and school is what delivers it to them. School is to teach kids how to read, write, and grow into capable, well-rounded individuals. It is not intended to be a daycare center, which means working parents have to find ways to fill in the time gaps when school is out of session. 

In the US, the national average number of days kids attend school is 180, which leaves parents having to find a place for their kids to go the other 187 days out of the year (plus, the average school day is around 6.5 hours, so parents who work outside the home often have to arrange childcare for the additional 2.5 hours a day school isn’t in session throughout the year). 

It’s a pretty big shock — and inconvenience — for many parents. But, what makes summer so much different is that it’s much harder to find childcare for weeks on end than it is on a one-off day during the school year.  

Tips and Ideas for Childcare in the Summer

So, how can parents manage this situation a little easier? How can we find childcare that’s affordable, safe, and fun? Not to mention, what kinds of childcare options do we even have? 

Summer Childcare Ideas

• Day camp or sleepaway camp (day camp programs usually last longer than sleepaway options)
• Local daycare programs; many daycares offer special services for young school-aged children during the summer (though these tend to fill up quickly)
• Local YMCA; most YMCAs offer different camps and activities throughout the summer months, and you usually don’t have to be a member to enroll your child (though the cost will be slightly higher for non-members)
• Parks and rec or community center programs; most towns and cities have parks and recreation departments, and many also have some kind of community or art center that may offer fun camps and activities for kids to participate in (these are usually very budget-friendly, too)
• Local babysitters; specifically neighborhood high school and college kids who are looking for summer jobs (bonus points if they’re studying education or another child-focused subject)
• Friends and family members; if your schedules allow for it, team up with a couple of other parents and rotate who watches the kids for a week at a time

Tips for Success

Most busy parents can understand how, even though summer vacation comes around every year, it somehow still manages to sneak up on us. We know it’s coming, but we often find ourselves scrambling to find care at the last minute. To help avoid this panic, here are a few things you can do throughout the year to make summertime childcare a little less overwhelming:

• Budget for your program of choice; if possible, set aside a little bit of money every month from September through May so that you aren’t left trying to figure out how to afford three months of childcare come June
• At the beginning of the school year, ask fellow parents what they did for childcare over the summer, and ask how it went; keep track of the programs with high praise so that you can look into them for next summer
• Set a reminder for March to start exploring your options for the summer and mark registration dates for programs you’re interested in on your calendar so that you can secure a spot for your kiddo (also, keep checking into April because a lot of programs don’t even post their information until closer to summer break)
• Start talking to your boss about options for flexible scheduling for the summer earlier than later; the more time you give them to prepare, the better

Advocating for a Flex Schedule

If you don’t already have some flexibility in your schedule or hope to shift to remote or hybrid work for the summer while your kids are out of school, you’ll need to advocate for this change at work. Exactly how you do this will depend a lot on your role, your company’s policies, and your relationship with your manager, but here are some general tips:

• Plan what you’re going to say, and prepare for questions and pushback 
• Get specific; detail out exactly what you’re looking for, and don’t leave it up to interpretation
• Bring back up materials if they will help (i.e., examples of work you’ve done working remotely before)
• Don’t shy away from your need for this as a parent. But don’t make it the only focus (this will increase your chances for approval and increase your chances of extending the flexibility beyond summer)
• Start advocating for it early to give your boss time to go through the chain of command if necessary, or it gives you time to revisit the topic later if they initially say no

Final Thoughts

Managing childcare throughout the school year is incredibly difficult for parents who work outside the home, but the summer months bring their challenges. The best thing you can do is be as prepared as possible. Still, if that ship has sailed this year, then that’s okay because your child is sure to have fun whether they’re at a fancy camp or running around with the neighborhood kids while you work from the back patio — because it will take a whole lot to take all of the joy out of sweet summertime for your kiddo.  

If your current job isn’t offering what you need to provide your child with safe, reliable care this summer, join The Mom Project and check out the many incredible opportunities available in the marketplace. 

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7 Convenient & Cheap Childcare Options During School Holidays (Practical Alternatives for Daycare)

Today it is common to find many households where both partners are working, creating a childcare crisis for working moms when the schools break. Working moms find it easy when their school-going are in school, and it becomes a challenge when the school breaks for holidays such on summer or winter . As such working moms need an extra care arrangement for this period. 

Below are some of the practical options you can consider for your kid’s care during school holidays.

In this post…

Childcare Options during School Breaks

Factors to Consider When Looking For School Breaks Child Care Options

Convenient & Cheap Childcare Options during School Breaks (Alternatives for Daycare)

1. Family and Close Friends are Cheap Alternatives to Daycare and can offer Holiday Childcare

Your family and close friends count as your strongest support system. In addition to being supportive of your career and personal dreams, family and friends come in handy by offering to take care of your kids while you work. They are one of the alternatives to daycare that you have for whenever the daycare is not running.

Most working moms are lucky to have family and friends living close and available to offer help when required. Therefore between your family and your friends, you can find someone to look after your kids during the school holidays. As such consider utilizing this help if you have it during the upcoming school holidays.

Advantages/Benefits of Using Family/Friends for Holiday Childcare

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Family/Friends for holiday childcare is beneficial to a working mom because it has no cost. Your family and friends will rarely charge you for helping out looking after the kids. It is one of the benefit of using family and friends to care for your child.

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Family/Friends for holiday childcare are convenient. It is one of the major benefits using family & friends to baby sit your child during school holidays. They are a savior during urgent times, especially if they live close by. It is a major advantage of using family and friends to care for your child.

* Family/Friends for holiday childcare are readily available. It is a major advantage of suing family or friends as your go to childcare option during school holidays because other options may delay. Most family members or friends are available and willing to offer help when needed. It is one of the benefit of using family and friends to care for your child.

The Disadvantage/Drawback of Family/Friends for Holiday Childcare

* Family/Friends for holiday childcare lacks activities. It is a major drawback or disadvantage because development is key for your child. Your family members or friends may lack the skills and resources to interact and offer age-appropriate engagement and activities. For this reason, may do not prefer using family and friends for childcare during holidays.

Read: How to Ask Family and Friends for Help in Baby-Sitting

2. Hiring Holiday Babysitter’s a Convenient Alternative to Daycare

You can specifically use holiday babysitters as an option for daycare during school holidays. If you do not have the privilege of family or friends offering help, an option you should consider is hiring a babysitter for the period of the school break or school holiday. Baby sitters offer babysitting services and can be engaged temporarily. You can find one locally and also through an agency, where sitters post a job and then they book someone for them.

Advantages/Benefits of Using Baby-sitters for Holiday Childcare

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Baby-sitters for Holiday Childcare are Convenient. The benefits of using baby-sitters is because their available allows you to plan your time conveniently. They come to your home, saving you time and energy for any drop-off or pick up. This is a very major benefit of having baby sitters when the school breaks.

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Baby-sitters for Holiday Childcare are Cheap. It is considered one of the advantages and reasons why most working moms would go for holiday babysitters when their kids break from school. While experienced baby sitters are expensive ,other babysitters such as neighbors or college kids are cheaper. Around this time there is usually a high number of people doing baby-sitting. Also, sitter-sharing with other moms will bring the cost down significantly.

Disadvantages/Drawbacks of Using Baby-sitters for Holiday Childcare

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Baby-sitters for holiday have Limited availability. It is a major drawback since baby sittings needs urgency. It may be hard to get good babysitters, especially depending on location. Also, their services tend to go up in demand during the school breaks hence finding one may take time. This is a major drawback of working moms especially during certain times.

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Baby-sitters for Holiday Childcare are Costly- Generally babysitting is expensive, especially if the babysitters are experienced and highly qualified. They also charge per hour so cumulatively the cost will be high for the entire school break period. The cost involved is one the main drawback or reason some working moms discourage its use.

3. Day Camps for Holiday Childcare as Cheap & Convenient Alternative to Daycare

Day camps are a very popular option for childcare during school breaks. There are several school break camps programs that run from around the time that kids break for school holidays. There are many types of day camps and they are all a good alternative to daycare during school breaks or holidays.

Types of Day Camps During School Holidays

School Day Camps-

This is one the types of day camps that working moms use during school holidays. School programs that offer after-school programs also tend to have day camps during the holidays. They are very viable alternatives to daycares when schools close.

Private Camps

-This is the second type of day camps used by parents for their kids during school breaks. Private organizations or individuals run personalized and themed day camps such as theatre camps, arts camps, gymnastics camps, zoo, soccer, ski camp, etc. Most are run by YMCA, kid gyms, sports complexes, museums, churches, community, etc. They are very viable options to daycares when schools break.

Advantages/Benefits of Day-Camps for Holiday Childcare

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Day-Camps for Holiday Childcare are Activity packed- Their variety of activities is a major benefit or reason the camps are popular during school holidays, especially for older kids. These programs offer a place and age-appropriate activities for your school-going kids. They are also good for learning certain skills such as music, swimming, martial arts, etc.

* Day-Camps for Holiday Childcare are Affordable. Cost is a major factor working moms consider in choosing childcare options and many find the day camps to be advantageous in that they are affordable. The camps run by the school district or YMCA are usually cheaper and affordable to most working moms. It is one the major benefit of using day camps for childcare during the holidays.

Disadvantages/Drawbacks of Day-Camps for Holiday Childcare

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Day-Camps for Holiday Childcare are Costly. The high fee charged by some specialised day camps is a big drawback. Some day camps, especially the private camps are comparably expensive, a major drawback.

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Day-Camps for Holiday Childcare have Limited coverage. The fact that day camps do do not run for the whole day/week is some of the its disadvantages and the reason some moms may not find it convenient. It, therefore, means you still need to find alternative care for some hours/days of the week. Lack of convenience is a key drawback of day camps as alternatives to daycares.

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Day-Camps for Holiday Childcare are Age-specific- most camps are for kids of a certain age. You are less likely to find a program for preschool kids, which is a major disadvantage when considered during school holidays.

4.

Drop-in Care Services for Holiday Childcare as a Cheap Alternative to Daycare

If you cannot get help to your house, maybe you can get to the help. Around the school holiday breaks, some people offer drop-in services for school-going kids. This is a good option to daycare for looking after kids during the school holidays. It is typical home-based care when you drop in your kid in the morning and pick them up in the evening. The caregiver may have several kids under her care.

Advantages /Benefits of Drop-in Care Services for Holiday Childcare

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Drop-in Care Services for Holiday Childcare are Cheap- The service is cheaper compared to hiring a nanny or a babysitter. The arrangement is similar to nanny sharing, only for older kids. It is one consider a major benefit of using drop in services for childcare.

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Drop-in Care Services for Holiday Childcare are easily Available- they are easy to find during the school holiday. There is no booking needed so you can find one urgently, which is a huge benefit of using these services compared to a daycare.

The Disadvantage/Drawback of Drop-in Care Services for Holiday Childcare

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Drop-in Care Services for Holiday Childcare are Not convenient-Unless the place is close to your home or your office, the option is highly inconvenient considering the drop-off and pick-ups. It is considered a major drawback in comparison to the daycare.

5. Holiday Daycare Services  are Convenient during the School Holiday

Daycare centers are child care saviors for most working moms. They are affordable, convenient, and offer quality childcare for just about as young as a few months old babies. Many working moms may not be aware that daycares also offer care services for school-age kids during the holidays. They can offer care for as old as 12 years old kids. Ask the daycares around your area if they offer these services and enroll your kids there this holiday.

Advantages/Benefits of Using Daycare Care Services for Holiday Childcare

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Daycare Care Services for Holiday Childcare are Affordable- Daycare is cheaper for older kids than smaller kids hence more affordable. It is a key benefit and a reason working moms prefer using daycare services.

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Daycare Care Services for Holiday Childcare have Activities-This is an important benefit of holiday daycare as the kids are taken through age-relevant activities and programs and socialize with similar-age kids.

The Disadvantages of Daycare Care Services for Holiday Childcare

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Daycare Care Services for Holiday Childcare are Inconvenient- Unless the daycare is close to your home or your office, the option is highly inconvenient because of the drop-off and pick-up time and preparation hustle.

Read: Choosing between Daycare or Nanny for Toddlers

6. Mom-Friends Care-Sharing During Holidays as Alternative to Daycare

Your group of mom friends can organize a temporary care situation during the holiday. This is whereby you have one mom care for the all kids in the group for maybe a day or two. Another mom can take over from the other the next day and so forth until the holiday is over. All you need is for each working mom to have her designated care days when she can take work off days.

Advantages of Mom-Friends Care-Sharing During Holidays

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Mom-Friends Care-Sharing During Holidays have No cost- there is no payment whatsoever for childcare and this is one of its major benefits. You will all equally take responsibility for looking after the kids. It is considered a major benefit in comparison to the daycare.

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Mom-Friends Care-Sharing During Holidays are Practical- This advantage works for mom friends living in the same area. Also having the same interest improves the quality of care the kids will receive.

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Mom-Friends Care-Sharing During Holidays involve Socializing – It is a chance for the kids to meet and play with other kids. This is good for their social skills which most working parents atgree is beneficial to the kids. Both make this option to be quite beneficial to the kids.

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Mom-Friends Care-Sharing During Holidays support Development- the kid benefits from being in a different environment. They also get to play with different types of toys and engage with different activities at each house.

Disadvantage/Drawback of Mom-Friends Care-Sharing During Holidays

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Mom-Friends Care-Sharing During Holidays are Inconvenient- It may be quite a hustle to drop off and pick up the kids from the different houses of your mom’s friends.

7. Other Cheap Childcare Options During School Holidays: Shift sharing with a spouse, Arrange for Remote Work, etc.

If you have a partner, you and your husband can take turns in taking off workdays that alternate with yours. Therefore it will be either you or your husband at home with the kids. It is a great convenient option and will save you a ton of child cares costs that you may have used during the holiday period.

Alternatively, you can consider asking your employer to let you temporarily work remotely from home during the holiday. This option will allow you to stay home and keep an eye on your kids as you work. Working from home while still taking care of your kids will be demanding and super hard but it is entirely doable. Depending on the kind of work that do you do, you could do it in the off-hours. If you can flex your work hours, do as many hours as you can after bedtime and during naptime all the days of the holiday and weekends.

Read: Working from Home with a Baby

Factors to Consider When Looking For School Breaks Child Care Options

While looking for a childcare option for your kids during the school holidays you need to consider several factors.

1. Consider Cost When Looking For School Breaks Child Care Options

Finances are a big factor when choosing a childcare option for your kid. If you are under a budget, you should then consider the cheapest option available to you. Some cheap options include district camps and drop-in care services. Friends, family, and mom-friendly are at no cost at all. Private camps and babysitter costs are on the higher end.

2. Consider Convenience When Looking For School Breaks Child Care Options

As a working mom, a convenient child care option is very important. You need an option that is less demanding on you in terms of time and energy. You need an option that takes less time and engagement from you. In such a case, babysitters and family/friends are the best options. Camps, daycares, and drop-in services will require drops off and pickups, preparation which are time-consuming and draining.

3. Consider Quality/Activities When Looking For School Breaks Child Care Options

The quality and activities that the kids are engaged is also crucial. Some options are just bland with no development involved while others are customized for learning and growth. If you care for these activities, then day camps, babysitters, and daycare are the best options. For instance, daycares and break camps offer a variety of age-appropriate diversity programs and activities for the kids. On the other hand, the kids will get more attention when there are fewer kids under care such as under a babysitter, friends/family, and mom friends sharing.

Read: How to Find the Right Childcare Option

Parting Shot

Most of the above programs and their availability will vary a lot from one location to another. Where you live is therefore a major factor in the type of care mentioned above that you will have access to. For instance break camps are location-specific and your area may or may not have one.

Also, you may not find a fit-all care option for the entire holiday. As such you may need to patch things up. This means using several care options when they are most convenient for you. You may find yourself for instance using a camp and a babysitter at the same time.

School Breaks | YMCA Fun Company

Davidson County

Texas Parents Struggle With Childcare During the Holidays

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Home Education Texas Parents Struggle With Childcare During the Holidays

The public school system is by far the primary form of childcare for working Texas parents. On top of that, many Texas kids are part of the 13 million children nationwide that rely on school lunch programs in order to have three meals a day. When the holidays come around, what happens for the two weeks that kids are out of school?

Unfortunately, many of the supplemental child care programs also shut down for the winter holidays. Parents who rely on programs like Club Rewind won’t find them open when schools are closed. For the people who can afford it, though, there are usually camps.

Ripley House in Houston’s East End, for instance, offers various STEM winter camps all day at affordable prices. The DramaKids program also runs winter camps for the theatrically-minded child, and they have 10 locations open across the state. In fact, most extracurricular gyms and art activities usually have at least something your child can do during the day, though it may or may not be enough to allow you a full shift at work. 

Still, if you have the money, day camps can be a great benefit to the bored child who is driving you crazy rooting around the house for their presents.

“My son needs the social interaction, and we like it because it allows him to continue building on his knowledge of science and math,” says Dan Castillo from Houston, who uses the Ripley House camps. “The programs there seem to help him do both equally. It’s been a nice, balanced structure.”

Of course, that is assuming your child doesn’t have special needs. Unfortunately, parents of disabled or neurodiverse kids have a very hard time over the holidays when state-funded programs are on vacation.

One mother, who asked not to be identified, says she has a rough time finding daycare for her foster children who have experienced past trauma. Her middle child has been rejected from four separate daycares because they did not have proper discipline training.

“We love them dearly and wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world, though we were really feeling in the beginning that they should have selected a stay-at-home parent because we were worried we might not be able to keep both of our jobs to look after them,” she says.

Susie McGowan of Spring, Texas echoed her sentiments. She’s mostly given up trying to find care during the holidays because of her deaf and autistic child.

“It’s harder than normal for us,” says McGowan. “She’s not accepted at almost any childcare facility and finding a reliable babysitter that can keep up with her is damn near impossible. One of us usually ends up leaving our job to care for her.”

In the end, many parents have to rely on themselves to safely care for their kids during the break. Whether because of financial limitations, special needs of their children, or both, they often end up burning through vacation days or relying on the largesse of grandparents or non-working relations.

Feeding children can also become a parent’s nightmare. Anyone who has had bored children stuck around the house knows that they are capable of eating an incredible amount of food in a short period of time. Without the structure of school, they often start to graze on both your pantry and your wallet.

There are some programs available to help food insecure families. Kid’s Meals is a program that serves over 30 zip codes across the state. If you qualify for their aid, they deliver regular and even holiday meals to families. In Cy-Fair ISD, there is the Cy-Hope backpack program that already provides food from the Houston Food Bank on the weekends. If your child already qualifies for nutrition assistance at school, contact your district about supplemental programs.

For all that the holidays are times to be together, the fact is that the loss of reliable, subsidized childcare and meals can put intense strain on parents. If they have jobs that continue over the federal holiday (hi, from the land of freelance journalism!), children’s needs have to be juggled with work schedules and other concerns. 

Enjoying it is hard when you’re stressing over basic necessities.

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Jef Rouner

Jef Rouner is an award-winning freelance journalist, the author of The Rook Circle, and a member of The Black Math Experiment. He lives in Houston where he spends most of his time investigating corruption and strange happenings. Jef has written for Houston Press, Free Press Houston, and Houston Chronicle.

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When Parents Can’t Find Summer Child Care, Their Work Suffers

See also: “Methodology for ‘When Parents Can’t Find Summer Child Care, Their Work Suffers’” by Cristina Novoa

Americans see summer as a carefree time for children, but for working parents, finding summer child care can be a logistical and financial headache. Care is expensive and hard to find, forcing parents to make difficult trade-offs between work and family life.

Joi is one mother who knows this struggle all too well. She and her husband live with their four young children in Jonesboro, Georgia. Joi works full time during the day, while her husband works as a police officer at night, staggering their work schedules to accommodate their child care needs. Although their family has been able to secure regular, year-round child care for their younger children, they are still searching for an affordable summer program for their oldest, 6-year-old Mason. “As of right now I don’t have Mason enrolled in any summer camp. We’re hoping people will drop out of the parks department camp during the first two weeks so that a spot will open up. … I don’t know what I’ll do when I have to find summer care for my four kids,” Joi said in a personal interview.¹ With few options available, Joi is left scrambling for a short-term arrangement for her son—and dreading the day when she must juggle summer care for all her children.

Most children in the United States today live in families like Joi’s, where all available parents are in the workforce.² During the school year, many parents must find child care in the late afternoon and during school breaks. But finding child care when school lets out for the summer—without the six-hour school day and after-school programs to rely on—can be an even greater challenge. For many families, summer child care arrangements are expensive, difficult to find, and out of line with parents’ work schedules.³

The primary challenges that families face in accessing and affording summer child care

How exactly are parents making summer child care work for their families? To answer this question, the Center for American Progress conducted a short survey in May 2019 of approximately 1,000 parents of children ages 0 to 13 using the Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform. (see the methodology memo for additional information)⁴ This issue brief provides some key results from this survey and highlights the main obstacles that parents face in accessing summer child care. The author then discusses the repercussions of these issues, including impacts on families’ finances and careers as well as on the greater U. S. economy, and advocates for solutions in the form of legislation and government programs related to child care.

The results show that finding affordable child care is difficult, driving parents to make sacrifices that compromise their incomes and job security during the summer months.

The key findings include:

• Parents face barriers to securing care for their children, with 3 in 4 respondents reporting at least some difficulty finding child care during the summer.
• Cost is a common barrier to securing child care, with more than half of respondents reporting that paying for child care is a significant challenge.
• In 57 percent of families surveyed, a lack of child care means that at least one parent plans to make a job change that will result in reduced income.

Families face numerous obstacles to finding care, such as cost and availability

Finding care is difficult for families; most respondents surveyed—73 percent—reported at least some difficulty. Cost is the most common challenge parents face in securing summer care, with more than half of respondents reporting that cost was a challenge, aligning with earlier research.⁵ For example, CAP estimated that in 2018, a typical family of four could expect to pay more than $3,000 for summer programs—20 percent of its take-home pay for the entire summer. This is more than double the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ child care affordability threshold of 7 percent of total household income.⁶

Cost is not the only barrier that families face; availability and access to care are serious issues as well. Programs are often not available during the hours for which parents need care, and they are rarely available throughout the entire summer. Even if programs are open during the times parents need, distance to home or work often makes these options inaccessible. Some parents reported unique challenges, such as difficulties finding care for a child with disabilities. This echoes earlier research showing that parents of children with disabilities report having limited child care options.⁷ Other respondents expressed concerns around finding safe and reliable arrangements; several noted that typical babysitters, family members, or others they “trust” are not always available during the summer and that a program’s “reputation/safety” are important.⁸ As Joi describes it, “It’s very scary to take my kid to the park for summer camp since it was totally unknown to me—what it would be like. It’s almost like trial and error, you’re forced to kind of do it because you don’t have any other options.”⁹

Many families do not have care that fully meets their needs

About 1 in 3 respondents—32 percent—started looking for summer child care early, before March 2019. Considering that summer child care typically does not start until June, this means that one-third of parents started looking for care three months or more before needing it. As of May 2019, one-quarter of respondents reported not having care arrangements that fully met their family’s needs for the summer, despite advanced planning. This aligns with CAP’s earlier research, which shows that kids typically receive summer programming that covers just half of the 10- to 12-week break.¹⁰

Most parents make job sacrifices to provide care for the summer

To provide care for the summer, many working parents plan to make job-related changes. Although some of these changes—such as using paid vacation time—have little impact on families’ bottom lines, many others—such as working fewer hours or days per week—result in decreased income for families. The author classifies these latter changes as “job sacrifices.” Survey results showed that in 57 percent of families surveyed, at least one parent plans on making a change to their job that is likely to result in a smaller paycheck, and in nearly one-third of families, both parents plan on making a job sacrifice. To ensure that these results were not driven by families in which parents have jobs, such as teaching, that do not require summer hours, the author excluded those families from this part of the analysis using responses to Question 3 (see methodology memo) and found the results unchanged.

Making job sacrifices that reduce families’ incomes can have consequences for family economic security, as well as for parents’ careers. While this survey did not ask about the respondents’ gender, research demonstrates that mothers are more likely than fathers to leave the workforce or make work adjustments because of problems with child care.¹¹ After taking time away or adjusting their schedules to account for summer child care needs, parents could face barriers to re-entering the workforce at the same level or seeking a promotion or raise in the future. Additionally, for many families, paying for summer programs can be a significant budget item that they do not account for at other times in the year. As Joi describes it, “I have this new bill that I’m not used to having because it’s only for the summer. It’s not a regular budget item.”¹² This expense, coupled with reductions in take-home pay for parents, can leave families financially strapped.

The lack of summer child care for American families and the job sacrifices that parents are making as a result could contribute to the larger economic burden of the child care crisis. Each year, American families lose out on $8.3 billion in wages,¹³ and one estimate finds that the economy sacrifices $57 billion each year in lost revenue, wages, and productivity due to overall child care issues—not just summer care.¹⁴

Policy implications

Work does not stop just because school lets out for the summer, and few families have the flexibility in their schedules or the necessary vacation time to take the summer off.¹⁵ Families struggle year-round to pay for child care, but during the summer, many more parents are making tough trade-offs to make care work for their school-age children. ¹⁶ Policymakers can act to support families’ access to affordable child care for their children during the summer, including by implementing the following policies and programs.

Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG): The CCDBG provides funding to states to help eligible low-income families pay for child care, including for after-school and summer care for school-age children. While the CCDBG helps families afford child care, it does not have enough funding to meet the needs of all eligible children, with just 1 in 6 eligible families actually receiving assistance.¹⁷ Demand for child care subsidies for school-age children increases during the summer months, with 30 states and territories reporting significant increases in the number of school-age children served through subsidies during the summer months.¹⁸ Although Congress doubled funding for the CCDBG in 2018,¹⁹ enabling states to serve more eligible families, more is needed to provide necessary assistance to families during the summer months and throughout the year.

21st Century Learning Centers (21st CCLCs): 21st CCLCs provide the only federal funding for community-based after-school and summer programs, which offer students enriching experiences and a safe place to spend time outside of the school day.²⁰ In the 2016–2017 performance period, more than 2 million students and families in underserved communities participated in programs funded through the 21st CCLCs program, including more than 300,000 children during the summer.²¹ Despite this program’s demonstrated success, just 1.7 million of the 21 million eligible youth—around 8 percent—attend Community Learning Centers due to funding limitations.²² What’s more, President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating this program in each of his presidential budgets for the past three years, though for now, funding for the program is safe.²³ Congress should instead bolster funding for 21st CCLCs so that more communities can offer programs that serve children and families during the summer months.

The Child Care for Working Families Act (CCWFA): The CCWFA is the most comprehensive proposed child care legislation to date.²⁴ This bill would limit families’ child care payments to 7 percent of their income and provide parents with year-round, high-quality child care options—including during the summer—to help parents maintain jobs and ensure that their children receive well-supervised and trusted care. An estimated 3 in 4 children in the United States would be income-eligible for assistance under this bill, and early educators would be guaranteed a living wage.²⁵ Passing this legislation, which was reintroduced in the House and Senate last February, would significantly reduce the summer child care burden and help families keep more of their paychecks in the summer months.²⁶

Conclusion

The United States’ child care system does not work for many families, especially during the summer. Families struggle to find affordable, high-quality care that meets their needs and fits their budgets. When they don’t find care, parents are forced to make difficult trade-offs that result in job sacrifices and smaller paychecks for their families. Lawmakers should enact policies that support families’ access to child care throughout the year, including the summer—a step that is crucial for both families and the U.S. economy.

Cristina Novoa is a senior policy analyst for Early Childhood Policy at the Center for American Progress.

The author would like to thank Leila Schochet for her partnership on this project.

REMINDER for parents “ATTENTION! SUMMER VACATION!”

05/24/2021

Views: 1385

Dear parents!

Summer is coming. Your kids are about to start their summer holidays. Children will have the opportunity to take a break from school, sunbathe, swim in the river or pool, walk along tourist trails, in holiday camps or on sports grounds to make new friends. The guys, as always, are looking forward to these holidays.

It is very important that summer holidays do not turn into misfortunes, injuries… Therefore, summer places a special responsibility on parents. The Family Code of the Russian Federation (Article 63, Clause 1) states: “Parents have the right and duty to raise their children. Parents are responsible for the upbringing and development of their children. They are obliged to take care of the health, physical, mental, spiritual and moral development of their children…”.

We kindly ask you not to leave your children unattended. Take an interest in their affairs, pastime, their friends; the computer games they play, the websites they visit, and be aware of your children’s movie and music tastes.

Constantly remind you to be safe on the roads, when swimming, when handling fire and electrical appliances.

In an effort to prove that they are already adults, teenagers during the summer holidays can try alcohol and tobacco for the first time. Explain to children that health is the most valuable and irreplaceable asset of a person, it is the key to their success and well-being in the future.

Trusting, look closely at the state of your children returning home, whether they are in good health. If you see that the behavior or mood of your child has changed dramatically for no reason known or visible to you, try to delicately find it out, and if necessary, contact specialists.

Special attention on the part of adults is required for children to rest near water bodies. The reasons for the death of children on the water are known: ignorance of the rules of conduct, non-compliance with safety measures when swimming, lack of swimming skills and insufficient control by adults over their behavior. Be considerate of your own and other children. It is in our power to save the most valuable thing – the life of a child!

We draw your attention to tips on how to protect your child from accidents on the water: – provide organized recreation for school-age children during the summer holidays; – do not let minor children go to water objects alone without supervision; – do not instruct your older children, especially minors, to look after younger children on the water; – do not show a negative example by swimming in places where swimming is FORBIDDEN!;

– memorize emergency phone numbers with your children, where children can call if you are not around;

– explain to children that a cell phone is primarily designed to communicate with parents and call for emergency help;

– their main task, if they see a drowning person,

– not to get confused, but very quickly and loudly call adults for help, dial the number of the rescue service.

Parents, remember:

– at night your child must be at home (from 22:00 to 06:00 local time) children and teenagers are legally prohibited from appearing on the street unaccompanied by adults;

– if your child returns late, try to meet him, in the absence of such an opportunity, ask friends, neighbors, relatives (those whom you trust) about this.

Make sure the child has actually come home;

– if you do not know the whereabouts of your child, he does not answer phone calls, contact the internal affairs authorities immediately, do not search on your own;

– do not give your child large sums of money, expensive phones, audio, video and photo equipment.

Tell your children the following information:

1) be careful when making casual acquaintances, do not rush to give your phone number and address to unfamiliar people, no matter how friendly they may seem;

2) do not walk outside until dark;

3) do not go far from home, and if this happens, let you know where and with whom he is in this place, call you back if his location changes;

4) bypass unfamiliar companies and drunk people;

5) avoid deserted places, ravines, wastelands, basements, attics, abandoned houses and premises;

6) in a conversation with friends and in the presence of strangers, do not boast that at home (parents) have expensive items, valuables, jewelry;

7) do not show the phone and do not brag about it in front of unfamiliar and strangers;

8) do not give a cell phone into the hands of strangers;

9) never agree if a stranger invites a child to their home or other place to listen to music, take pictures, give something, watch movies, animals, or asks to go somewhere to help do something ;

10) do not go into dark yards, move as far as possible on a familiar route, on a lighted street or where there are many people;

11) not to take anything from unfamiliar or unfamiliar people;

12) use force, shout loudly, call for help, run away, call apartments, knock on windows, etc. , if someone tries to catch, overtake or grab a child;

13) not to visit unfamiliar sites on the Internet, not to respond to offers from strangers in social networks; if someone through the sites is trying to importunately seek friendship, asks for a visit or invites to meet, tell parents or other adults whom the child trusts about it. Don’t go anywhere without warning them;

14) categorically refuse to try smoking mixtures, alcohol, drugs; something to sniff, drink, chew. If you can’t just refuse, then refer to an allegedly existing disease, in which these actions can lead to irreversible consequences.

Parents, please remember our advice and share this information with other parents, your adult children and friends! Know that disaster is easier to prevent

Schools may go on vacation from December 27

The reason for extending the holidays is known: although the incidence of coronavirus infection in the capital has fallen, COVID-19 itself has not gone anywhere. And at any moment it can flare up with renewed vigor, doctors warn. “The lengthening of the holidays is a concern for maintaining the health of students. We have a good example of the autumn holidays, which were extended to two weeks. The students were separated at that time, which helped break the chains of the spread of the disease,” the press service told RG. Department of Education and Science of Moscow. The department noted that it is up to the schools themselves to decide what the holidays are like: “The law on education states that any changes in the schedule require coordination with the governing board of the school.”

There are no plans to introduce duty groups for middle or high school. But for primary school students whose parents will be busy at work, such groups will be organized from December 27 to 30. To identify a child in such a group, fathers or mothers need to bring a certificate from work stating that they will be at the workplace.

Parents of kindergarten-age children, as well as college students, need not worry. Both pre-school and secondary vocational educational institutions in the capital will work as usual, that is, until December 30 inclusive.

As Irina Voloshko, director of school N1234, told RG, the last short week before the holidays always passes in an easier way. “No tests or serious tests are carried out these days, usually the material covered is repeated,” says Voloshko. “Our school governing council supported the recommendation of the department. Yes, and I think it’s normal that children start resting four days earlier.

Our students “We studied well, actively participated in the Olympiads, school life. In addition, we have school balls planned, and it’s good that there will be time to prepare for them. For elementary school, of course, we will create an on-duty class, parents have already been warned.” “We have not yet approved the vacation dates, since there was no meeting of the governing council. We are waiting for its decision,” Olga Monchakovskaya, deputy director of school N1524, told RG. “But just in case, we planned a program of activities for December 27-30.”

School N1474 has already warned parents that there will be no lessons from December 27th. “The early departure for the holidays turned out to be unexpected, but pleasant,” the father of many children Yuriy Timoshenko shares with RG. “We planned to celebrate the New Year in the capital, and now we can go to Anapa, for the first time we will spend the winter holidays at sea.” He noted that the first part of the school year passed quietly, the sons did not have lessons in a remote format, but the class of the daughter of the seventh grader Elina twice went to the “remote school”.

“The guys were very worried that they did not communicate with each other and teachers,” says a father with many children. “But if the extension of the holidays can affect the reduction in the incidence of children and quarantines, then I am in favor of extending the spring holidays!” Daria Bilyalova, the mother of a fifth-grader Ivan, is also happy with the increase in holidays: “My son has his first year in high school, many subjects, he studies in trimesters. I see that he is tired, let him rest longer.” Most students also supported the idea.

“The mood is pre-holiday, new knowledge does not come to mind,” admitted Masha Ivanova, a fourth-grader from school N1574. Happy holidays and Matvey Prikhodko, eighth grader of the school. Artem Borovik: “I’ll have a rest, read books, meet friends.” And only one of the respondents, 11th-grader Ilya Gladyshev, a student of the Second School Lyceum, who, together with the Moscow team, won the International Olympiad of Megacities, answered that the extension of vacations “does not shine” for him: “I study according to an individual program, I rarely go to school, more often at training camps, but I’m glad for my classmates.”

How are you?

Schoolchildren of Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur, like many Moscow schools, will go on New Year holidays from December 27th and will rest until January 10th. But children’s institutions of additional education have been closed to the public since December 15. In Ulan-Ude, the incidence of SARS in children has increased, so from December 14, schools switched to distance learning, but students will be sent on vacation only on December 29. To extend the winter vacation – at least for now – the committee on education of the city administration does not plan. In the capital of Transbaikalia, the city of Chita, 14 days are allotted for winter holidays – from December 27 to December 9January inclusive. The Ministry of Education of the Sakhalin Region recommended that all schools in the last week of the year, that is, from December 27, transfer students to distance learning. And in the north of the island, in the city of Okha, schoolchildren will already begin to rest that day.

As RG was informed by the Ministry of Education of the Novosibirsk Region, schools themselves determine and set vacation dates in accordance with their curricula. The situation is the same in the Omsk region: the school itself decides when the holidays are, taking into account what system it has (quarterly or trimester) and how the workload is distributed throughout the year. In the Tomsk region, determining vacation periods is also the authority of the educational institution, but there are recommendations: give students a break from 29December to January 9 inclusive. Similar dates – in the schools of the Altai Territory.

Schools in Smolensk have already closed for a week-long quarantine due to influenza – until December 23, that is, almost before the start of the New Year holidays, classes can only be conducted remotely. Schoolchildren will go on vacation as planned – from December 29. In the Ulyanovsk region, holidays will begin on December 31, and on January 10, children will return to school.

In the Rostov Region and in the Krasnodar Territory, they also decided to leave the holidays unchanged, but in the Stavropol Territory they were extended. Here, students will go on vacation from December 26, and return to school on 9January. The head of the region, Vladimir Vladimirov, explained that a two-week vacation will help break the chain of infection with coronavirus.

Holidays have been officially announced in the Leningrad region since December 25th. A compromise decision was made in St. Petersburg – all grades will also be given to schoolchildren by December 25, and all Christmas trees and matinees should also be held by next Friday. Whether to continue work on December 27 and 28, each school will decide independently. In the Pskov region, from December 27 to 30, only duty classes for the smallest children will work in schools, who have no one to leave with while their parents are at work. All other students will go on vacation. Tatyana Tkacheva , Vera CHERENEVA , 2 The Grange CP School

The law does not give parents an automatic right to pick up their child from school during the term. If the request is for a term absence, you must be the parent with whom the child usually lives.