Charles City School District to offer free child care for essential workers starting Monday

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Starting Monday, Charles City Community Schools will be providing free child care to families working on the front lines against COVID-19.

In a press release, the district said that child care for essential workforce within the community will be provided for parents and guardians starting Monday, March 23. This will be at no cost to those that meet the eligibility.

Those eligible as “essential workforce” include all hospital staff, all healthcare providers in private practice and all direct care staff, all long-term health care providers, staff who provide critical government infrastructure such as social services, child protection services, other public safety, and help other public health officials, emergency responders and food-service workers, including grocery store staff, according to the Department of Human Services (DHS).

“We are committed to staffing the child care for the length of the day that best fits our community needs, so those essential workers can continue to care for and serve our community members,” the district stated.

Parents offered this service will be limited to a two-parent household who both work in one of those fields or a single parent who works in one of those fields.

A family can sign up by completing a form by clicking a link on the Charles City School District’s website. The Department of Human Services (DHS) is asking for all eligible parents or guardians to complete the form, even if they are currently using an in-home day care provider or community provider.

The primary facility for the program will be at Washington Elementary, and the secondary facility will be The Learning Center: TLC. The hours of operation will be similar to that of a traditional school day and determined based on the need of the parent/guardian hours.

“We know we have an obligation to support our front-line health care workers, who are fighting COVID-19, so we are doing everything we can to provide child care services to those essential personnel,” Charles City Superintendent of Schools Mike Fisher said earlier this week. “We want to take care of our front-line health care personnel who are fighting COVID-19.”

“We want to ensure parents serving in critical roles … who are impacted by school closures continue to have access to child care,” the district stated. “For those parents with children 12 years old and younger or a child with special needs up to age 19 years old, the Department of Human Services will ensure access to child care located at Washington Elementary and TLC.”

Space will be limited, so Fisher asked that eligible parents explore other child care options before coming to the school district.

“Hopefully you have a different plan for child care, but if you can’t find other places and you’re one of these eligible people, we’ll have this as a back-up plan for you,” he said.