Does your school/district offer before care?

[greenmonkey1]

This is brought to you by a FB thread I've been reading on our elementary school's parent page.

Our elementary schools have aftercare, but no before care.  Kids can get into the building starting at 7:30 am (school starts at 8 AM).  My kids have the first bus pick-up on the route at 7 AM.  There are some parents on the FB page complaining about how our district makes it hard for WPs because we have no before care.  I'm just curious if before care is a normal offering and our district is just behind the times.  

[waverly]

Yes, we have a company onsite that offers before and aftercare. Before care opens at 6 am.

I think it is a normalish offering, and the same company that does aftercare could likely be scaled to before care.

However, with public schools I am learning that they are all a little bit different. For example in the town where I work in, top rated schools, they offer no hot lunch (or rather once a month with volunteers) So parents have to pack lunches for 8 years until high school.

Ours only offers half day K. Other schools don't offer any on site before or aftercare and those parents have to use a daycare, YMCA, Big Brothers type operation or a babysitter. For a couple of years, my school growing up did not offer busing. It was all budget, history, and local politics/ administration dependent.

ETA- is there an option for parents to use daycare before care?  When we were still using daycare we designated that as our pick up and drop off for busing.  We drop them off at daycare, school picks them up from and then drops them off at daycare, and then we picked up from daycare.  

[186momx]

No before care offered by the school district or school PTO's for my district. I do know of a number of schools in the neighboring district that use before school as a huge part of their PTO fundraising. Parent volunteers cover the hour before school and it cost X per day your kid goes. It seems to work out great for everyone.

DD school doesn't start until 8:45. Doors open for breakfast at 8:15. There is only 1 daycare in our area that offers before school coverage. This is the place DD goes. There are only 2 elementary schools in our district that start by 8:15 door open at 7:45. So this time frame isn't nice to WPs.

I can see why the school/districts don't offer it if doors open at 7:30 and busses start picking up at 7am. Most daycare centers here don't even open until 7am.

[sdlaura]

Yes, ours has before and after care. Although I guess I can see their reasoning that if you can drop kids at 7:30 am, there may be only a small population that would need it.

I can drop off starting at 7:45 am here for the normal school day (starts at 8 am). I pay for before care because it's a really cheap add-on, but almost never need it, because I can't often get my kids out of the house before that anyway.

[sdlaura]

waverly, wow, there's no option to buy lunch?

I'm hoping my DS2 (starting kinder) wants to buy his lunch everyday like DD does - then no more lunch making for me for a full school year! It is pricey here ($4 a day per kid), and I have to set rules with the kids about what they're allowed to buy (they can only add on a drink or dessert on Fridays).

[waverly]

sdlaura, yeah no option to buy hot lunch in the town where I work k-8th grade. They have these beautiful kitchens, but no one is in there making any food. The only food that is made is once a month run by the parent volunteers. I can't believe it to be honest; I kept asking the parents.

I think lunch in the town where I live is $2.50 and sometimes DS will add an extra milk. I had to ask because I kept seeing this .25 charge, and I couldn't figure out what was happening . I think I pay about $75 a month for 2 kids to eat hot lunch. Considering when I pack lunches I buy all sorts of things I don't normally buy (ham and more cheese, more bagels and bread, sides, juiceboxes etc.), I figure it is about what I would pay in groceries every day to pack it.

[campermom]

Just about every public elementary does here. Our start times vary anywhere from 7:30 to 9. My kids’ school starts at 9:30 (doors open at 9). They go to before care but not at the school bc I still have a FT preschooler in daycare and I only want one drop off. When he gets to K I will have the two youngest go to before care at school. I don’t need aftercare bc I get off in time to get them.

[twinmomma]

Before/After care is provided by a daycare that the school district contracts with. They open at 6:30 AM and close at 6 PM. It's a game changer, because otherwise I can't drop off until like 8 AM, which is next to impossible with a job and a commute.

[supertrooper1]

No before or after care is offered at DS's school.

[keh2oblue]

No, not here. Kids can get in at 7:15, school starts at 7:40

[madringal]

School begins at 8 and kids can be dropped off at 7:30, so no formal before school care. But kids can buy/get breakfast during that time if they need/want to.

We have onsite after school care through the YMCA.

[mommyatty]

Ours does but it’s free. We can drop at 7:00 for 8:15 start. We would have to pay for aftercare. Summers we have to pay for before care if we want to drop off before 9:00.

[sandandsea]

Yes but we pay for it separately and it’s pricey. We also don’t have bus service.

ETA. School starts around 8:30 and kids are only allowed on campus 10 mins before the bell rings.

[mustardseed2007]

Our public school doesn't happen but school starts early - 7:40? But before care is offered in a neighboring district where school starts at 8:45.

[mae0111]

My kids are in private school now, and there is before and after school care on site. After school care ends early, around 530 I think. Most working parents have to stagger their working hours to make it.

The public school district has no district-run before or after school care. It’s really terrible. It’s a huge town with a ton of working parents, and only 3 privately owned options that will transport to and from school. They fill up quickly so many families rely on private sitters.

ETA: public elementary starts at 8:40am here. There is no staff officially on site before 8:25am. With traffic or by train, it takes over an hour to commute into the city (14 miles). That’s why I had a FT nanny when I worked.

My kids’ school starts at 820, but before school starts at 7.

[hocus2]

No before care here but others schools to offer it. The building opens around 7:30 and it is common for working parents with shift work like nurses or just long commutes to have issues finding care if they can't drop off at 7:30 and still make it to work. FWIW the district is small the bus would only maybe get you an extra 10 mins.

I think it would be great if they offer a no frills drop in program starting at 7:00. There is staff in the building by then. 

[k3am]

Our program offers beforecare starting at 6:30.. but the earliest you can drop off for school is 8:30. If we could drop off at 7:30, we wouldn’t bother paying for beforecare. It’s expensive.

[erinshelley21]

Our school and public school both have before care. Not sure what time it starts. Public school offers after care and we have it MWF, still trying to find T and Th. Our school didnt let parents know until like 4 days before school started that they didnt have anyone to do aftercare. Parents were not happy.

[ECB]

It's offered in that a 3rd party vendor rents space from the school and offers before and after care. Obviously we pay a monthly fee to the vendor and only so many kids can be enrolled at a time. So - it's there and we luckily got a spot, but before/after care is still a huge struggle in my area.

[callmekd]

we did when school started at 8:30am. (before school care opened at 7am)

this year, school is starting at 7:30am and it's expected that the doors will open by 7:15am so there will be no before school care (which makes sense to me. it's not financially feasible for the program to run in the morning).

[phdmomma]

Nope, but the school bus for ours comes at 7:15am, because we are an early start school. Some of the late start schools in the district have before care though.

[greenmonkey1]

Thanks for all of the responses! Like I said, I have no basis for comparison and was curious. For what it's worth, I don't live in/near a city with major transportation where most parents would have a crazy commute. You can get downtown within 30-minutes by car from our school district during rush hour.

waverly Yes, I do believe some of the daycares will transport to the school in the AM. However, I think most of the daycares open at 7 AM so I am not sure how much that would help.

erinshelley21 The late communication is the pits! I hope you find aftercare on the days you need.

[erinshelley21]

greenmonkey1 thankfully I dont need it. I just know from newsletters and talking to other parents. They did finally fill the position today though!

[livinitup]

Our district let’s the YMCA runs before/after school program at the school that parents can enroll and pay for.

[librarychica]

They offer both, some schools direct from the county and some via a contractor. We weren’t happy with it and switched to a babysitter, but it’s offered. There are not enough spaces to meet the demand at our school due to staffing challenges.

Honestly, all the issues in our county — school transport, care — are due to staffing challenges because they won’t pay competitive rates.

[mellym]

We don’t live in a major city and school starts at 7:45. Doors open at 7:30. Our before care starts at 6am at school and after care ends at 6pm. It’s offered by the Y.

[covergirl82]

Our district offers before care and after care. Staff are employed by the school district. Parents can drop off as early as 6:00 am for before care and can pick up as late as 6:00 pm for after care.