Some day cares are reopening — and new ones are starting — for the children of essential workers

As the coronavirus pandemic drags on and quarantine measures mandated by the state tighten, some day cares that shuttered initially have reopened to care for the kids of essential workers.

And the scope of child care is expanding, as Virginia Beach’s parks department launches a whole new stop-gap program for city staffers and medical workers.

Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration released guidance a few weeks ago asking for any child care providers who could abide by new standards like cleaning and social distancing to remain open or reopen. More than a quarter of child care centers around the state had closed at that point.

It also opened the door to a whole other wave of emergency child care options.

Virginia Beach closed its rec centers in mid-March, as the state slid into its current state of emergency. But this week, they reopened as day-care centers for those city staffers who have to keep coming to work and have nowhere else to send their children.

Julie Braley, the spokeswoman for the city’s parks and recreation department, said Virginia Beach has taken the staff that were looking after kids during before- and after-school programs at the rec centers and now have them running full-day care.

But like everything else while under lockdown, this is different than just opening the doors and letting kids flood into the classrooms and ball courts.

Staff meets every family at its car each morning to limit contact and take the temperature of every child before they walk in the building.

The number of kids per building is limited, though all seven rec centers are available as the numbers grow. Braley said there were 200 spots open initially. The week started with 42 kids across three rec centers, though that number was expected to climb.

And starting next week, Virginia Beach also will open the program to some essential medical staff at Sentara. Braley said the city had been talking to the healthcare provider to get a list of essential personnel to offer the open spots.

Emily Griffey, from youth advocacy group Voices for Virginia’s Children, said Virginia Beach’s move is a great example of how the child care system is going to have to get creative to keep up with what’s needed. She said new guidance from the federal government has helped assuage some concerns day care providers had early on about how to keep themselves and the kids in their care safe.

But there are still questions about financial help for day cares that have seen the number of kids — and thus, their revenue — cut as people suddenly found themselves working from home or out of work altogether.

“This industry is making sure a lot of other things happen and it is essential,” Griffey said. “We don’t want childcare providers laying off their staff, totally closing their doors so they aren’t there when people need to go back to work.”

YMCAs on the Peninsula and the Southside both closed when schools did, but announced late in March after Northam’s plea for emergency child care efforts they would reopen their day care services for children of essential personnel.

Jamie Childress, who oversees youth programs for the YMCA of South Hampton Roads’, said seven Y’s located near hospitals have reopened to help care for the children of medical staff, first responders, military and food and supply chain workers.

Right now, he said, enrollment has been slow. The Y is only caring for between five and nine kids at each open facility.

One reason: The cost to enroll a child is about $200 a week and the Y, which Childress said would often have ways to help defray the costs for parents, is in a major squeeze.

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Donations have dissipated and other revenue streams have come to an abrupt halt as the facilities closed, Childress said. Meanwhile, child care costs for the Y have basically doubled with lower ratios of kids-to-staff required by new public health guidelines.

That’s left little to help those who can’t afford to pay.

“It’s unprecedented for us because usually we’d have a bank of resources and say ‘No, we’ve got you,’ but that kitty’s kind of dry," Childress said.

He said he expects attendance to tick up later this month and into May as the Y figures out ways to lower the financial barriers and more people need child care, either as others close or as people return to work.

But the challenges don’t stop there. Besides long-term financial issues, Childress said the YMCA’s summer camp programs, where many school-age children are looked after while parents work, were set to start June 15.

The state-issued stay-at-home order is set to run through June 10. Childress said the Y is still trying to figure out how to deal with recruiting and training summer camp staff in a safe way so that they’re ready for June.

Ryan Murphy, 757-739-8582, ryan.murphy@pilotonline.com