Coronavirus doesn’t close Tacoma day care. Low-income and foster kids need it, director says
Like a number of local child care facilities, the COVID-19 outbreak has hit the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center hard.
It’s created uncertainty, according to executive director Gail Neal, about the present and the future.
Normally, the facility near South 19th and Sprague serves about 150 children a day, but recently it’s been down to roughly 40. Financially, that’s a problem.
Meanwhile, to limit the potential spread of infection, the center and the staff have been forced to screen kids during parking lot drop-offs, reduce class sizes and disinfect constantly.
On Monday two children were sent home after their parents reported not following social distancing practices over the weekend.
It’s a lot to deal with, Neal said, but there’s no other choice.
Closing the center, which serves children 2 to 12 years old, would be “really tough,” she said.
As efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus have escalated, it’s surely a calculation weighed by plenty of area day care facilities. They provide an essential service during a crisis, and yet the economic realities persist.
For the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center, however, the stakes are even higher.
Ninety-eight percent of the nonprofit’s families are low-income — including some experiencing homelessness — and about 35 percent are in foster care, Neal said.
Among other things, the center works with the state Department of Health and Social Services, serving as emergency child care for kids when they’re removed from a home throughout the region. It also provides respite care for area foster families, offers parent-child visitation services, and works with at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds and their families through the state’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program.
“We’re not a regular day care,” Neal said. “We actually have 22 programs … We’re the only one in the state who does this kind of work.”
Economically, the center is also unique. A nonprofit, it relies almost exclusively on contracts and funding from the state and federal government, using a fee-for-service model, Neal said.
Typically, that means if the center doesn’t provide services it doesn’t get paid, and given the disruption caused by the spread of coronavirus, Neal said she doesn’t know what’s going to happen.
She does know payday is coming soon for employees, and it worries her.
The center has 105 employees, she said, including 38 teachers.
“I’ve been telling staff that we’re going to figure out,” Neal said, acknowledging she’s not sure how.
“We’ve gone through so much together. For us, there’s strength in numbers,” she added, noting that some employees have already offered to continue working even if the checks don’t come in.
Pausing to reflect, Neal said she has been taking some of her strength from the scene around her at the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center.
It’s “more like a family,” she said, describing an impromptu afternoon dance party with the children followed by a late-night cleaning session for staff.
More than anything, Neal said, the facility is trying to “keep the kids grounded,” but with safety concerns and many families already dealing with the harsh economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis, it hasn’t been easy.
Neal said she’s already seen the strain on people and knows worse days might be ahead.
Still, the kids who are at the center desperately need the stability it provides, and that keeps Neal going.
“The teachers have done really well. They are trying hard to not scare the kids and to plan extra activities. We actually had a really good week,” she said. “Watching the kids and teachers play and just enjoy each other has been really good for me. It kind of has a calming effect to it that feels really good.”
“But in the back of my mind I keep thinking I’ve got to make sure these people get paid,” she added.
“It’s scary.”
