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DaShaun Hodge, 4, left, and Brandon Green, 3, practice reading and learn to recognize shapes during a class at the ABK Learning & Development Center in the Hill District, in April 2018. The child development center offers care for children seven days a week, 24-hours a day, serving children of parents who might work non-traditional hours.
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Gov. Wolf orders child care centers to close, but some can seek waivers

Nate Guidry/Post-Gazette

Gov. Wolf orders child care centers to close, but some can seek waivers

Gov. Tom Wolf ordered child care centers in Pennsylvania closed effective Tuesday in response to the COVID-19 pandemic but is leaving some wiggle room for those serving families of nurses and first responders, according to the administration.

The mandate came after Mr. Wolf ordered nonessential businesses statewide to shut down for two weeks, including gyms, theaters and concert venues, but granting exceptions to grocery stores, pharmacies, banks and more.

Where the children of those workers go now is on the minds of parents and child care providers.

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“The best thing I can say is this is fluid, this is unprecedented,” said Cara Ciminillo, executive director of Trying Together, a nonprofit early childhood advocacy group that has been working to distribute the latest information to confused parents and providers.

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Ms. Ciminillo said she spent most of Monday on conference calls with those in the child care sector discussing the governor’s directive.

Mr. Wolf said during a Monday afternoon news conference that despite calling for closures “we are not sending out the State Police or the National Guard to enforce this.”

By 6 p.m. child care providers received an email from the commonwealth’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning stating that “certified child care centers (3270) and group child care homes (3280) operating outside a residence shall cease operations effective midnight.”

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Providers were told they could apply for a waiver by emailing the office at RA-PWDRACERT@pa.gov, according to the email.

The City of Philadelphia is an exception in the state. It is granting its own waivers in coordination with OCDEL, which is collecting the waiver requests and sharing that information with city officials.

“We recognize that the temporary closure of child care facilities is a burden for all Pennsylvania families who depend on this service. Because it is especially burdensome for essential personnel such as health care workers and first responders who must have safe and stable care options for their children in order to report to work,” said Erin James, spokeswoman for the office.

As soon as child care center owner Joanne Fenchak received the message, she requested a waiver.

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“My husband is a police officer and several of my families the moms of are nurses, and I know they don’t get a day off no matter what the circumstance is,” said Ms. Fenchak, who operates Joanne’s Child Care in Conway, Beaver County.

Roughly a quarter of the 40 families she serves work in sectors that are categorized as essential. She said she received permission to keep operating by late Tuesday morning.

“Some parents too are working from home but let’s be honest, it’s really hard to work with a toddler in your house. Now that I do have the waiver, I plan on letting my families know that we’ve been granted it because I don’t want them to feel guilty about needing to do what they need to do,” she said.

Ms. Fenchak said she learned through an email chain Monday night that several other child care facilities around her decided to close.

That’s the situation Lesely Crawford finds herself in now. She owns and operates two ABK Learning and Development Center locations in the Hill District and Morningside. 

Most of the parents she serves have elected to keep their children home, but a few work in the health care and public safety fields. She is working with them to decide whether she should apply for a waiver.

“Should I just close and remain as an emergency care provider? That’s our goal to open just for those parents,” said Ms. Crawford, who operates during nontraditional hours, including overnight. 

She said was “taken aback” when she heard Mr. Wolf put child care centers in a nonessential bucket.

“I was like ‘wait a minute, nonessential?’ They lumped senior and child care centers in the same category as bars and hair shops,” she said. “That is not the right tone we should be using when we’re talking about children and child care.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, Tiffini Simoneaux, early childhood manager for the city of Pittsburgh, said she was unaware of any child care centers in city limits that received a waiver.

“One of the challenges with childcare facilities is that you have to maintain a child-to-staff ratio. That may be a challenge for the staffing,” she said.

The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh closed its Early Learning Center, which cares for infants to pre-K, on Saturday, despite several parents it serves working in the healthcare industry. The center is a licensed child care center and would have been among those ordered to close.

“A lot of them were already making plans with nannies, babysitters. Some of our educators do babysit as well outside of school hours,” said Liza Baron, director of early childhood development for the organization, which serves 200 children at its Squirrel Hill location and 100 in the South Hills.

“Certainly our job as a community center is to be thinking about the families we're serving, but also protecting them, and just as important thinking about how we're taking care of our staff in regards to social responsibility and looking out for their health. It was the responsible thing to do at that time,” she said. 

The city itself is still offering limited childcare at the 200 Ross St. building for some city first responders, and on Tuesday “a few kids” were there.

The city’s provider, Flexable, is exempt from the closures, as it offers on-site, “pop-up” child care, said Priya Amin, its chief executive officer.

When Mr. Wolf announced Friday that schools would close for a minimum of two weeks, “it went kind of nuts,” said Ms. Amin. “There’s a ton of demand.”

She’s heard from manufacturing companies, even out of state, that need workers on site, as well as from existing clients who need child care for essential workers who cannot work from home.

And in an economy is that grappling with a pandemic, Ms. Amin is in a select club of businesses that are actively hiring to meet increased demand. She said she’s welcoming caregivers with clearances who are suddenly available, such as college students or substitute teachers, to get in touch.

Ms. Ciminillo said the response to the pandemic has “shined a light” on child care.

“You have a moment when you need your nurses, you need your firefighters, you need your first responders, and you have a backbone behind them, which is the early childhood education and care field,” she said, though the backbone is being tested.

Ashley Murray: 412-263-1750, amurray@post-gazette.com or @Ashley__Murray. Staff writer Anya Sostek contributed.

Clarification, made at 5:50 p.m. March 17: This story has been updated to reflect new information from the state regarding child care centers in Philadelphia.

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First Published: March 17, 2020, 7:34 p.m.
Updated: March 17, 2020, 9:54 p.m.

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DaShaun Hodge, 4, left, and Brandon Green, 3, practice reading and learn to recognize shapes during a class at the ABK Learning & Development Center in the Hill District, in April 2018. The child development center offers care for children seven days a week, 24-hours a day, serving children of parents who might work non-traditional hours.  (Nate Guidry/Post-Gazette)
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