Lisa Harris, of Woodbine, moved her son, Evan, from private home care when he was two years old.
Written By Joanne Morvay Weant
As school begins again, working families are grappling with the same important question: Who will watch the children while their parents are at work?
At its most basic, the decision is whether to have someone come to the home or send the children somewhere else for care, as well as whether the caregiver can be trusted.
Increasingly, however, today’s parents find themselves wondering not only who will watch their offspring before and after school, but what their children will do during this time.
Lisa Harris, 51, of Woodbine, has had three sons in childcare. Her older boys, Jason Bittner, now 27, and Sean Bittner, 24, went to private homes. Initially, the boys were with an older couple who also looked after their cousins. The couple was like “a second set of grandparents” and Harris said she loved the situation.
After their cousins grew out of childcare and both her boys and their caregivers were getting older, Harris moved the boys to another in-home childcare that some of their friends also attended. That worked out well, she said, until the brothers were old enough to be home by themselves after school.
When it came time to find daycare for her youngest son, Evan Harris, 10; Lisa started with a private home because of her previous positive experiences.
Harris said that when Evan was about two years old, however, the home’s operator slapped him so hard that it left a handprint on his face. Corporal punishment is against the law in Maryland and grounds for childcare license revocation, which is exactly what happened to the operator, Harris said.
She was so shocked by the incident that she could not imagine having Evan cared for in a private home again. She put him in a center near her job that was equipped with a closed-circuit camera monitoring system. When Evan started school at Mt. Airy Elementary, she moved him to Celebree Learning Center, Inc.’s Mt. Airy location.
For many parents – and kids – finishing the day’s homework and having a snack is not enough. They want – and the kids demand – structured activities that keep children engaged and active.
Childcare experts at Tennessee State University’s Cooperative Extension Service advise parents that before and after school-care “should allow school-age children greater independence and offer activities that older children will enjoy.”
Detria Courtalis, vice president of operations for Celebree Learning Centers, said that independent choices are at the core of Celebree’s “Hot Spot” program.
Celebree operates six centers in Carroll County as well as offering on-site care at three local elementary schools. Courtalis said Celebree’s eight Hot Spot activity centers allow kids to participate in everything from cooking and the arts to homework assistance and games.
“Our goal,” she said, “is that your children don’t want you to pick them up; that they say, ‘Don’t come until 6:30 tonight because I have this great project I’m working on.’”
For example, a soccer game would involve not only those children who want to play, but those who want to be cheerleaders, those who want to make snacks and those who want to design signs advertising the event to parents.
“The goal is not to make everyone a soccer player,” Courtalis explained. “The goal is to have pieces of the activity designed so that all the children can participate in their own way and at their own level.”
Steve Hill, director of The Social Club, a school-care program offered at Taneytown Elementary School, said that he regularly engages children in games that are designed to stimulate both physical and intellectual abilities. In addition, the children at Social Club have supervised access to school facilities like the gym and media center.
The Social Club also includes Taneytown teachers and support staff who help out on a part-time basis. Hill and his staff work closely with teachers and parents to help children successfully complete their homework as part of the day’s activities.
Hill said many parents appreciate these close relationships as well as the fact that their children spend their time in the same location, without having to be transported elsewhere.
Tennessee State’s school-care checklist advises parents seeking the service to look for a safe environment with qualified staff who interact well with the children and are able to supervise their involvement adequately in a variety of activities. The university says that parents should be encouraged to involve themselves in their children’s school-care experience and be given “frequent information about how their children are doing.”
In addition, parents may want to ask if the childcare center they are considering meets state or national accreditation criteria. Kristine Gesuele, senior manager for ABC Care Inc., said that nine of its centers have been accredited by the national Council on Accreditation, an international, non-profit child and family healthcare accrediting body based in New York City. ABC Care operates 12 school-based centers in Carroll County as well as one in Baltimore County and five summer day camps.
Gesuele said the accreditation process, which is voluntary, covers everything from health and safety standards to administrative and educational criteria. In addition to accreditation for its centers, ABC Care has its own education standards for its staff.
“We look for staff with [college] degrees in early childhood or elementary education,” said Gesuele “Ninety percent of our staff who are not directors are either working towards a [college] degree or have a degree.” The company also typically doubles the state’s continuing education requirements for childcare personnel, she said.
ABC Care further addresses education in its programming. The company’s school-based centers serve children from kindergarten through eighth grade.
This summer, Gesuele said, all ABC campers participated in activities built around the Carroll County Public Schools’ science and mathematics curriculum. “This is a great way for us to capture what the schools are doing and continue it,” she said. “We see ourselves in partnership with the school system as a continuation of the learning day.”
ABC Care campers take two to three field trips each week depending on their age, Gesuele said. At some camps, participants can also take swim and horseback riding lessons. During the school year, Gesuele said, children form “clubs” around a topic they choose. They then spend a month researching their topic in depth before making a presentation to the other children at the center.
The Maryland Department of Education’s Office of Child Care advises parents to visit facilities “when children are involved in program activities.” The state-operated website, which has extensive information about childcare licensing requirements in Maryland as well as the various types of childcare available, advises, “If you find a facility you think is suitable, try to come back for a second visit and take your child.”
Harris said she appreciates the structured environment at Celebree as well as the transportation that gets Evan to and from school. “He’s not just running around acting crazy or sitting and watching TV,” she said.
Harris and her husband also see some long-term benefits to Evan’s Celebree experience.
“He has friends there that go to other schools, which we think is great because we figure when he goes to high school he’ll know some of the kids coming from other schools as well,” she said.
