Massachusetts parents struggling to find child care before and after school
FRAMINGHAM - Parents are struggling to find before and after-school care for their kids across Massachusetts. Some communities are cutting programs altogether, leaving families scrambling to find solutions.
In his eight years working for the Massachusetts Afterschool Partnership, Patrick Stanton says he has never seen the challenges education centers they support are seeing following the pandemic.
"We see a lot of programs trying to catch up and try to get the resources and staff back that they lost during that time," Stanton said.
Kimberly Higgins is a mom of a Lexington student whose after school care changed at the end of last year.
"They let us know at some point in the spring that after 40 years in the building, they wouldn't be continuing," Higgins said.
Now her son is in a new program, but she often gets calls in the middle of the day to pick him up. She considers herself lucky to even have care after seeing other moms turn to Facebook to find it. Moms like Nan Crowther from Winchester.
"There's no morning care and I think that's a struggle for working parents such as myself," Crowther said.
Crowther told WBZ her before care program in Winchester was eliminated due to staffing shortages.
"I just hope it's not a long-term thing because there's lots of families affected and it's not fun," Crowther said.
It's not fun for educators either. At the MetroWest YMCA, they've struggled to find workers and drivers to transport students in Natick and Framingham.
"All of the children who are in those programs need to be transported from their school," said Heidi Kaufman, Executive Director of Education at the MetroWest YMCA.
The programs are otherwise a good resource for parents if their children can get there and if they can get their child the care to begin with.
"We haven't had waitlists like this before, so we have needed to cap our enrollment," Kaufman said.
Low-income families are struggling the most to find care, according to Stanton. He is now turning to the government for help.
"We're encouraging the state and federal government to support afterschool programs through more funding and resources so they can help those kids," Stanton said.
If you are looking for help finding child care or help paying for it visit Mass.gov or childcare.gov.
