Toddler Care System Opens Homes To Children Of Essential Workers

NORTHERN VIRGINIA — Infant Toddler Family Day Care has opened many of its homes to support essential workers and families in the Northern Virginia area. The organization's child care homes are limited to five children, making it easier to maintain social distancing and keep the children and day care providers safe.

The day care system currently has about 70 day care homes that are open. More than 40 are accepting enrollment from families with essential personnel. These homes have a capacity of about 210 spots. The day care homes are located mostly in Fairfax County, with about a dozen homes in Arlington, Loudoun and Prince William counties as well as the city of Alexandria.

As a system, Infant Toddler Family Day Care, a nonprofit organization, has been serving families in the Northern Virginia region since 1983. The program provides care and early childhood education to children in a family setting beginning at six weeks of age.

The organization closed its child care homes on March 18 but reopened on March 30, specifically in response to Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's call for child care providers to offer and prioritize services to children of essential personnel.

With the coronavirus, enrollment has dropped off at many of the participating providers' homes. Providers are now taking care of two children instead of four or five children during normal times, Wynne Busman, executive director of Infant Toddler Family Day Care, said in an interview with Patch.

For children of essential workers, the day care system has waived a one-time placement fee. The system also has a scholarship program for essential workers to help them pay the day care fees, Busman said.

Maria Worthen, chair of Infant Toddler Family Day Care's board of directors, has first-hand experience with the organization. She enrolled her son in the program for a large part of the first four years of his life.

Worthen said she initially wasn't attracted to the idea of in-home day care because she had questions about the level of oversight. But after researching Infant Toddler Family Day Care and before she joined the board, she learned that the center handles all state licensing for each home day care provider, oversees background checks of providers, and ensures the providers receive all of the necessary training.

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A day care system staff member also visits each home once a month, typically unannounced, to ensure the home meets its standards. During the coronavirus crisis, Infant Toddler Family Day Care has switched to calling providers for the once-a-month check-in. Each provider follows all Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-recommended guidelines on keeping homes clean and sanitized.

“At the end of the day, it’s actually better than a day care center because you have a smaller ratio of kids to providers and you have the stability of a loving home environment," said Worthen. "We were lucky to find a provider within walking distance. It didn’t feel like we were taking him to daycare."

Worthen's son is no longer part of the day care system. But during the coronavirus, she and her son occasionally walk by his former day care provider's home and wave at her from the sidewalk.

Over the past month, providers have had to make some adjustments. One provider now greets all of her parents at the ground level of her building, where she lives on the 15th floor. To limit parents' risks, she alone escorts the children to her day care home in the elevator. The provider ensures building residents are not sharing the elevator rides.

With some providers temporarily shutting down due to the coronavirus, Infant Toddler Family Day Care has heard stories of children missing their providers and their friends who they typically would see everyday.

"That human connection with their provider is what they’re going to miss now," Worthen said.

Asma Chaudhary, secretary of the Infant Toddler Family Day Care's board of directors, grew up in an Infant Toddler Family Day Care home. Her mother ran a center in her home for 25 years before retiring. Her positive experience with the system and watching her mother take care of dozens of children through the years made her want to continue working with the organization.

"I've been a board member for 10 years. Giving back is such an important part of who I am," Chaudhary said.

Even when there's not a national crisis, Infant Toddler Family Day Care provides support for families who live in Northern Virginia but don't have other family members who live nearby. "Having someone you can turn to in the time of a personal or family crisis, that's not something you can do at a center-based child care," Worthen said.

Over the three-and-a-half years that her son was at her provider's home, Worthen said she experienced deaths in her family and other family crises where she needed emergency child care. The provider served as a "surrogate family" during those times, she said.

During the current national crisis, Infant Toddler Family Day Care recognizes that many emergency personnel and essential workers are parents too and their work to protect others has made this a particularly challenging time for them.

"The essential workers — the physicians, nurses, military, teachers — are doing so much on the front lines. They are incredible people," Chaundhary said. "We are doing our best to support them. We want them to know that we are available."

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