COVID-19 response: Emergency child care registration
Quick and creative thinking, communications While the state, nation and world shut down, a state executive order indicated that school district child care workers were required to report to work in order to provide critical child care and distance learning support for children of essential workers. The community education department did not have a registration system in place to accept requests or verify parent/family eligibility; but I worked with the child care team overnight to develop a Google Form, approval/denial process, standardized email responses, talking points for secretaries, and a website section with FAQs regarding the registration details, program sites, schedule, resources available and eligibility information in collaboration with the child care program supervisor and the team of child care program coordinators. Evolving communications in response to changes in state guidance, software Once initial emergency child care registrations were in place, communications shifted to how the program would adapt to changes in health/safety guidance, and when or how eligibility may expand to include more families who could not work from home. I supported the child care program in shifting the manual registration process to a new system we had access to through – which was similar to the enrichment class/activity registration process. Staff morale Child care staff members were one of a handful of district employees reporting to work, in-person, and they were certainly “on the front lines,” supporting families of grocery store and delivery workers, food service staff, and first responders. We tried to sprinkle “thank you” messages for child care staff on public social media channels in an effort to help them feel and see the appreciation that the families and communities had for their dedication over the course of the year.