LANSING — Local schools starting the school year online means some parents have to make a tough decision — go to work or stay home to care for their kids.
Most Lansing area school districts are starting the school year by teaching their students online during the COVID-19 pandemic in hopes of keeping students and staff safe. Those decisions leave working parents in a difficult position. But some districts are trying to help.
The Lansing School District announced learning labs it will be hosting with community partners at various locations around Lansing that offer a place for students to go to during the day and complete their online learning while their parents work their day-shift jobs. Officials said there are 600 available seats.
Other school districts like Waverly Community Schools, Eaton Rapids Public Schools and Grand Ledge Public Schools will expand existing child care operations to welcome students who otherwise would find themselves home alone.
Learning labs that the Lansing School District is organizing with the YMCA, Boys and Girls Club of Lansing, Caterpillar Corner, Impression 5 Science Center and Woldumar Nature Center could help parents like Nakita Maloney.
For Maloney, it’s simple — send her first- and third- grade sons to a learning lab or lose hours at her retail job to stay home and monitor her boys as they do their online school work. But while she’d consider sending them to a lab, she wouldn’t be able to afford the enrollment costs charged at some locations.
Parents can enroll their children at Caterpillar Corner full-time at $145 per student per week. The school district will put $130 toward the cost if the parents can provide employment verification and if the parents do not qualify for assistance from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. For the cost, students will have a place to stay during the day and receive breakfast, lunch and a snack.
A part-time option, which covers three days or fewer each week, is also available at $75 per week.
Others are working to offer learning labs at no cost, like the Woldumar Nature Center. Executive Director Kevin Wernet said the school district is looking to community partners and donors to help cover the costs of the program at the nature center.
Maloney likely will have to lose hours and stay home to watch her children without that assistance.
“I'm probably honestly going to end up going to part-time without trying to enroll them,” she said in a Facebook message. “I would rather stay home with them part of the week … not involve any extra money, be home with them and less time at the stores. It's a huge financial cut, but it's safer being home more with the kids than at work anyway.”
Waverly Community Schools and Grand Ledge Public Schools had child care programs in place before the COVID-19 pandemic that will be continuing.
The Grand Ledge program, the Adventure Club, typically provides before- and after-school programming, but now it will extend for the entire school day for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. There areis about 50 open spots, according to John Ellsworth, school district communications director.
Ellsworth said the Adventure Club cost is comparable to preschool pricing.
Haslett Public Schools Superintendent Steve Cook said officials are “exploring a plan to provide daycare to a limited number of students in our district.”
Contact Mark Johnson at 517-377-1026 or at majohnson2@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByMarkJohnson.
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Online learning puts working parents in child care bind. Some schools are trying to help - Lansing State Journal
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