Parents of CCSD students struggling with child care

On one of the last days with her son for the foreseeable future, Cynthia Noriega stopped by the pharmacy to make sure the 11-year-old had enough seizure medication before his one-way flight to his dad’s house in Washington.

That’s where Evan will spend the fall semester after Noriega, a single Las Vegas parent and full-time nurse, was unable to find a local child care option that could provide both her kids an education and a safe place to be during distance learning.

“I looked into the private schools and realized I can only afford to send one. So who do I choose?” she said. “It’s heart-wrenching that I’d have to choose one over the other.”

In the last week, Clark County and the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson have added over a thousand child care openings in an effort to meet the needs of working parents as school facilities remain closed. But the demand for child care is far greater, and some Clark County School District families like Noriega’s are down to the wire to make arrangements before online classes begin Aug. 24.

For some, the cost of day care, especially for multiple children, is insurmountable. Others worry that their very young children or those with special needs won’t get the support they need to learn in a day care environment. Single parents in particular say they face a choice between keeping a roof over their children’s heads and keeping them safe during the school day.

Some new city-sponsored programs are already seeing high demand: North Las Vegas City Manager Ryann Juden said the city had 328 students sign up for an initial offering of 350 seats just days after the program was announced, and is working to find more facilities. Las Vegas, meanwhile, announced additional locations Friday for its program.

‘Too much pressure’

New to town, Noriega had only her eldest daughter to turn to when schools first closed their doors in March. But while the 19-year-old was able to watch the kids while taking online classes, she’s on a full-ride scholarship now and must keep up her GPA, Noriega said.

“It’s too much pressure on her to do her own classes and supervise theirs,” Noriega said. “I would hate for her to have to do that because she is such a good student.”

Moreover, no single private school she called had space for both her fifth grader and second grader, Noriega said. Even if she’d found one, she wasn’t sure she could afford registration fees and tuition for two children.

And she knew her kids would struggle to keep up with schoolwork in a standard day care. Her son receives special education services through his school, and sitting him in front of a computer all day could risk triggering a seizure, she worried.

In Washington, his dad’s partner plans to supervise learning for her own children, which means Noriega’s son will have classmates near his age and a safe place to be all day. After long conversations with her ex, Noriega said she realized it would be the best option, even if it meant separating her family.

She hopes to bring her son back when schools reopen for in-person teaching, or when she can afford a second private school tuition.

“He’s OK with it. Obviously they miss their dad,” Noriega said. “But he keeps asking me when he gets to come home.”

Carrie Belka, another single, working parent, is in a similar situation. She said she’s still looking for a day care with just over a week remaining until school begins, but may have to turn temporary full custody over to her ex-husband if she can’t find one.

One of her challenges has been finding a day care willing to have her two kids every other week per her custody arrangement, she said. Cost is another factor, she said, as she works part time in retail and needs to be available for her employer. Most of all, she said she’s hoping any child care she can arrange will help her son focus on his schoolwork, which he struggled with in the spring.

Belka said she’s seen ads for different child care options, but none of the options are near her home in Summerlin. That’s a problem, she noted, as low-income individuals like herself live all around the valley.

“We all kind of depend on school, even though we understand they’re not babysitters,” she said.

CCSD staff among those in bind

CCSD teachers and staff, though working from home when possible, are not exempt from the child care crunch. While an idea surfaced at recent School Board meetings to create a central hub for child care for employees — or allow them to bring their kids to campuses — no plan to do so is in the works, Superintendent Jesus Jara said Friday.

Approximately one quarter of all district employees indicated they’d need child care in response to a survey when CCSD was planning to alternate teaching days for students under its “cohort model.”

Lloyd Goldberg, who works for the district as a “student success advocate,” said that when schools were closed in March, he and his wife regularly faced a choice between their productivity and supervising learning for their blended family of five children.

“There were a number of times it was a decision for my wife and I to attend our meeting or supervise and assist the kids with theirs,” Goldberg said. “Many decisions were to just do our work and let the kids ‘slack’ off during the day and then try to catch them back up at night, or to severely reduce our efficiency and effectiveness to fully support and work with the kids.”

Goldberg said they struggled to find a child care option on their teachers’ salaries, as well as one that could accommodate some of the kids’ special education needs. Ultimately, three of the kids landed charter school spots, while the other two have temporary private care for the next two weeks at a cost of $800.

After next week, the 9-year-old will stay with her grandparents and the 3-year-old will have to go to full-time day care, he said, after which Goldberg or his wife will have to help the toddler with his distance learning from a CCSD early education program.

“In a perfect world they would attend school five days a week safely,” Goldberg said. “However, we don’t live in that world right now.”

Mindy Piro, a speech therapist with the district, said that with her duties requiring her to hold therapy sessions at all hours, it would be difficult to keep her second grader focused on distance learning. The child care search was stressful, she said, in part because registration information for the city and county day camps wasn’t released until the beginning of August.

County camps solution for some

Piro said she considered pulling her daughter out of CCSD altogether and placing her in a private school, but didn’t want to give up her spot at her magnet school. The county day camps were ultimately the closest and most cost-effective option.

“My daughter’s extracurricular activities are still continuing, so we are hoping they will be able to help her do work during live sessions instead of after hours when I get off work,” Piro said. “We have done day camps for summer school and she always had a great time so I’m hoping with social distancing she will still have a good time. She needs social interaction.”

Piro added that parents looking for child care are not only facing the pressure to get it done, but hearing criticism from colleagues or social media if they post about their plans.

“I just understand why schools aren’t opening but they really put anyone who works on a school campus in a tight spot to have to find care for their child,” she said.

Other parents say they have no choice but to work from home alongside their kids for the time being. Parent Sara George said she considered the county day camps, but ultimately opted to find a babysitter for her youngest child and keep her daughter home for distance learning. This way, she can help her kindergartner stay on track, she said.

“Also, I didn’t want to take a spot away from parents who need it more than me,” she said.

Crystal Facchinetti said she planned to go back to work when her daughter started kindergarten this year, but those plans are now indefinitely on hold. She said she believes distance learning will ultimately force working mothers to quit their jobs in order to supervise their kids’ education.

“I can’t justify the stress of returning to work while also stressing that my daughter’s needs aren’t being met. The required class structure is too complex to expect a day care to handle with multiple kids with different schedules, and my daughter is too young to do any of it without assistance,” she said.

Her own goals aside, Facchinetti said she knows her daughter yearns for friends and activities beyond what her parents can provide. She’s considering a part-time day care scenario to allow for socialization, but worries that even limited exposure could lead to the family catching the coronavirus.

“I just don’t know what is the smartest and healthiest way to handle all of this,” she said. “And I know no one else does either.”

Contact Aleksandra Appleton at 702-383-0218 or aappleton@reviewjournal.com. Follow @aleksappleton on Twitter.