Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series of stories exploring solutions to the daycare crises in Central Oregon. The City Club of Central Oregon will host a forum Thursday seeking solutions. See cityclubco.org. For more coverage, see bendbullet.com

When COVID-19 hit, some teachers at the Redmond Proficiency Academy found themselves taking care of dozens of kids, all from their homes.

Not only did they teach their classes remotely, but some also had their own children to take care of at home as day cares closed under pandemic restrictions.

Such was the case for Laurel Eberhart, an RPA high school teacher.

“My own child care closed, and so I had a 9-month-old at home, and I was teaching from home with a 9-month-old, which is not ideal,” Eberhart said. “A couple other teachers were all in the same boat, and we were like, ‘what can we do, if anything?’”

School staff had previously batted around the idea of opening an on-site daycare to expand the high school’s early childhood education career and technical education track. At first, the idea seemed impossible once the pandemic began — but once they invited staff to drop their children in an unused classroom for daycare, they saw that it could work, and that staff would be on board.

The result was the school’s Learn & Play program, which offers child care for both employees and community members just across the street from the school.

It’s been a big boost for the academy and its staff. Eberhart, for example, says she couldn’t find care anywhere else.

“It’s nonexistent anywhere else. If I didn’t have Learn & Play for my own two kids this year, I would be the parent who quit my job,” Eberhart said.

“I would not be working this year if I didn’t have it.”

Hillary Kirk, who now oversees Learn & Play, says Eberhart isn’t alone.

“What I heard from some staff members was just this relief,” Kirk said.

“The idea that they could find affordable child care that’s accessible to them was really kind of this factor in relieving that anxiety that someone can be a working parent and can start a family and still be able to do this in a successful and caring way.”

The program started in RPA classrooms left empty by the school’s shift to online classes but has moved across the street into a building the school now rents.

In launching Learn & Play, the academy had the advantage of already being in the education business. That meant some of the most intense hurdles providers face in getting their child care businesses up and running, like some zoning restrictions and required inspections, were already taken care of.

State licensing rules also mean child care centers operated by schools and local governments don’t have to be certified by the Early Learning Division. “We weren’t starting from the bottom,” Kirk said. “The infrastructure was already there.”

Six employee families have their kids enrolled in Learn & Play, as do about 18 other Redmond families.

The program’s waitlist has grown quickly, with RPA employees advised to get on the waitlist early if they plan to have a child. The farthest out families have gotten on the list is around 14 weeks of pregnancy, Eberhart said.

The high demand can be a struggle, but it also provides opportunities for the academy’s older students. The academy runs a Career and Technical Education program in the daycare, so high school students interested in early childhood education as a career path can work in for-credit internships or paid positions, getting necessary certifications and hands-on experience along the way.

More Information: Employer-supported child care

Aside from the raw benefit of increasing the availability of child care in the area, RPA leaders say having daycare available onsite is a benefit the school use to attract potential employees, especially during a challenging labor market.

Some at NeighborImpact, which assists the region’s child care providers in their operations, have pointed to RPA’s model as a good example of employer-supported child care, where employers use child care options as a benefit to attract and retain employees.

A number of other models of employer-supported child care are in place across the country, like micro-centers running in the spare rooms of office buildings and child care subsidy payments to employees, according to an employer toolkit NeighborImpact released this year, available online at bendbulletin.us/3rIrpKM.