Child care for Essential Service Workers

Update for June 1 shift to Phase 3 of the Return to School Plan: Under this phase, the Child Learning Centres have been closed now. Children of Essential Service Workers are instead being supported 5 full days a week at their local schools. Before and after school coverage opportunities are available through WCAS. 

April 16, 2020 – We’re proud that Category 1 Essential Service Workers (e.g. health care workers and emergency responders) are already able to drop their kids off at one of our district’s six emergency child care locations – working in partnership with Westminster Children’s After School Society (WCAS) at five of those locations. Now we’re looking to increase capacity to include kids whose parents fall into one of the other essential service worker categories.

Through the days – while their parents are keeping the front lines of the COVID-19 battle going – the kids at these free child care centres are being supported by a combination of WCAS and school district staff, including an in-class teacher to support the students’ remote learning needs through the day. Chromebooks are also available at each location to help students complete their learning assignments (with disinfection practices between uses).

At each of the centres new entry and engagement protocols have been introduced to keep students and staff safe, with strictly enforced physical distancing guidelines and increased cleaning and disinfecting procedures in place.

The six school sites currently running emergency child care programs are:

• FW Howay Elementary – 7am to 6pm
• Lord Kelvin Elementary – 7:30am to 4:30pm
• Lord Tweedsmuir Elementary – 7am to 6pm
• Qayqayt Elementary – 7am to 6pm
• Glenbrook Middle School – 7am to 6pm
• Queensborough Middle School – 7am to 6pm

If you are an essential service worker seeking child care options for your school-aged child, please contact your school principal.

If you are an essential service worker and your child is 0-5, you can request temporary emergency child care through the province at this site: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/family-social-supports/caring-for-young-children/child-care-response-covid-19/child-care-response-covid-19-parent or by calling 1-888-338-6622 and selecting option 4.

To facilitate emergency spaces, and in light of COVID-19 related challenges, many regularly run day care facilities and programs are temporarily closed. To find out more about temporary closures of local child care facilities, please contact the Child Care Resource and Referral Centre lead for our region for the most up-to-date info, including more details on alternate local child care options that may be available.

The local CCRR provider is: YMCA of Greater Vancouver (serving: Anmore, Belcarra, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Burnaby, and New Westminster).

YMCA Tri-Cities Office
Tel: 604-931-3400
Email: triccrr@vanymca.org
triccrr@gv.ymca.ca
Visit website.