Henrico childcare centers, programs scramble to readjust for fall

A number of childcare centers in Henrico County are expanding or maintaining their school-year services to offer full-day care, since the county’s public schools will be virtual for at least nine weeks.

Several – including the the YMCA of Greater Richmond and Henrico Police Athletic League – are community partners of Henrico County Public Schools, HCPS spokesman Andy Jenks said, and working to meet community childcare needs, as are other organizations.

“So far, from early discussions, the idea would be to offer fee-based, all-day quality programming and enrichment for families (which they had traditionally been offering after school hours),” Jenks wrote.

Henrico PAL officials announced this week that the organization would offer a full-time 9-week program Monday through Friday, from 7:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily, for $199 per week per child at three as-yet-unnamed locations. Transportation will not be provided. The program will consist of virtual learning “consisted with HCPS and Henrico PAL programs,” the organization wrote on its Facebook page, and will include STEM, chess, dance, art and financial literacy lessons as well.

Registration dates and times will be announced soon, officials said.

The YMCA is planning to offer full-day care for students in school systems that will be virtual but does not yet have details, according to its website.

“Local school districts are still releasing details about how school will look this fall. Likewise, we are working as fast as we can to provide support to our families during this time,” according to a pop-up box on the YMCA’s Henrico County Schools page. “We plan to provide full-day care and after school options, but we are still getting details for how this will look.”

The Citizen contacted a sample of childcare centers throughout the county to learn what they are planning. Representatives of each location listed below indicated that they are taking health and safety precautions, such as checking temperatures at the door; having exposure and symptom questionnaires or communicating expectations with parents; conducting drop off and pick-up at the door or entry room so that parents do not enter the centers; distancing when possible; handwashing or using sanitizer; and cleaning and sanitizing regularly.

Eastern Henrico
Heaven Sent Child Care in the Laburnum Square Office Park will be offering full-day care for school-age children, owner Cynthia Williams-Bey said. The center, which is open until midnight, has been offering virtual learning support since March and will continue to do so.

Students are given a quiet, separate space to work, she said. The center is able to put about four to six children in a room and can support 12 school-age children. A few spots for the fall are available.

Full-day care for school-age children costs $180 per week, Williams-Bey said, but Heaven Sent does offer tuition assistance that she handles internally by meeting with parents. Williams-Bey has also been offering free weekend meals for about 100 children this summer.

In addition to the health protocols of other centers, Heaven Sent is also requiring staff, children older than 4 years and any parents who enter the office to wear masks. During meals, children are distanced so that they can remove their masks to eat. Heaven Sent also has a no-shoes policy for all who enter — children change into slippers.

White Oak Early Child Care Center on Memorial Drive in Sandston also will be offering care during the school day for a classroom of children.

The facility serves Seven Pines, Ward and Sandston elementary schools and will be following their school day plans once they are finalized, co-owner Asif Shah said. The center has a capacity of about 60 and has about 10 to 15 spaces available currently, he said, although some families from New Kent County might also seek childcare from the center. Full-day care for a school-age child costs $110 per week.

In addition to the previously detailed safety protocols, the center is also requiring that parents, staff and children older than 3 years wear masks.

Tuckaway Child Development and Early Education Center’s Varina location — on Midview Road near New Market Road — normally offers full-day care and will be offering virtual learning support for kindergarten through the fifth grade, said center director Ashley Orpiano, as well as before- and after-school care.

“We had plan A, B, and C and so on before the decision was made to be able to accommodate and have the information for parents as early as the decision,” Orpiano said.

The Varina location can fit 22 children in each age group and has 5 separate spaces to house each age group. Care for a school-age child costs $160 per week and includes meals.

In the absence of field trips and pool access, the center has sought to introduce new activities such as science experiments, Orpiano said, that it plans to continue in the fall. Children also can go outside, she said.

Western Henrico
LeafSpring School has a Three Chopt location and a Wyndham location in Henrico County, which will both be offering virtual learning support for school-age children enrolled in public school and will have additional private kindergarten classes, said marketing manager Meghan McMahon.

“For the virtual learning support, we are currently working out the logistics, but the premise is that small groups would be together throughout the day without mixing and our recreational counselors would support the students as they completed virtual learning through their public school classes,” McMahon said.

The schools are still figuring out how many children they will be able to accept, McMahon said, and parents should contact the location which they are interested in to ask about program costs.

LeafSpring Schools plan to offer extracurriculars, like access to outdoor spaces and playground equipment, McMahon said, and being open this summer helped them prepare.

“It’s been really good practice to make sure that we know how many small groups can go from one area to another. . . because we’ve been spending so much time outside, it’s really helped us learn the best ways to make sure that the groups don’t interact or mix and still have fun,” McMahon said.

The schools have worked to upgrade WiFi, add space dividers and implement new drop-off and pick-up protocols, she said.

Tuckaway Child Development and Early Education Centers has a West location on Tuckaway Lane and a Glen Allen location in the Innsbrook Office Park. Both will offer virtual learning support and full-day care. The West location will offer full-time care and part-time care, which can be half-days, two or three days a week or after-school care, said director Cassie Wall.

The West location anticipates accepting around 20 school-age children, through the fifth grade level, while the Glen Allen location is currently unsure about its program capacity but has four classrooms.

The West center’s full-time care will cost $205 per week, which includes the school day and after-school as well as meals, but parents should contact Tuckaway center directors to ask about specials, Wall said. Full-day care for a school-age child at the Glen Allen center costs $220 per week, administrative assistant Katie Stagg said.

The West location requires parents on scheduled tours to wear masks, Wall said, although staff is not required to. The Glen Allen location does not require staff to wear masks, Stagg said. It no longer uses an outside cleaning crew, Stagg said, but teachers sanitize their classrooms throughout the day and deep clean each night.

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Editor's note: To search childcare facilities in Virginia and view details as well as inspection reports, visit https://www.dss.virginia.gov/facility/search/cc2.cgi.