Category: Child Care

Providing eligible parents with financial assistance for quality child care is essential for these parents to work or train to better provide for their families. It also helps to develop the future skilled workforce of Central Texas. To help accomplish this, Workforce Solutions Capital Area hosts the annual Child Care Symposium for child care directors, owners and workers in Central Texas.

• This year, we held the symposium in person and virtually August 5 and 6.

In-person attendees gathered at the Joe C. Thompson Conference Center at UT Austin for a full schedule of training opportunities and to hear from speakers representing state and local governments and a fellow child care provider.

• On August 5, 85 directors participated in-person or virtually.
• On August 6, 234 teachers participated.
• Our grand total was 319 early learning professionals who received 1,750 hours of training at the Child Care Symposium.

Speakers included Aaron Demerson, Commissioner Representing Employers for the Texas Workforce Commission, José “Chito” Vela, Council Member representing District 4, and Dr. Desmar Walkes, Austin Travis County Health Authority.

The event’s keynote speaker was Reshaun Webb, an Early Childhood Education coach and trainer who also owns a child care center.

“At the City of Austin, we are doing everything we can to be supportive of working parents and their children. We’re hosting summer camps all summer long for kindergarten all the way up to high school to support working parents,” Vela said.

“Quality child care is a win-win situation for Texas employers and job seekers alike,” Demerson said. “I believe in the importance of supporting child care providers in growing their business and providing much needed services to the growing population of our state.”

Dr. Walkes provided an overview of monkeypox and how to help prevent the spread of infection.

“When we talk about essential workers, we talk about doctors and nurses, but what we really mean are child care providers,” Dr. Walkes said. “None of this is possible without you.”

What they’re saying:

For the directors and teachers who participated, the Child Care Symposium provided valuable learning opportunities and moments to connect with one another, whether in person or virtually.

“This is my first time as a teacher and am finding every day as a teacher is different, so all this information has been very interesting,” said one attendee.

“I loved the interaction and conversation. I also liked the opportunity to connect. The Workforce Solutions staff were super helpful and friendly,” said another teacher.

Workforce Solutions Capital Area works with 400-plus providers across Central Texas to provide care for over 5,000 children.

Go deeper.

 

 

For child care providers in Central Texas, providing quality care during a pandemic and a labor shortage makes for a twofold challenge as limited resources and rising costs impact care.

To support our providers, Workforce Solutions Capital Area and Austin Public Health hosted curbside pickup events for providers to receive at-home testing kits for COVID19 and gloves at no cost on March 4 and 5 at the Rosewood-Zaragosa Neighborhood Center.

Over the two days, we distributed 6,840 boxes of gloves to 127 providers. Austin Public Health provided 5,130 testing kits for centers located in zip codes with the highest transmission rates. The 127 providers care for 7,981 children across Travis County.

One of the providers was Annie Sabetti, development director at Trinity Child Development Center. Her 11 staff provide care for 48 children.

“The cost of gloves and other supplies is a lot for us right now so we are always on the lookout for anything the community can give back to us,” Annie said.

“Our center provides affordable child care to families in East Austin. We have a lot of families receiving scholarships. We were about to order more gloves, so I was excited when I heard about this event,” said Annie.

For Sharon Knight, director of Tarrytown Children’s Center, rising costs related to staff turnover has become a challenge for her 12 staff to care for the 54 children at their center.

“I am thrilled that Workforce Solutions helped us out. Child care has been so difficult—last year, we went through 24 staff members,” Sharon said.

“Our extra expenses to hire and onboard staff have been phenomenal. The fact that Workforce Solutions helps us out with all of these supplies makes a huge difference in how we can serve our families,” said Sharon.

Tarrytown Children’s Center is a 4-star rated provider in the Texas Rising Star program, the highest rating available.

The Texas Rising Star program is for child care providers who meet quality requirements that exceed the state’s minimum licensing standards and that are designed to enhance the intellectual, physical, and social development of children in care. In return for their commitment to quality, providers receive numerous benefits including enhanced reimbursement rates, learning materials and equipment, child development college course scholarships, and more.

“I love having these guys as mentors and working with them,” Sharon said. “The work that TRS does to support the interactions between teachers and children, how they support us in providing a foundation for the children is absolutely critical.”

Workforce Solutions Capital Area is committed to supporting providers in Austin who care for the children of our region’s workforce. By providing care in a safe and nurturing environment, Austin’s child care providers are helping to develop a future workforce that is skilled and productive. Learn more about how we support child care providers.

 

 

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Child care providers in Central Texas have struggled to obtain cleaning and protective supplies since the pandemic began in 2020. With limited resources, providing quality care becomes a challenge.

To support our providers, Workforce Solutions Capital Area and Austin Public Health hosted curbside pickup events for providers to receive cleaning and PPE supplies, at no cost on January 7 and 8 at the Rosewood-Zaragosa Neighborhood Center. Over the two days, we distributed 24 pallets of supplies, including hand soap and sanitizer, gloves and paper towels, bath tissue and bleach, for 128 providers. These providers care for 6,821 children across Travis County. 

Austin Public Health also provided bleach and hand sanitizer, as well as at-home testing kits for COVID19 for centers located in zip codes with the highest transmission rates.

One of the providers was Valerie Johnson, Director of Gethsemane Lutheran Children’s Ministry. Her center has 16 staff and cares for 90 children.

“I was excited when I heard about this event. I have to say,, PPE is really cutting into my budget because everything is so expensive, so having WFS do this for providers is awesome,” Valerie said.” It’s really great you have the funding to do this for us. It helps out a lot.”

 

 

With WFS Capital Area and Austin Public Health helping to meet her center’s high need for cleaning supplies, Gethsemane can now put their resources toward other needs.

“We go through gloves like water. We use sanitary wipes to sanitize our handrails, door knobs—the teachers are using them for everything,” Valerie said.

“This really helps us a lot because we can devote more monies on food or new toys, and helping the parents out if they need scholarship money to cover tuition if they are not working or in between jobs.”

Workforce Solutions Capital Area is committed to supporting providers in Austin who care for the children of our region’s workforce. By providing care in a safe and nurturing environment, Austin’s child care providers are helping to develop a future workforce that is skilled and productive. Learn more about how we support child care providers.

The ongoing COVID-19 Delta variant surge reminds us of the importance of creating safe and nurturing spaces for the children of working parents in Austin becomes more apparent. Across Travis County, many providers seek to continue offering care but have limited resources to do so.

To support them, Workforce Solutions Capital Area joined Austin Public Health to host curbside pickup events for providers to receive cleaning and PPE supplies, as well as resources for the City of Austin’s Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, at no cost on August 19 and 20 at the Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin.

Shannon Eastman is the Child Development Center Coordinator at Eanes ISD’s two child development centers. The district’s 38 child care staff care for 128 children at its central location and 40 at the Barton Creek center.

“We definitely still need all the supplies. Gloves have been back ordered, and we just sit and wait, and wait, and wait for gloves,” Shannon said. “We have really struggled with getting gloves for the centers. Some of the pieces have been really hard to get ahold of.”

Diana Flores is the Community Engagement Coordinator for the City of Austin’s WIC program.

“WIC helps pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and children from newborns to age of 5. We provide nutrition education, breastfeeding education and food benefits every month,” Diana said. “Right now, we are here to provide WIC incentives and information on how to enroll in the program for child care centers.”

Diana added, “I talked with some providers and they said they are really appreciative of what we are doing here today. This information is helpful because they get a lot of questions about how to enroll in the program.”

Over the two days, 70 providers picked up pallets of supplies, including hand soap and sanitizer, gloves and paper towels, bath tissue and bleach. These providers care for 4,074 children across Travis County.

“This is a huge undertaking that the Child Care Services staff do for us. Not only is it so helpful to have these PPE, but they have continued to be our backbone. I am really thankful for everyone at CCS,” said Shannon.

 

Workforce Solutions Capital Area is committed to supporting providers in Austin who care for the children of our region’s workforce. By providing care in a safe and nurturing environment, Austin’s child care providers are helping to develop a future workforce that is skilled and productive. Learn more about how we support child care providers on our website.

More Americans are receiving their COVID19 vaccine, but the pandemic has not ended yet. During this time, the importance of creating safe and nurturing spaces for the children of working parents in Austin becomes more apparent. Many providers seek to continue offering care but have limited resources to do so.

To support them, Workforce Solutions Capital Area held curbside pickup events for providers to receive cleaning and PPE supplies at no cost on April 23 and 24 at First Workers Day Labor Center in Austin. The supplies included masks donated by Bank of America.

Over the two days, 198 providers picked up pallets of supplies, including hand soap and sanitizer, gloves and paper towels, bath tissue and bleach—more than 7,000 items in total. These providers care for 8,425 children across Travis County.

Thelma Herrera is the director at Rosie’s Day Care #3, where 10 staff care for 45 children. The center is open full time with five classrooms.

“I was excited when I heard about this,” Thelma said. “It’s hard to go place to place to find things, because one store might have something and another one doesn’t. This event is very helpful for us to keep our center and our children safe. It helps out a lot and I appreciate it.

“We will sanitize the kitchen and the bathrooms, the doorknobs, just about everything, and the toys the children play with throughout the day,” Thelma said.

“I want to thank Workforce Solutions and Bank of America for helping with the supplies. I really appreciate it, and I’m sure all the other providers also appreciate everything you do for us.”

At Promiseland Learning Center, 30 staff care for 200 children in the learning center and in afternoon care. Promiseland is a 4-star rated provider in the Texas Rising Star program, the highest rating available.

“Since the first time Workforce Solutions did this in August 2020, it has been such a blessing for us, because of COVID and the restrictions,” said director Caren Vera.

“In the beginning, we really couldn’t get ahold of everything. These events have literally carried us through the whole process,” she said.

“Our numbers never recovered from COVID. On a Friday, we had 154 children in our learning center and on Monday it went down to 64. Any help was absolutely welcome at that point. We were terrified that we would go out of business. Thankfully, Workforce Solutions stepped up and helped us and it has been a blessing through the whole entire year,” said Caren.

The Texas Rising Star program is for child care providers who meet quality requirements that exceed the state’s minimum licensing standards and that are designed to enhance the intellectual, physical, and social development of children in care. In return for their commitment to quality, providers receive numerous benefits including enhanced reimbursement rates, learning materials and equipment, child development college course scholarships, and more.

“We can continue to do the work we are called to do and that we love. Caring for children is our passion,” Caren said.

Workforce Solutions Capital Area is committed to supporting providers in Austin who care for the children of our region’s workforce. By providing care in a safe and nurturing environment, Austin’s child care providers are helping to develop a future workforce that is skilled and productive. Learn more about how we support child care providers on our website.

The severe winter weather that struck Austin in late February left many residents without water for days. While the City of Austin worked hard to fix pipes and get the water flowing again, Workforce Solutions Capital Area partnered with Austin Public Health to distribute bottled water to child care providers on February 22 at the First Workers Day Labor Center. One hundred eight providers from all around the Austin metro area signed up.

In one day, our staff prepared 10 pallets of water for 108 providers caring for 5,591 children. Those 10 pallets equaled about 750 cases, or 18,000 bottles of water!

“I was so worried about being able to provide drinking water for the kids and staff, but this was such a relief,” said one provider. “Thank you so much for doing this and helping us!”

Workforce Solutions Capital Area is committed to supporting providers in Austin who care for the children of our region’s workforce. By providing care in a safe and nurturing environment, Austin’s child care providers are helping to develop a future workforce that is skilled and productive. Learn more about how we support child care providers on our website.

As the pandemic continues, the importance of creating safe and nurturing spaces for the children of working parents in Austin becomes more apparent. Many providers have limited resources, but seek to continue offering care. To support them, Workforce Solutions Capital Area held curbside pickup events for providers to receive cleaning and PPE supplies at no cost on November 20-21 at First Workers Day Labor Center in Austin. The supplies included 200,000 face masks donated by Bank of America.

Over the two days, 181 providers picked up pallets of supplies, including hand soap and sanitizer, gloves and paper towels, bath tissue and bleach. These providers care for 7,074 children across Travis County.

Stacy Jo Signaigo is the Early Childhood Director for Manor ISD. She works at Manor ISD Child Development Center, which cares for 65 children.

“I was very excited to hear about today’s event. It’s very hard to find supplies for child care, so these supplies really help because everybody is out of them for the quantities we need,” Stacy Jo said.

“We are currently open, serving children and cleaning all the time. We are a nationally accredited school, so a lot of the things that were put in place by the city, we were already doing more than the minimum, we were already doing a lot of those things,” said Stacy Jo. “Thank you so much, Workforce Solutions and Bank of America, we really appreciate it.”

Another provider who received supplies was Patsy Harnage, owner and director of Bright Beginnings Child Development Center in North Austin. Her center cares for 60 children.

“I was just so grateful for this event. With supplies being scare and money being tight due to low enrollment, this was a godsend,” Patsy said.

“We are in need more of cleaning supplies, bleach, masks, gloves. We go through gloves and paper towels like water. We go through these the most because of the constant cleaning and washing hands. This is for the children and the staff, we have a whole lot going on,” Patsy said.

“I want to thank Workforce Solutions Capital Area and Bank of America for lightening the burden we are experiencing from limited supplies. We are forever grateful for your support and generosity,” Patsy added.

Our curbside pickup event, by the numbers:

• 5 truckloads of supplies
• 5,400 items
• 24,176 pounds

Workforce Solutions Capital Area is committed to supporting providers in Austin who care for the children of our region’s workforce. By providing care in a safe and nurturing environment, Austin’s child care providers are helping to develop a future workforce that is skilled and productive. Learn more about how we support child care providers on our website.