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By Chantal Wagner

Day home demand in Medicine Hat increases following government closure of child care facilities

Mar 17, 2020 | 6:02 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Reaction has come swiftly this week to all of the government’s announcements.

Parents and organizations continue to struggle as all licensed child care, out-of-school care programs, and preschool programs in Alberta are closed.

The approved day homes in Medicine Hat and across the province are exempt, and thus still open because they care for fewer than seven children at a time.

Director of Monkey Business Day Homes Bradi Jubelius says before the closures, they were turning away about 10 families a week because they didn’t have enough spots.

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So Sunday’s announcement has put significant pressure on them to approve more homes. They have also turned away even more families.

And since Sunday night, their agency received about 60 calls from parents looking for childcare.

Jubelius says the calls are split between families who have children enrolled in day homes and are pulling them out because parents can stay home with them due to reduced work hours or have been laid off.

The other calls are from parents who are front-line workers like nurses and firefighters who need care for their children immediately.

“No there’s not even close to enough day homes. The way it works each agency is licensed for a certain number of approved providers. As far as our agency goes we’re hitting our maximum so we won’t be able to open any more than a total of 20 day homes. We like to focus on keeping things monitored and approved to ensure the children’s safety.”

Jubelius says with many early childhood educators not able to work at their centres due to the government closing locations, they are getting inquiries from those professionals in the field.

She’s hoping in the interim they can bring those professionals on as a certified day home and when life gets back to normal, they could go back to work at the centres.

“We currently have 14-day homes, our license is for 20 and we’ve been signing new contracts with new providers as quickly as we can. We still need to make sure that we’re upholding our safety standards, criminal record checks, all that kind of good stuff. So it takes a little bit of time but we’re trying to open up spaces as quickly as we possibly can.”

She says day home agency coordinators are still visiting locations to monitor and support providers during this time and to also help reinforce cleaning and sanitizing procedures.

And their agency has implemented a zero-tolerance policy for illness, so even if it just might be the sniffles, children would have to go home so there’s no risk to others.

Jubelius also told Chat News, “The closure has put significant pressure on us to approve more homes. Because it takes time and diligence when approving a new provider, we have seen several “pop up” day homes. People are opening their homes privately, like a babysitter, to care for children. While we appreciate these private providers are trying to help meet the needs of our community, parents need to do their research before leaving their child. There are no safety rules or regulations for private providers other than they can only care for 6 children plus their own. Parents should always ask for criminal record checks, child intervention checks and current first aid at a minimum.”