LENEXA, Kan. — Schools in Kansas won't resume classes for the fall semester until after Labor Day, so the pressure is on day care providers and parents.
"As soon as we heard it, it was panic," said Jessica Silvey, a home day care provider.
The announcement that Kansas schools would start after Labor Day brought on a lot of uncertainty for Silvey, who runs Noel's Playhouse in Lenexa.
"Within 10 minutes of that announcement, we had a bunch of parents being like, 'Hey can you take my kids?' And I was like, 'I don't know,'" she said.
Silvey has had to tell parents she just doesn't have the room.
She said this is common from what she's heard from other day care providers.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment gave providers like Silvey the OK to take on two extra school-age children in May, but she can't take any more.
"Six school-age kids were supposed to go back this fall and now they're all staying," Silvey said. "That means all the babies I was supposed to take this fall suddenly can't come."
And other children who were scheduled to leave day care in August for school might lose their spots.
One parent talked about his struggles finding day care earlier in July.
"A lot of them won't tell me how many people are in front of me on the wait list," Ben Walnick said. "They won't give me an actual projection; I know it's hard to project because it's complicated."
Silvey said it's hard enough for parents to find day care for school-age children, and it's even harder for infants and toddlers. For families with more than one child, it's nearly impossible.
But there are resources in Kansas, like Day Care Connection, that help parents find care close to their school.
"We are getting more calls, but we still have several openings," Valerie Cable, executive director of Day Care Connection, said. "It's an interesting fact that no daycare homes have been found or cited to have COVID-19 but several [day care] centers have."
Cable said there are hundreds of openings for daycare on the Kansas side, and they're mostly at-home providers.
"People trust homes more," Cable said. "They can easily keep more sanitary. There's generally about five to six kids instead of 50."
But, the search will likely be even harder now.
"We're mostly really concerned for our parents, honestly," Silvey said.
