Kindergarten Pick Up

My area has two formal options that I know of.
1) The YMCA runs an afterschool program.
2) The local daycares send a van to the school to pick up kids and bring them to the daycare.

Most after school programs do not start until the upper grades get out so for Kindergarten, I still had to pay for daycare and find one that picked up from her school.

Our daycare center is in our school district. My kids ride the bus to daycare after school.

Our district has grown, so we do have a YMCA after school program, but not all schools have that.

Our school also has a list of in-home providers in our district. All of the people listed live in our school district, and the kids would ride the school bus to the homes.

I work full time, my kid is in pre-school M-F 9-3. My parents do the drop off, pick up and hold onto him until I get home from work anywhere between 5:45 and 7pm. If it weren't for them, I would have to employ a nanny, or have kept him in daycare for the longer hours.

Best,
F. B.

We picked a Montessori with full day kindergarten (until 3p) and aftercare until 6 pm. For first grade our local community center does and after school arts program until 6. There is a bus that picks them up from the elementary school and I pick him up at the center.

Most schools have before and after school care on site. If your school doesn't then call the office, they might have referrals for local day cares, sitters or other after school programs, like the YMCA, or Boys & Girls Club. Some people prefer to hire a college age sitter or nanny. There are many options, it just depends on what's available in your area.

Talk to the school. I bet they have aftercare options to suggest.

You have to call around to every single child care provider and find out if they pick up kids at noon. Most will not. They don't have staff at lunch time to do transportation. I wouldn't even bother with a home provider, they can't load up babies and toddlers in a family car and go pick anyone up. They would likely also not have permission from other parents to transport their children anywhere, even if it's just a block away.

I'd suggest you do this pretty soon so you can know if this is an option for you or not. I don't know of one child care provider that will pick up half day kids. IF IF IF IF the school system has a bus that will take kindergartners to and from school then they can drop them off at the center. Head Start usually has this option but sometimes they won't even drop a child anywhere but their home address.

If your school system does not offer full day child care it's time to find out what the other working mom's in your area do. Ask the school, ask the kindergarten teachers, find out who's in kindergarten that you might know and have them ask the other parents.

Some will find a mom in the same class and pay them to bring home kiddo every day, like child care but part time and never full time. In the summer kiddo needs to go to a licensed facility. In Oklahoma if they watch a child over 15 hours per week they must get licensed.

You have options and yes, it's really early to be making plans and picking facilities but you MUST have some idea as to the possibility that after school care would not be an option so you can find what the alternative is.

One of my friends lived in a smaller community where they only did half day kindergarten and she worked. There weren't even any child care centers in the area. So she enrolled her child in the school district where she worked so kiddo would have full day class then YMCA child care on site after school. Not all schools have the YMCA in their building, some bus the child care kids to a particular school and parents pick kiddo up at that school.

You do have a dilemma. I would expect you will have a hard time finding any facility that will pick up. It's not impossible but unlikely.

Ask the school what the options are...the school secretaries know everything about everything. In my district, when my older kids were in K there was only one off-site program because it was so awesome it put everyone else out of business. There were a few random home day cares that offered hours for Kindergarten kids as well. Now with my younger kids, they had the choice of an extended-K program at school or the original off-site XK that my olders went to. One of my youngers did the off-site and the youngest did the on-site. Now the school district finally offers an in-house optional full day program that most families do opt into and pay the extra money for, but there are still some day cares that cater to the kids who want a half-day program. You're definitely not the only one with this problem so there are established programs that either go until the end of a full school day or until 5 or 6 PM. Just call the school office and ask.

After school care. Babysitter.

A school, typically has, after school care, on its own campus.
It MAY be organized by the school itself... or operated by an outside contractor. Like the YMCA or something.
So, ask your child's school... what options there are and what do all the other kids do.

As a SAHM I used to take a couple of kids for 1/2 day kindergarten when my own kids were in half day. Our school also has a before and after daycare that takes kinder for 1/2 day. The YMCA and the Military Family Resource Center also have daycares that take kinders for 1/2 day, and the school division will bus kinders to those daycares (because they are more than 1 km from the school).

My son goes to the YMCA after school. There is also a place in the district, but I did not care for that program. I am very happy with the YCMA in our area.

Start by checking with the school for an on campus program. Most schools in So Cal have one. If they do, that is by far the easiest way to go, though not necessarily the cheapest.

Option two: hire a nanny/babysitter to pick her up and take her home. She can watch your daughter for the afternoon until you return from work.

Option three: see if your city has any programs. Where I live, some of the local community centers host after school programs for kids. Each center has a few schools assigned to it and buses pick up the children from their school and drive them to the center.

Option four: many YMCA's have after school programs too. You may have to figure out transportation, but at least she'll have a good place to go. If your work is close enough, you could drive her there on your lunch hour.

a school that still does half-day kindergarten!?
whoop!
that's awesome.
my kids did half-days, but i didn't think anyone did any more!
we had a daycare lady, and our school bused the kindergartners, so on days i was working they got off the bus at her house. when they started in 1st grade we switched to the after school care right there at the school.
your school secretary gets this question all the time. go to her, and she'll probably also have a list of vetted babysitters to refer.
khairete
S.

As others have said, many school systems run what is called (here) School Aged Child Care, where the child stays right there at school for the rest of the day and you pick up your child after work; however, you need to know that if your child's school offers this you MUST get the information now and probably will have to put your child's name on a list to get in-- usually a waiting list. These slots are limited because they do not have room for everyone and you might find that your school offers child care but there are zero slots available for the coming fall. Around here, some families have long waits ever to get their kids into these programs. Your school system may have more slots or a different system, but here it's first come first served, so families waiting for slots just have to wait until other kids leave the program and their child finally moves up the list. Not trying to scare you here, just alerting you to the fact that saying "Oh, I hear that our school has child care after school, we'll use that" is not going to work, necessarily -- find out now, not in the summer or fall, about what your school does or doesn't do, so you can find private child care if needed. I know lots of families who have "mother's helpers" or send their kids to private after-school care at preschools etc. while the family is waiting for their kid finally to rise to the top of the after-school, at-school care list.

Nope, it did not affect us personally as we did not need after-school care but I see it is always on the minds of my friends who do want those coveted slots.

My daughters school has an after school program. Another option is to look into a daycare in the area that she could bus to.

I also had my childrens grandparents help us out.

A combination of family friends and child care centers.

Here's a few things to consider:
a) some half-day Ks will not meet at all when the other grades have an early release day or a delayed start day.
b) some after care centers do not take children on early release days or school holidays.
c) a private preschool with a kindergarten may provide the most stability if a or b is an issue for your family.

Our area has full-day kindergarten. But when my youngest was in pre-k, he went to public pre-k. He went to his babysitters house in the morning, and my lunch break that year was spent picking him up and bringing him back to our house to catch the bus. It worked out nicely for everyone.

If he had morning school, I would have taken him to daycare once he got home and picked him up after work.

I have my son go to an after school care program at a daycare center. They pick him up if I don't. Also my son is a late start friend in the morning, so I bring him to the daycare and they bring him to school every morning for me. Works great and they are usually open the days the schools are closed (conference meetings, spring and winter breaks).

In my old district some schools had after K care ("fun club") and some did not. AM K is there with no other kids until the rest of the school gets out and care was available until 6pm. Lucky for us we attended one that did. When we moved I was super sad to discover NONE of our schools in our district had after K or after school care onsite. At least my older daughter was in 1st grade. BUT the next year my younger started K AND no care. She ended up being in afternoon and so that was crazy. At least my employer was flexible and let me come in later. You need to find a school that has something available. Call the school and ask them if they know what people do. Is there a program at the school available? IS there a local church that has a kid care program (the school that my kids go to now has a church 1/4 mile away and they have before and after school care. They walk the kids to/from school for all day and 1/2 day kinder. both AM and PM) Is there a kindercare in your area? these centers pick up/drop off at schools but not all schools. so check. There may also be local centers or child care facilities that do so. Some private in home day cares offer this. My youngest is in afternoon K now and she goes in early on wednesdays. One of her classmates mom's picks her up and takes her home until my husband gets off. It is going to take a good amount of work and planning but you can do it. Good thing you are starting now. Check your district website and call the district and they might know some ways to help you.