On-site YMCA day care starting

Services will be at Miller Ridge, Mayfield elementary schools.

MIDDLETOWN — Donna Keith, senior child care director at the Atrium Family YMCA, says Middletown parents have been calling her the past three years in search of more day care options within the city.

“They’re looking for before- and after-school care,” Keith said. “I just don’t think there are enough opportunities to service all the children who need day care.”

Beginning next year, the YMCA will host day care services in Miller Ridge and Mayfield elementary schools. Starting at 6:30 a.m., parents can drop off their kids with Y staffers, and students will receive a breakfast snack and homework help. Time will be set aside for recreation.

The same goes for the YMCA’s after-school program, which will run at the two Middletown locations until 6 p.m.

The YMCA is making a concerted effort to expand its on-site child care programs — it currently serves about 300 students daily. Programs are active in Hamilton, Franklin and Talawanda schools, among others. Next year, a site at Babeck Elementary School will serve the Edgewood school district.

In Middletown, the Y is already looking to expand. Keith said a survey was sent to all of the district’s elementary parents this spring in an effort to measure interest in a YMCA day care program. She said response was strong from each school, but particularly at Miller Ridge and Mayfield.

“We’ll start in those two and hope to be in two or four (more) elementaries next year,” Keith said. “We’re definitely looking to grow.”

Kathi-jo Barry, the owner of Youthland Academy in Middletown, she has noticed an increasing demand for day care. The building opened in January of 2010 with only four children enrolled. Youthland now enrolls nearly 130 students.

“I would say there’s a high demand,” Barry said. “More and more of our families are going back to school or are working one or two jobs just trying to make ends meet.”

Debby Stewart, director of Middletown’s KinderCare Learning Center, said her program has seen an increase in children coming from families receiving government assistance but a decrease in children from private-pay families.

“They’re decreasing their amount of hours to save money,” she said. “Families are choosing in-home providers as opposed to a learning center.”

Contact this reporter at (513)

705

-

2871

or

asedlak

@coxohio.com.

About the Author