Additional emergency childcare centers for essential workers set to open in RVA

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Several “emergency childcare” centers will open throughout RVA for elementary and middle school-aged children of “essential” medical workers during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Beginning Monday, the YMCA will open additional care facilities, accepting kindergartners through eighth-graders at the following locations: Downtown, Shady Grove, Tuckahoe, Midlothian and Chester.

Rebecca Ramirez is an essential health care worker. She told 8News that she’s worried that her son’s daycare may close if enough parents pull their kids out and bring them home.
Ramirez says she is still stressed over the uncertainty of the future.

Should the daycare decide the close, her two-year-old son wouldn’t meet the age requirement of the YMCA. Ramirez, who works at an emergency veterinarian practice, could potentially be in the same predicament as other parents scrambling for child care.

“We are certainly hurting,” said Kiran Bashir, with Kiddie Academy.

Located on West Creek, Bashir says their enrollment is down more than 50 percent but has limited openings to comply with CDC guidelines.

“We are assisting the governor by remaining open as long as we possibly can,” she said.

Bashir says they will prioritize children of essential workers, like Ramirez. The move gives Ramirez and her family options as she tries to make her son’s “world as normal as possible.”

Several childcare facilities have opened up their doors for temporary openings.