Chicago Sun-Times: Lifestyles – August 16, 2007

Where will I go?
IN LIMBO | After camp, before school, kids need care

Six-year-old Chase Williams is one of about 6,000 kids spending his summer swimming and playing games through a YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago day camp, a fun break before he begins the rigors of first grade.

While the camp gives Chase a summer of fun, it offers his father, Ned Williams, reassurance that his son is in a safe place while he works at a Jewel grocery store's meat department. But YMCA day camp, like nearly every other summer program in the city, ends before school starts, leaving Ned Williams for a few weeks without the child care he relies on.

"It would be easier if he was going through all summer," Ned Williams said of the camp. "If I didn't have his grandmother [who will watch Chase when camp ends], it would be a big question."

Finding child care during the span of sometimes several weeks from when summer programs end and school starts is an annual problem facing parents all over the city.

The North Lawndale YMCA, for instance, offers child care and programming 49 weeks of the year, breaking only for the week after school to prepare for summer camp, and the two weeks before school starts to prepare for after-school programs, said Kimberly George, program director.

Chicago Park District summer programs start the Monday after the Chicago Public School year ends. Many end weeks before the school year starts, though some specialized extended camps run through Aug. 30. Chicago Public Schools start Sept. 4.

With short-term child care particularly lacking, parents are forced to take vacation time or shuffle kids off to various relatives before the school year begins. While educators and child care workers say kids can use some unscheduled time to relax before taking on another school year, young children can't be left home unsupervised.

"It really is a patchwork kind of preparation," said Greg Graham, assistant director of school-age programs at Illinois Action for Children.

"People really have to piece it together so that kids have coverage."

There are a few child care providers in the Chicago area that take in youngsters on a short-term basis. The Jewish Community Centers have vacation day programs for kids in kindergarten through sixth grade for those in-between weeks before school, as well as Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pulaski Day and winter break.

"Our biggest times throughout the year are these chunks of time," said Craig Neuman, JCC regional director. "In this post-camp time I'm going to estimate we'll have 300 to 400 kids per day between all the programs at the JCC."

For younger children, some of the centers also offer backup child care, a fairly recent program that gives parents in emergency child care situations a place to go.

Manesha Myrick-Miller is one of them. She's unable to break from her job as an analyst, so her 7-year-old daughter Jade will head to Jade's great-grandmother's house for the days before second grade begins.

Myrick-Miller said if camp were open, she would send Jade, though she sees the benefits of her daughter having some time off to review her reading skills before school starts. And while her great-grandmother might not take her fishing as her YMCA counselors did, Jade sees some
benefits to staying with her great-grandmother.

"She lets me color," Jade said.