We are able to offer emergency childcare at our Jack, Will, and Rob facility beginning March 17, 2020. To register online, please visit our online registration site: https://wa-camas.intouchreceipting.com.
If you are currently participating in our regular childcare program and wish to enroll in our emergency childcare, please contact:
- Debbie McEnry at 360-833-5610 (press 1) or debbie.mcenry@camas.wednet.edu if your student attends at JWR.
- Brenda Snell at 360-833-5544 or brenda.snell@camas.wednet.edu if your student attends at ZAC CED.
Why are we offering childcare when we closed schools?
Childcare and K-12 schools are unique settings for several reasons:
- School closures have other significant impacts on working parents. Closures can be disruptive and costly for families. Identifying and paying for alternative childcare can be prohibitively expensive for families, and many students rely on schools for free and reduced meals and other vital resources.
- Closing schools impacts the healthcare workforce. Many parents are healthcare workers and first responders. If large numbers of these professionals stay home to care for their children, our collective ability to respond to novel coronavirus as well as other more routine health threats will be diminished.
- Most confirmed cases of novel coronavirus have occurred in adults. Serious illness in children has been uncommon. Information published about past outbreaks of other coronaviruses, like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
- When schools closed during the H1N1 influenza pandemic, we learned that many children still gathered in group settings and still had exposure to one another.
