Parents of young children will soon have a new option for day care, when the Vashon Children’s Center opens early next month.
The center, which will provide care for infants and children from 6 weeks old through preschool age, is expected to receive its license this week and will open on Feb. 9, according to owner Amanda Lawson. The center, with hours from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., will serve eight infants, five toddlers and seven preschool students. Priority will be given to families seeking full-time and committed part-time care, and drop-in options will be available if there is space remaining.
After a successful licensing visit by the state’s Department of Early Learning (DEL) last week, program director Sandy Gilliam said they are working to create a childcare facility where the children’s needs — physical, emotional and intellectual — are met.
“It will be an enriched environment where children grow and learn and discover who they are,” she said.
Currently, Gilliam and Lawson are hiring staff for the program. Jan Lofland has signed on as the lead infant teacher, and Mo Brulé will be the lead teacher in the preschool room. High school student Isabelle Porter, who has been nannying for Lawson, will provide part-time assistance, and other staff are being added as well.
“That is our biggest focus. We need to hire, train and build the team,” Gilliam said last week.
The licensing process was an onerous one, the women have said. Just a few weeks ago, they stated that they believed the state had raised many issues without cause, including the adequacy of the building’s septic system and the location of a staff bathroom. They were concerned that they might be facing a long struggle to get licensed or that the state might not allow them to offer care for all the ages that they wanted to serve.
Instead, the three-hour visit from three DEL officials last week went smoothly, with only minor changes requested, such as posting additional information, revising the handbook and moving a gate, Lawson said.
Once the center is open, two staff members plus a floating assistant will care for the eight babies in the infant room, and there will be one teacher for children ages 1 year to 30 months and another teacher for the children ages 31 months up to kindergarten age.
Lawson will not teach, she said, but will focus on administrative tasks and cooking breakfast, lunch and snacks for the children. Costs will vary by age group and range from $1,800 a month for full-time infant care — nearly 12 hours a day, five days a week — to $600 a month for two days a week of care for preschoolers. Drop-in rates will vary from $8 to $10 an hour.
Lawson added that the cost of full-time care may sound high, especially for those who have not looked into full-time infant care before, but she has tried to keep costs within reach for working families. Indeed, the advocacy group Puget Sound Sage recently indicated that in King County, parents pay an average of $1,440 a month for full-time care for an infant at a day care center.
While there are several preschools on the island, there have been few day care centers for several years, and only one that takes even a small number of infants. Originally, Lawson said that the center would serve four infants at a time, but that changed in the licensing process, and she says there is plenty of interest in the eight infant slots available.
The center will host an open house and registration from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31. The center is located at the VYFS Playspace off Vashon Highway on Gorsuch Road. For more information, see its Facebook page or its website at vashonchildrenscenter.com.
