Children’s Learning Center of Ephrata stays open, adapts to difficult time

EPHRATA — Kate and Steve DuVall with the Children’s Learning Center of Ephrata continue to work, in this unusual time, to offer opportunities for parents and families as the school year nears.

The DuValls come from a background with Child Protective Services and social work, they said. The pair took over the facility in 2013, with Steve DuVall acting as director and Kate joining in February.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, one of their first steps was to start a parent support meeting every other Wednesday to give parents a chance to come in and discuss some of the difficulties and issues they are facing. Kate DuVall said they just want to be responsive to the needs of the community.

“We recognize that we are the only licensed center in Ephrata,” she said. “There are some wonderful day care moms who run day care through their homes, but we are the only day care center. There are a scattering of preschools attached to churches, but we’re kind of a unicorn in Ephrata.”

The Children’s Learning Center features seven classrooms, divided by age, with child care offered for children from one month up to 12 years old. DuVall said the center is licensed to hold 100 kids, with varying group size limitations for each age group. Based on a grant application through Washington State Department of Children, Youth, & Families (DCYF), she estimates they care for about 25 percent of children under five in the community.

Having close daily contact with parents and children so often, Kate DuVall said, they don’t require masks for kids or parents. She said they are taking temperatures of everyone coming in, and making sure to ask parents to isolate and socially distance themselves as best they can.

Licensed through DCYF, Kate DuVall said they’ll gladly change the mask recommendation to a requirement if the DCYF’s guidelines change. She said they have been in contact with the local health district, especially early on, to ensure they are taking the best course of action.

An extra staff person was hired after the pandemic for the sole purpose of sanitizing toys and classrooms, Kate DuVall said. She added that they’ve worked to help the kids better understand the extra precautions with the virus.

“We’ve done lessons on germs center-wide, we wash hands obsessively, we talk about germs,” Kate DuVall said. “They all know about the coronavirus, it’s just part of their childhood now.”

The center wasn’t forced to close down at all, having been labeled an essential business early on by Gov. Jay Inslee. When the pandemic first struck, Kate DuVall said, they did see their attendance numbers drop dramatically.

“We were able to stay open and provide child care to children of essential workers and people who didn’t have the option to stay home because of the support of DCYF,” she said. “We wouldn’t have made it financially if they hadn’t been as supportive as they have been.”

She said they applied for a grant in hope of expanding space on the second floor in order to accommodate another 30 kids in the center’s K-2 program.

Being able to home-school or tutor children at home takes a special kind of parent, Kate DuVall said.

“Not everyone is equipped to be their kid’s teacher,” she said. “What we heard in the spring is that’s really frustrating for moms who are working from home and trying to figure out the virtual learning thing, when the kids have Zoom meetings. And it was hard on families in the spring.”

While they haven’t had any positive cases of the coronavirus yet, Kate DuVall said they’ve discussed how they would handle it if a teacher, family member, or child were to test positive. So far, anytime they’ve had someone have symptoms, or get tested, they have required them to isolate for 14 days until the test results came back negative.

In the case of a positive test, she said, the center would be closed down for however long it took them to sanitize and clean the facility.

“One of our parents has talked about that,” Kate DuVall said. “With her job as an essential worker, she probably runs the risk of exposure, so we have a plan in place if a parent tests positive and what that means for us.”

She said they’ll continue to look for other ways to assist the community, even if that means just collecting blankets to give away to families. Kate DuVall said they’re currently running a fundraiser where they offer buckets of soap in order to offset the child care center’s weekly expenses, such as chalk or diaper wipes.

The next parent support meeting for the Children’s Learning Center of Ephrata will be held next Wednesday evening.