OSPI Grant

Skagit Valley Family Y Childcare is honored to have received a Community Based Organization Grant from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The grant money from OSPI is allocated as Elementary and Secondary School Emergency relief funds through the CARES Act to support 2020-2021 school district reopening efforts.  

We were identified by the state as an organization that is providing Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELOs) through school district partnership programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Y Beyond the Bell program facilitates ELOs during the school day for K-5 students at four sites across Skagit County. The purpose of these programs is to ensure that families have safe, reliable care for their school age children while they are participating in virtual learning.  

100% of these funds will be directly used for school age childcare programming. Our leadership team has several goals and guidelines for the allocation of these funds:  

• Decreasing costs for families. We know that families have been financially impacted by the pandemic which is why our #1 goal with these funds is to pass on savings to our childcare families. Beginning January 1^st 2021, we will be offering a 50% discount on our Beyond the Bell tuition for the 2020-2021 school year to thank our current families for sticking with us. 
  
  
• Sustained jobs and pay for teachers and staff. This funding will ensure that we can continue to pay our Y childcare teachers and assist with paying school district teachers in the unpredictable months ahead. 
  
  
• Enhancing Beyond the Bell. Our sports staff will utilize this grant to start a P.E. class at Beyond the Bell. During a long day of sitting in Zoom classes, students will participate in one hour-long physical activities led by seasoned youth sports coaches three days a week. Small groups of up to 5 students through their choice of physical activity. Children will be able to choose between kickball, relay races, red light – green light, soccer freeze tag, basketball tic tac toe, and more! All participants will wear a mask and will be led outdoors by the same instructor each week to reduce exposure. This collaboration with our Sports department will benefit our Beyond the Bell kids by keeping them physically active, outdoors and will give them a healthy break during the day that will help improve their focus during their virtual classes. 
   
• Reaching more families. This grant funding will allow us to provide greater access to affordable, high-quality childcare to more Skagit families. 
  
  
• Supplying more PPE to our staff. The cost of providing good quality personal protective equipment for our staff is high. A portion of this grant will be used to cover the cost of PPE for the rest of this pandemic.