Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

What do you do with your children if they are in elementary school?

Currently, my DD is in a private school since our school district was 1/2 day.

Right now, her bus comes at 7:04 a.m. which is great with my work schedule.

However, if we decided to put her in public school, her bus won't come until 8:30. I have to be at work at 7:30. My DH works in the city and can't help out in the a.m.

My neighbor has someone come in and she pays her $15 per hour. Now if I calculate that correctly, I will need her four days a week for 2 hours per day. This is so expensive and I haven't even calculated aftercare.

So my question, for those who work FT, and need before care and after care what do you do w/o it costing a small fortune.

I never thought private school would be LESS expensive than public.

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

I don't need to be at work until 9 - so I can put them on the bus as needed. If I want a little extra space, I drive them to school and let them eat breakfast there at around 8:20. When I was in a real spot last week (had to get Robbie to the hospital for surgery) - I had my neighbor put Noah on the bus.

There are also district run 'breakfast clubs' before school.

My challenge was after care. My boys participated in an After Care program sponsored by the district for 9 dollars a day.

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

Sachem has before care that starts at 7am. I do not use it as I don't have to be at work until 9am but it is always there if I choose to use it.

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

Our school district has before and after school care. We never used before care, but the after care was $11 a day no matter what time you picked up the kids.

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

Our district doesn't have full day Kindergarten, so we will use private school for at least the first year. The two schools I am considering for private school both would have DS on the bus before 8:00 am, before I would have to leave for work, so I could put him on the bus. I will have to pay for aftercare.

When he moves up to first grade, my early calculations show that private school will still be more expensive, because of the tuition alone. I wouldn't have to pay before care at the private school, but I would have to pay for it at public school, because they have a later start time. I am pretty sure the after care at private is a little more expensive than the aftercare at the public school. So, the before care/after care amount is a wash for us, the only difference is what we would pay in tuition.

I am leaning towards private school anyway, but I like the idea of him starting the school day when he arrives at school and then just having aftercare while he is small. It seems like a lot of shuffling around to have before care, school day, then after care. If that is what we need to do, that's what we'll do, but I would prefer he just start the school day when he arrives at school.

Message edited 11/4/2009 12:33:49 PM.

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

The problem w/me is the before care and that's what seems to be the most expensive. I can manage the aftercare because I think most schools have SCOPE. But the before care will cost me more than what we're paying in Catholic School. I guess I have to do some research. We're happy with the Catholic school but I just wish we didn't have to pay KWIM?

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

I don't know. I can't imagine someone charging less that $10 or $15 per hour especially at that hour.

I guess we'll be doing the private school for awhile....lol

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

Maybe I read your post wrong, but do you mean a private person is too expensive or the district? Does your district have before care - or do you have to leave earlier than you would be able to drop her off at school for that?

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

Both - hiring someone is too expensive and the bus comes too late for me to get to work on time. I guess I have to find out if my district has some sort of before care since the bus comes so late.

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

Does anyone know if Kings Park has this?

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

I called and found out that OF COURSE, Kings Park does not have before care only after care.

They do have aftercare and it's $124 for 3 days a week if I can pick her up by 4:30 otherwise, it's $175 per month for 3 days.

UGH, so annoying.

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

For my older child, we used a private school for the first few months & then hated it. I was able to switch him to public school & used SCOPE's kindergarten enrichment program in the morning.

The drop-off was at 8am, they open the doors at 8:04 & I caught an 8:11am train to the city.

Aftercare was SCOPE too.

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

Re: Parents that Work FT & School Aged Children

Town of Smithtown DOES have before care but Kings Park and Fort Salonga do not. They only have aftercare which is $124 per month for 3 days if you get there before 4:30(for 2009). Otherwise it's $175 / mo for 3 days after 4:30