Amber Drucker is a working mom of three in La Mesa. Her 10- and 8-year-old daughters finish school before she’s done with her work day, putting her at the center of America’s child care crisis.
She had a few options, but they were far from sure things.
One was to enroll them in the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District’s extended student services (ESS) program. The after-school care costs $66 per week, per child, plus a registration fee. It’s free for students who are homeless, low-income or in foster care.
But ESS slots are limited, and getting them requires preparation and luck.
“When that email comes out, you set a calendar reminder, or if you're me, you set multiple,” Drucker said.
An alert pops up on her phone two days before sign-ups, then one day before, then on the day of. She fills out her kids’ names and emergency contact information ahead of time.
“It's like buying pre-sale tickets to the Rolling Stones,” Drucker said.
This year, luck wasn’t on their side. So they had to go with a Plan B so many families turn to: relying on grandparents.
It doesn't always run smoothly. Drucker’s mother drives from Santee to La Mesa to pick up the kids after school around 2:15. That’s naptime for the three-year-old, who can stay at preschool in City Heights until 5:30.
“So none of that flows well,” Drucker said.
Drucker has a family Google calendar where the parents and grandparents can coordinate school pickup. If the grandparents’ schedules change, so will the pickup plan. Their group chat is titled “The Baby-Sitters Club.”
“If they have anything – doctor's appointments, anything to do – we're kind of at their mercy because they're doing us the favor,” Drucker said. “Sometimes I'm having to move around our work schedules and work later in the night just so that we can pick up the kids instead.”
'The tension in the system'
Officials at the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District say they sympathize with Drucker. More than 2,700 kids currently attend ESS in the district, and as of April, 568 are on the waitlist.
But there are limits to how much they can expand, said Deann Ragsdale, the district’s deputy superintendent.
“If we accommodate every parent that wanted or needed it, we would be running school all day long, from 6 to 6,” Ragsdale said. “As a parent who had to pay for before and after school care for my children, I understand it. It’s expensive.”
Like other child care providers, the district’s ESS program must abide by staffing ratios set by the state in order to receive funding. Adding more spots to the child care program would mean adding more staff and more classrooms.
“At one point we got bigger, and we went like, ‘This is too big, we’ve got to come back a little to feel like we are running this well,’” Ragsdale said. “And that’s, I think, part of the tension in the system.”
Staff turnover is also a challenge. The ESS jobs are entry-level and often filled by college students, whose schedules might change each semester. Six years after the pandemic, they’re still competing with remote jobs people can do from home.
Jennifer Montez oversees the district’s ESS program. She and her team go to local high schools to tell seniors about job openings and hold mock interviews.
“We find ways in our community to keep the program running, and making certain we have people working with students who want to be here,” Montez said. “Because you can go find a job at In-N-Out for $20 an hour, but this is way more rewarding and also works with their school schedules.”
For now, parents like Drucker must either try again for the elusive spots or continue to piece together a pickup plan week by week.
The high cost of living has made her consider moving away from San Diego. But that would mean leaving a strong network of grandparents and friends.
“I have this gigantic web of support,” Drucker said. “I don’t take that for granted.”
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