WeeCare Gives Essential Workers Emergency Child Care
MARINA DEL REY, CA — A Marina del Rey technology company is partnering with the city of Los Angeles to secure emergency child care for essential workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti made the announcement about the collaboration last week, offering a solution to help health workers and other essential workers help care for their families.
Emergency workers will now have access to public funds to cover critical needs like child care and access to possible health care providers.
"We offer drop in care, flexible care, especially if you’re a nurse and you work nighttime shifts," WeeCare co-founder Jessica Chang told Patch.
There's a stipend to pay for the daycare for health care workers. As of now, the stipend is only for healthcare workers, not all essential workers, she said.
"The city actually being able to pay for it was a great help," Chang told Patch. "We wanted to help out our community as much as possible. We partnered with the city of Los Angeles to partner with healthcare workers. "
"The partnership is a bold and overdue initiative by the city that addresses the cracks in the existing childcare infrastructure. The WeeCare app allows parents and childcare providers to submit fever checks, helping to monitor the health of our communities," Chang said.
WeeCare helps offer child care options for infants to six-year-olds. Parents can also track daily progress. The company also serves licensed home daycares, micro-preschools run out of people’s homes.
As the price of child care rises, and the stay-home-order continues in Los Angeles, Chang cites WeeCare as an option for parents and caregivers. It's also something the industry needs, she added.
"Early child care Is just such a problem," Chang said. "For example, the average preschool teacher only makes $20,000 to $30,000 per year, at the same time the cost of child care is getting more expensive."
"The early childhood industry has been going through a lot of pain," Chang told Patch.
The coronavirus pandemic could lead to a permanent loss of more than 4.5 million child care slots, according to the Center for American Progress.
"For every three kids that need care, there’s only one spot or zero spots available," she said. "With the pandemic happening, a lot of our home daycares have been in a better position because they are small. It’s one provider taking care of one to six kids."
WeeCare gives real-time data and helps workers who were struggling to figure out childcare options, she said. They’re licensed, do cleaning and sanitation, which is required of them.
And during the beginning of the stay-at-home order in Los Angeles County, a majority of the day cares took an oath to stay open, she added.
"It’s been really exciting as a tech company. We’ve launched a number of new features," Chang said.
Those new features include virtual temperature checks. The temperature recording gets verified - even before the day starts.
"We’re following the social distancing and making sure no one who is sick is interacting with each other," Chang told Patch.
WeeCare is also using virtual tours. Parents can tour a daycare without physically being in contact with each other. To learn more about WeeCare, visit weecare.co. Parents can also access a full directory of childcare locations.
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This article originally appeared on the Marina Del Rey Patch
