Anchorage Schools Plan Child Care in Empty Classrooms

The Anchorage School District (ASD) is proposing a new initiative to convert vacant elementary school classrooms into child care facilities. This plan comes alongside efforts to close more schools due to declining student enrollment and aims to address a critical shortage of affordable child care in Anchorage. The proposal, which would expand child care access for district employees, city workers, and the wider community, is scheduled for release at an Anchorage School Board meeting on October 7.

Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt highlighted the strategic nature of the plan. "It's not just about closing schools. It's about being smart about how we use extra space in our elementary school buildings," Bryantt stated at a September 17 event at King Tech High School. This approach is central to the district's "rightsizing" strategy for the current year.

Addressing Anchorage's Child Care Crisis

Child care providers and advocates have long described the lack of affordable child care in Alaska as a crisis. Data from thread Alaska, a statewide child care nonprofit, shows a significant decline in available services. In 2015, Anchorage had over 300 child care businesses. Currently, only about 180 remain.

This reduction in providers comes as both tuition and operating costs continue to rise. The impact on families is clear. More than half of parents surveyed by thread in 2023 reported that child care limitations prevent them from working as much as they would like.

Stephanie Berglund, CEO of thread, emphasized the broader consequences.

"Families, communities and businesses struggle when parents lack access to reliable, affordable child care," Berglund said.

She referenced a June report from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a national community development organization. This report suggests that co-locating child care operations within existing community spaces offers unique opportunities for resource sharing that might be too costly for standalone facilities.

School Closures and "Rightsizing" Efforts

The plan to integrate child care into schools is linked to the ASD's ongoing efforts to manage declining student populations. Since 2010, the district has lost over 6,000 students. Since 2017, five schools have closed. District finance officials attribute these closures to several factors. These include reduced spending power due to inflation, years of stagnant state funding, and a steady shift of students to charter and homeschool programs.

Current school board members are in their third round of "rightsizing" the district. This process involves voting to close schools to more efficiently serve a shrinking student body. Last year, the board voted to close Lake Hood and Nunaka Valley elementary schools. They also directed Superintendent Bryantt to recommend closing at least one more school this fall. The board will vote on these closure recommendations at its November 18 meeting.

Details of the Child Care Co-location Plan

Under the proposed plan, the district would lease available space within school buildings to licensed child care providers. While full details are not yet public, Jim Anderson, ASD Chief Operating Officer, provided some key information. Approximately 20% of the child care capacity will be reserved for children of ASD employees. This provision aims to help the district retain teachers with young children.

"The number of people in the district that likely would be looking at this and/or commercial child care in our schools is really high," Anderson explained. "There's certainly a noticeable lack as the Assembly, the mayor, even at the state level, everyone recognizes there's not enough child care."

The Anchorage School District is one of 20 grant recipients receiving funds from Anchorage marijuana taxes specifically for child care initiatives. In June, the Anchorage Assembly approved a plan from the Anchorage Child Care and Early Education Fund. This plan supports adding child care operations to schools. ASD received a $224,217 grant to convert underutilized classrooms into licensed, rent-free spaces for community-based child care or early education providers.

Existing Child Care Partnerships and Future Outlook

While the district seeks to expand co-located child care, some programs already operate within Anchorage schools. For example, the Bear Valley Community Association established a nonprofit in 2003 to offer child care at Bear Valley Elementary School. Their School Aged Child Care program provides services before and after school, and a preschool program launched last year. This program currently serves about 80 children in its after-school component, with another 10 on a waiting list.

Meagan DeBenedetto, chief operating officer for School Aged Child Care, confirmed the widespread need.

"We're all pretty aware about the extreme lack of child care," DeBenedetto said. "We kind of just made a little hub here in the community."

Parents appreciate the convenience and quality of these programs. Solomon Crownover, whose son Koa attends the Bear Valley program, noted his son's enjoyment. "All the parents here, they drop their kids off, and if they pick their kid up early, it's a fight," Crownover said. "They're like, 'No, I want to stay' because they just have such a good time here."

Fourth-grader Brock Heagy enjoys the variety of activities. "They have lots of activities. Sometimes I don't really know what to do, because there's so much," Heagy said. He also highlighted the ease for his parents: "It's really convenient for my mom and dad, and they just like drop us off here, give us a lunch box, backpack, and we're good. It's really, really, really easy."

Similar programs exist at Rabbit Creek Elementary, and Campfire Alaska operates programs in 17 other Anchorage School District schools. Anderson anticipates that the process for fully implementing new child care facilities in schools will likely take several years.

Impact on Charter Schools and Other Districts

The newly available space from school closures could also benefit charter schools. Anderson indicated that district administration would prioritize allowing charter schools currently paying leases elsewhere to move into closed school buildings. For instance, the Alaska Native Cultural Charter School now occupies the former Lake Hood building, and STrEaM Academy is in the old Nunaka Valley building.

Anchorage is not alone in facing school closures. Other districts in Alaska have also experienced similar trends. Earlier this year, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board voted to close three schools. The Kodiak Island Borough School District also closed an elementary school. These closures reflect declining student populations and years of flat state funding across the state.