Less than 24 hours after hearing public outcry, Hamilton County Schools reversed its decision not to honor state vouchers for child care this school year.
Students from low-income households and foster children who are in the care of the state are eligible for free child care before and after school, but at the end of the 2017-18 school year, Hamilton County decided to stop accepting the vouchers. About 34 students of more than 6,500 students served by the district's program were impacted.
On Monday, about two dozen foster parents gathered at a meeting of the Chattanooga Area Foster and Adoptive Care Association to discuss their concerns, and by Tuesday afternoon, the district had changed course.
"As a program focused on children and service to families in the community, we feel the decision to end the Child Care Certificate Program with the state does not fit with the values of our program or Hamilton County Schools. As a result, we want to make this right for the children and our families," reads a statement from Kathy Loftis, manager of the district's School Age Child Care Program.
On Tuesday afternoon, Superintendent Bryan Johnson, Chief of Operations Ken Bradshaw and others met to discuss the future of the program after parents expressed their frustrations to Loftis and her colleague, Kathy Thomas, Monday night.
Despite the policy change, foster parent Robyn Logan said she felt "disgusted and dismissed" after Monday's meeting.
"As a foster parent and as a citizen of the county, I do have grave concerns about the policy to end the program," Logan said before the decision to honor the certificates was made. "It exercises a weak ability to effectively solve problems when minor adjustments are all that's necessary and an inability to understand the family dynamics of those they are charged to serve."
District officials told the families Monday that the program had been discontinued due to what the district claims was an "unfeasible" and "difficult" process regarding signing in and signing out children from the childcare programs.
Typically, parents - who pay about $5 to $7 a day for the program - drop their children off at a school in the morning and sign them in to the before-school program. After school, when they pick their children up, parents do the same.
Loftis said an audit by the state Department of Human Services insisted that schools add an extra step for students who receive the vouchers, requesting a staff member to sign students in and out of the program when they begin and end their school day.
"We can't ask our teachers to do that," Loftis said at Monday's meeting.
Paula Logan (unrelated to Robyn Logan) was shocked the program was discontinued because of what she deemed was a minor, bureaucratic issue.
She sent a letter to Johnson and the school district last week and invited Loftis and her team to the foster parent meeting.
"How can a group of adults in the position of making decisions for a marginalized group of students decide that refusing to receive state funds for the student's care is the best course of action?" Paula Logan wrote in her letter. "On the surface, this appears as a simple case of moral bankruptcy, paired with an inability to resolve conflict with others, on the part of the individuals making the decisions."
Paula Logan also noted that she had felt like the district was not addressing the full scope of the problem when she reached out to Johnson and Bradshaw. Even Monday night, she felt district officials were being dismissive.
"I expressed my concerns that we were being dismissive of the kids in question," she said. "I spoke from my position as a foster parent and how I thought we were all sitting and admitting the issue and we weren't doing anything to solve it."
By Tuesday though, after the Times Free Press reached out to the district, Johnson called a meeting with Bradshaw, said spokesman Tim Hensley.
The district has vowed to honor the certificates, though it will not receive the funds from the state program.
"The program will make whole the cost of care for the 34 children we serve impacted by the loss of the Child Care Certificate Program and continue to provide care for these children at no cost to the families," Loftis said in a statement Tuesday. "We will begin immediately to work with the state of Tennessee Department of Human Services to establish a relationship that will once again provide the Child Care Certificates that cover the cost of care for these children."
Hensley said that none of the 34 children had left the program, and many foster parents noted they had been paying out of pocket for those child care costs.
"There's a tremendous expense that is taken on by foster families," Robyn Logan said. "The child you are receiving are already the most marginalized and have been removed from the most traumatic, or traumatic situations. Our days are spent just finding the most basic things."
It is unclear if the district will reimburse families for what they have already spent on child care this school year and over the summer.
The program has been serving Hamilton County families for decades. It is a self-funded program, Hensley said, so the cost to honor the certificate will come out of the program's own budget.
Contact staff writer Meghan Mangrum at mmangrum@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.