Bar-T Announcements:

• Montgomery County: All programs in (Early Childhood & Distance Learning Hubs) will open at 11:30am. If MCPS changes our opening status, we will send out a notice as soon as possible.
• Frederick County: MAC will open at 10am. We will reevaluate our opening status and will send a message at 7am if there is going to be a change to our schedule.

Due to the inclement weather, MCPS has cancelled child care in buildings and FCPS has closed schools and offices as well. All Bar-T programs are closed today.

• Montgomery County: All programs in (Early Childhood & Distance Learning Hubs) will open at 11:30am. If MCPS changes our opening status, we will send out a notice as soon as possible.
• Frederick County: We are evaluating our opening status and will send a message at 7am if there is going to be a change to our schedule.

• We will be opening on Monday, September 14th!
• While we have been given the go ahead to open, the schools are still confirming the classrooms that will be available to us.
• We expect to have access at virtually all of our locations, so our ability to open a cohort at each school will depend on the number of children that sign up for the program.
• There needs to be 10 children enrolled in a cohort to be able to open it. The maximum number of children in the cohort is 13, so the cohorts will have 10-13 children.
• Cohorts will be finalized next week! If you have not yet enrolled in a program, please register as soon as possible so we can finalize the group.
• You may not be able to sign up on Sunday and begin on Monday as the majority of our cohorts will be finalized by then. We need to have you complete a health pre-screening for your child(ren) and we need time to ensure that there is space and adequate staffing in the cohort you wish to join.
• Financial assistance is available through Maryland Child Care Scholarship Program and Working Parents Assistance vouchers. Please email us at help@bar-t.com if you have question about enrolling using these programs.

HEALTH & SAFETY FORMS:

• Pre-Screening Form with 14 days of recorded temperature checks. This must be turned in before your child begins in our program.
• Health Inventory
• Emergency Card
• Immunization Form
• Medication Authorization Form: Must be turned in if your child may need to take any prescription medication(s) while in our care.

August 10, 2020: Registration for Distance Learning Hubs is Open!

Bar-T Families and Friends,

This is the email I’ve been waiting all summer to send. Today we met with MCPS and have been given the “go ahead” to run our Distance Learning Hubs in MCPS schools. This is very exciting news and we can’t wait to get started. We don’t yet know how many classrooms we will have, or what our total capacity will be, but I’m confident we will be able to take anyone that wishes to use Bar-T for their child’s distance learning solution this fall.

It’s important to know, from the outset, that MCPS has informed us that we will not be able to begin on August 31st. They have been incredible partners in finding a solution for child care, but we are only a piece of a larger puzzle in their operations. Given that there will be large-scale material distribution during the first weeks of school, it’s just not possible for anyone else to safely utilize the space. MCPS has given us the tentative date of September 14th as the first day we could open, but we are hopeful to move that date forward as details are ironed out.

As we understand that you are anxious to secure care for your child(ren) this fall, registration will begin tomorrow August 11th at 9am.

Thank you for your continued support and patience as we navigate this process. We’re excited to be getting our programs up and running for you this Fall.

Best,

• Ages: MAC will be open for children in Kindergarten through 8th grade.
• Hours: MAC will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. While children may attend any times/days that you need, we are only offering full-time care options.
• Tuition: Full-time care (8:30am – 5:30pm, Monday through Friday) at MAC will be billed monthly at $1275/month (less than $300/week). Please note that Bar–T accepts Maryland Child Care Scholarship Program and Working Parents Assistance vouchers.
• Registration: Registration is now open online at http://registration.bar–t.com.
• MAC Families: Families who are currently enrolled in Bar–T programs will receive priority registration for the first week. New families will be able to submit their order online, but we will only process registration for MAC families up until Friday, August 7th at 9am.
• New Families: New families will be able to submit an order online when registration opens, but those orders will not be processed during the first week. Our team will begin processing registration on a first-come, first-serve basis and notify families as soon as their order is processed.

School Year Update: July 30, 2020

• Hours: Bar-T will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
• Tuition: Full-time care (8:30am – 5:30pm, Monday through Friday) will be billed monthly at $1275/month ($295/week). Please note that Bar-T accepts Maryland Child Care Scholarship Program and Working Parents Assistance vouchers.
• Locations: We’re still waiting for notification from MCPS regarding the ability to be in school buildings. In the event MPCS does not allow Bar-T to use their school buildings, we are actively working to secure backup locations where these Distance Learning Hubs could operate.
• Registration: Registration will be opening soon and you will receive a notification as soon as that date is set. Families who are currently enrolled in Bar-T programs will receive priority registration and the remaining spots will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you know that you will be signing up for Bar-T, please complete the Pre-Registration Survey (link below).

Registration for Bar-T School Year Programs is temporarily paused as we finalize details for this upcoming school year.

Dear Bar-T Families,

I want to give you some insight into what the coming school year may look like at Bar-T. While we are still waiting for a few pieces to fall into place with MCPS, we believe that we will be able to operate our Kids Club programs as “Distance Learning Hubs” beginning on August 31st.

The idea behind these “Hubs” is that children will be dropped-off at Bar-T in the mornings so parents are able to go to work during the school day. Bar-T will take care of all distance learning, homework, snack, outside time, and clubs. We envision our programs having cohorts, of 13 children with 2 staff members to ensure quality programming and proper social distancing. We’ll be rolling out our specific safety guidelines and procedures once the plans become official, but I can assure you that we’ve learned a lot from successfully running summer camp and will continue to follow CDC and other local officials guidelines for ensuring a healthy and safe environment.

We are hopeful that we will be able to utilize space in MCPS schools themselves, as that would certainly be most convenient for the majority of our families and staff members. Being in the school buildings would also allow us to expand enrollment as the alternate locations may not be have enough licensed space for multiple cohorts. We have been working with MCPS and developing procedures that we hope they will accept, but we are relatively certain that we won’t get any official notification from them until early August. We have already begun looking to secure alternate locations in the event that we are unable to operate in school buildings. Whether in the school or at a nearby location, we look forward to opening on August 31st.

Our team is working hard to finalize the hours, pricing, and all of the information we need to make an informed decision as soon as we receive word from MCPS that we will be operate in the buildings. In the meantime, Bar-T will not be charging anyone on August 1st. Everyone will have the option to review, change, or withdraw from their plan once we know what the final school year schedules are from MCPS and FCPS.

While we won’t have official answers until early August, we’ve been working with the Superintendent’s office and are optimistic we’ll be able to provide care during the school day. We are looking forward to supporting you and your kids in the Fall.

We will update this page and send out email alerts with new information as it becomes available. If you are not a current Bar-T family, and/or would like to be added to our mailing list, please click the button below.

Dear Bar-T Families,

I’m reaching out today because we’ve been getting some questions about Summer Camp that we want to address. First, like many of you, we can’t wait for camp and are counting down the days until it starts again! Given school closures through the end of the year and the status of COVID-19 as we get closer to camp, there are a lot of unknown factors that we are working with. While the following information may change, here is where we stand as of today.

• We will be ready to open camp as soon as we are allowed. Our ability to open will largely be dictated by what we are told by the State of Maryland, County Officials, and MCPS. Though we haven’t gotten much guidance, we are anticipating opening at some, and hopefully all, of our locations at some point this summer.
• We will be following all guidelines outlined by state and local officials to ensure the safety and continued health of everyone at Bar-T.
• Once we have more details about what changes we will need to implement, we’ll provide everyone the opportunity to add, drop, or change any weeks of camp as you see fit. No one will be charged for any week of camp they either cannot, or chose not to attend.
• At this point, we will not be automatically charging you on June 1st. Once camp plans are finalized and you are given the chance to make changes to your plan, we’ll communicate the date of the first invoice.
• Registration for summer camps will remain open if you would like to enroll.

I wish we had more concrete information at this point, but figured it would be worthwhile to bring everyone up to date with the information we have about summer. One thing I can say with certainty is that we can’t wait to see your kids again. Seeing all those happy faces playing, dancing, and being together again is what keeps us all pushing forward.

Please let us know if you have any questions and we can’t wait to see you all again.

Best,

Joe

Dear Bar-T Families,

In light of the announcement that school closures have been extended for another four weeks, I’m reaching out to give you some details on how that will affect Bar-T programs moving forward. As this is a fluid situation, and a lot of our planning gets changed as new information is released, I’d like to focus on the current situation with schools being closed until April 24th. We know it is certainly a possibility that the school closures will be extended beyond this date and we will have more information for you if that decision is announced.

First and foremost, no one will be charged for the April billing cycle. There was a lot of internal discussion as to whether it would be reasonable to charge 50% in order to maintain operating expenses and to continue paying our staff. In the end, we didn’t feel good about charging anything when we know a lot of families are struggling and that it’s unlikely that we will actually be able to provide care. The invoices sent on March 1st were our final invoices that will be sent until schools open again. If you’ve already paid your April or May invoices, we will refund you once our office reopens. There is nothing you need to do regarding these changes, we will simply adjust your account in the coming weeks.

Many of you have reached out asking how our Bar-T staff are doing and I’m happy to report that, besides a frightening uptick in junk food consumption, everyone is in good spirits. We have assured them that every staff member will receive full pay for their regularly scheduled April paychecks, regardless of if we go back to work or not.

At this point we are doing everything we can to keep Bar-T running for as long as possible. We are confident that we will be able to return to work at some point in the coming months and our top priority is making sure our staff are here for your kids when this is all over. To that end, we have reached out for any loans, grants, or lines of credit that we can possibly find.

Now this part makes me uncomfortable, but I’m going to ask for help. If your financial situation hasn’t changed, and you are able to continue paying your monthly bill (or a portion of it), it would be immensely helpful in keeping Bar-T running. I assure you that every cent collected will go towards paying the staff that work directly with your children. Please know that we completely understand that this unprecedented situation is impacting each of us differently and that this is a substantial ask from us.

If you are able and would like to contribute, just reply to this email with what you would like to donate. We will take care of everything from there, but we will not be charging anyone that doesn’t respond. For those of you who have already emailed me and offered to stay on auto pay, you don’t need to take further action. It goes without saying, but I can’t tell you how grateful we are for our community and how much your generosity means to all of us. Regardless of your ability to donate, please know that Bar-T is here for you and we want to know if there is anything we can do to help.

Finally, I wanted to mention two additional things we are doing to try to support our community:

• Governor Hogan and MSDE have set up an initiative within Maryland’s LOCATE Child Care 24/7 program for essential personnel. This dedicated hotline was created to pair childcare providers up with the medical and emergency service workers that need care for their children. We have reached out and offered our services to them and are working to get Mountainside up and running as an emergency childcare location, with our other sites to follow. I’m hopeful we can accomplish this within the next few days and I encourage any of our families who fall into this category to apply for this program.
• We’re putting together a list of Bar-T staff that are willing to babysit for Bar-T families. We’re taking all quarantine and social distancing recommendations very seriously, but we are concerned that there may be children left at home without adequate supervision and feel that this might help. It’s entirely voluntary for our staff to be listed and we have asked that they only work for one family to limit any potential health issues. Beyond that, they are independent contractors and Bar-T is simply putting them in touch with families in need. I’m sure our lawyers will have some agreement everyone has to sign or something, but it’s a resource if you need it. We should have this up and running early next week and will be sending an email to you as soon as we can.

Finally, I want to thank everyone that has reached out with so many kind words. Hundreds of people have emailed asking what they can do to help. I’ve been doing my best sharing these messages with our staff and I can say that it’s had a profound effect on everyone. These have been difficult and stressful weeks, but reading all the positive messages and words of support that you’ve sent have shown us all how we’re all going to get through this together.

Thank you for lifting us up.

With gratitude,

Joe

Joe Richardson
CEO, Bar-T
jrichardson@bar-t.com
301-674-7608

Bar-T Families,

This morning, Governor Hogan held a press conference regarding the state’s efforts to curb the number of cases of COVID-19 in Maryland.

The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) has determined that schools, and school buildings, will remain closed through April 24th.

We will follow up with more information within the next few days, but we will remain closed until we are told otherwise.

Be safe,

Joe

Bar-T Families,

I’m emailing to inform you about a call that we received this evening at 6:30pm. We were informed that the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) has determined that school-based childcare providers, including Bar-T, are no longer allowed to operate during this school closure. As we follow MSDE guidelines in all of our programs, Bar-T will not open tomorrow as previously planned.

We will follow up with more information within the next day or two, but we will be closed until we are told otherwise.

Be safe,

Joe

Bar-T Families,

I’d like to give some clarification on Bar-T’s decision to open and provide childcare given what we know of the importance of social distancing. Obviously taking your child to a school or childcare facility is less safe than simply keeping them home, for the child, your family, and our community at large. Nonetheless, we feel obligated to open in order to support our emergency service workers, medical professionals, and the families that truly do not have the ability to keep their children home.

Please, if you have the ability to keep your child at home do not send them to Bar-T. The more people that attend, the harder it is to keep safe. With that being said, I am reiterating our offer of the 50% credit for these next two weeks. If you have already responded to this, you do not need to send another email. If you have not yet responded:

• If you plan on using Bar-T over these next two weeks, you don’t need to do anything. We will be open at select locations and you do not need to take any action, as our normal billing will cover this. You just won’t receive a credit in May.
• If you are not planning on having your child(ren) attend our program and would like your account to be credited in May, please respond to this email and I will make sure that our account team issues that credit to you.
• If you would like to join the families that have so charitably offered to use their credit to support either other families that are struggling, or Bar-T’s efforts to fully pay all our staff, please respond to this email so I can continue to brag about how incredible our community is.

Governor Hogan has published enhanced guidelines for child care operators, which we are fully adopting.

As you might have seen, the CDC also just announced that gatherings of more than 50 people should be suspended. While childcare is technically exempt from this, I still feel that it’s a best practice we should adopt. In order for us to manage how many children will be attending, please indicate by clicking the appropriate button below. If your child will not be attending, no need to click anything.

I’m also going to do something we don’t normally do, but I believe in the interest of full transparency when it comes to communicating about Bar-T. This morning we sent to all our employees about how we are approaching the coming days. It has details regarding programming, cleaning procedures, and other policies that you may find informative. If you would like to read the letter that we sent to our employees, please click here.

We have also included a list of Frequently Asked Questions, and responses, in the section below. These should answer most questions you may have, but please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you would like additional clarification.

Lastly, I want to thank everyone that has reached out over the past few days. Many of you have offered support, some have asked for clarification, others have given advice on how to make Bar-T safer. I have tried to reply to as many people as possible. I know this is a tremendously difficult, and less than ideal, situation and we are trying to make the right choice one step at a time. We’re doing our best to try and serve the community that depends on us, while also keeping our children, staff, and community safe. It’s a fluid situation and we’re constantly updating how we navigate through it. Thank you for all the support.

Best,

Joe and The Bar-T Team

Bar-T Families,

In our email last night, we made a commitment to continue to communicate with our families as the situation regarding COVID-19 unfolds. That said, we have an important update to share with you today.

This morning we received a call from ICB/CUPF with clarity regarding the status of childcare during the school closings over the next two weeks. Like us, they understand that many families are dependent on school and childcare programs to provide care for their children during the workday. After deep-cleaning the schools on Monday & Tuesday, CUPF has asked if we could be open as of Wednesday, March 18th.

Beginning Wednesday, March 18th, Bar-T will be open for full days at select locations. As our programs will be combining, please see the list at the end of this letter for details on which location your child should attend.

Although we are now able to provide care for our families, we still want to extend the 50% credit for any families that either can’t, or choose not to, use Bar-T during this time. I want to clarify how this would work:

• If you plan on using Bar-T over these next two weeks, you don’t need to do anything. We will be open at select locations and you do not need to take any action, as our normal billing will cover this. You just won’t receive a credit in May.
• If you are not planning on having your child(ren) attend our program and would like your account to be credited in May, please respond to this email and I will make sure that our account team issues that credit to you.

I also would like to mention something that I hadn’t expected. After we sent out our email last night, I got an outpouring of positive feedback that frankly left me speechless. I cannot express how much it meant personally to me and to the entire Bar-T team.

There were a few people that mentioned that even though Bar-T wouldn’t be open, they would like to donate their 50% credit either to other families that need help or to helping keep the staff paid through this crisis. I was floored to hear this and am constantly amazed by the generosity of our community. If you would like to donate your credit as well, please email me and I guarantee that it will get to the people that need it most.

I realize that this situation is fluid and ever-changing. I truly appreciate your understanding, flexibility, and support as we navigate through it. We will continue to communicate new information with you as it comes.

Best,

Joe and The Bar-T Team

Bar-T Families,

As I’m sure you’ve heard, Governor Hogan announced that all public schools will be closed from March 16th – 27th. We will be open tomorrow, March 13th, but our current understanding is that we are not allowed to operate during the school closure.

Bar-T will continue to fully pay all hourly and salaried employees through this break. We have worked hard over the years to provide our staff with a career that can support a family and we want to make sure they have the resources necessary during this tough time to care for them.  We want to do all we can so the same faces are there to provide consistent care to your children when this closure is over.

While our policy states that no refunds are given in the event of a closure that is beyond our control, we recognize this is a unique situation. We have decided to offer a 50% credit for these next two weeks, which will be applied to your May invoice. We are also suspending any billing or auto-pay for April, until we are sure we will be back in school by then.

If you or your family has an exceptional need, whether from loss of income, illness, or other unforeseen circumstances, please reach out and we will help however we can.

We realize this is an evolving situation and we will continue to communicate as we find out more information.

Thank you,

Joe and The Bar-T Team

We have been informed by the State of Maryland that all schools will be closed from Monday, March 16th through Friday, March 27th. As of this time, we are awaiting further instruction from the county as to whether or not we will be able to be open during this time.

We will be sending out a more detailed email shortly.

Coronavirus Preparedness

When it comes to anything related to public health in our schools, we first look to MCPS for guidance. In order to avoid any confusion, we don’t want the kids to have one set of rules at school and another at Bar-T. MCPS has published a helpful website with relevant information and frequently asked questions that I would encourage everyone to read.

How Bar-T is Preparing to Keep Coronavirus Away from Our Community

We’ve given the information from MCPS to our Directors and are taking these additional steps as well:

• We are cleaning all hard surfaces like tables, door handles, legos, game pieces, and anything else we can get our (gloved) hands on.
• We are ensuring that all children are thoroughly washing their hands, including fingertips at regular intervals.
• We are asking all staff and children to use a fist or elbow bump in place of the usual Bar-T high five, hug, or handshake.

How You Can Help Keep Our Community Healthy

There are a few things that you can do at home to help us continue to have a healthy and happy Bar-T.

• If your child has a fever, vomiting, severe coughing, diarrhea or other signs of illness, please keep them at home. The CDC recommends that children remain home for at least 24 hours after you no longer have a fever or signs of a fever (i.e., chills, feeling warm, flushed appearance). Note: The 24 hour period begins once they are fever-free without any medication in their system. If they’re taking Tylenol, but are fever free, they need to stay home.
• If you yourself are not feeling well, please do not enter the school. Please call your Director and they will come out to the car to pick up and sign your child in.
• We are asking you NOT to use the iPad to sign your child in each day. One of our staff members will take care of signing them in and out of Tadpoles, in order to avoid many fingers all touching the same surface.
• Please continue to stress the importance of hand washing and keeping our hands to ourselves. We are already doing this at school, but reinforcement at home is very helpful.

We will continue to monitor the situation and will send out any updates as they come.