Child care facility in Lawrence temporarily closes amid concerns of coronavirus reaching its peak
LAWRENCE, Ind. (WISH) — A temporary closure of a child care facility in Lawrence has some parents wondering what they will do next.
Freedom Academy at the Reset Center has temporarily closed for two weeks. The facility closed Monday and will reopen on Monday, April 20.
Brandii Cox is a mother of three and she says there will be tough days ahead while she works from home and takes care of her children.
“It’s very hard because my two year old is at that stage of getting into everything that she can so that makes it hard trying to do work at home and concentrate on that,” Cox said. “Trying to find things to keep them entertained and my two girls like to fight with each other and scream and yell.”
Freedom Academy has more than 30 children enrolled in the day care program and recently launched an emergency day care program for school-aged kids since Gov. Holcomb announced all school buildings will remain closed for the rest of the academic year.
However, the facility’s executive director Howard Harding decided to temporarily close Freedom Academy after the U.S. surgeon general announced these two weeks will be crucial.
“We’re hearing from the federal and the state level with respects to this COVID-19 being the most critical these next two weeks so we just made a decision that here’s what we’re going to do,” Harding said. “I as an executive director of this building, this whole child care, we have to make decisions that are in the best interest of our community and the people that we serve.”
Meanwhile, employees have been diligently cleaning the building daily.
“Everyday. Not that we have that much to do because we’re relatively a new day care and all of this stuff is brand new, but we just want to take the necessary precautions,” mentioned Harding. “Get ahead of the game so when the kids come back on April 20th totally sanitized and we’re totally ahead of the ball game.”
Harding said parents have been alerted of the closure and have been understanding of the decision, despite the inconvenience.
The executive director said Freedom Academy will begin enrolling infants soon. For more information, call 317-991-5969 or visit the facility at 4330 N Post Rd, Indianapolis, Indiana.