Pittsburgh advances plan to provide free child care to city employees in some situations

Pittsburgh city employees would be able to get free child care when public schools close unexpectedly or they want to participate in certain city meetings or events under Council legislation advanced Wednesday.

The city had offered a similar child care service before the covid-19 pandemic, but it was not reinstated after workers returned to in-person work.

“We used to offer child care similarly to this for when Pittsburgh Public Schools were closed to offer a service to our employees who didn’t have somewhere to take their children those days,” said Paula Kellerman, the city’s director of human resources. “This is bringing that back into fruition, as well as providing for evening events and community meetings hosted by the mayor’s office.”

That would include budget meetings the mayor’s office holds, she said. Kellerman could not confirm whether the child care program also may be extended to include meetings hosted by members of council.

“I think it’s incredibly helpful for civic participation,” Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, D-Squirrel Hill, said. “It’s just hard for people with families to be able to make it out to evening events or weekend events. I can understand that. I feel it myself as well.”

City Council is poised to authorize a contract with Pittsburgh Event Childcare for $45,000. The contract would cover child care services for the remainder of this year and through 2024.

Kellerman said the company has experience caring for “medically fragile children and children with different abilities.”

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Details of the child care offerings for city employees are still being finalized, she said. It’s possible that the city could open a single child care site for city workers in a conference room at the City-County Building. That’s what the city had done in the past, she said, and employees who work in other parts of the city would have the option of dropping their kids off at the City-County Building during the workday.

The child care would not include planned days off, like summer break or holidays.

Council is expected to take a final vote on the legislation next week.

A separate bill introduced to City Council on Tuesday would look to support child care businesses throughout the city with a $2 million infusion into the Childcare Quality Fund, which allows child care centers to improve their state quality rankings through the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Keystone STARS program.

City Council in 2019 authorized $2 million for the initiative, but all of that initial allocation has already been committed, according to Jake Pawlak, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The funding aims to allow child care providers throughout Pittsburgh to “invest in improvements to their facilities that will allow them to serve more children,” said Olga George, a spokesperson for Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey.

“The mayor believes that parents should not have to choose between their (children’s) welfare and working to provide financial security,” she said.

City Council is expected to further discuss the measure next week and could take a preliminary vote on it then, with a final vote expected as soon as the following week.