Scarlett, I never stated that public schools offered naps. And not all of them offer breakfast. I stated that before and afterschool programs offer naps to (morning) kindergarteners who get out of school 2-4 hours before the rest of the elementary grades are dismissed. Some before and afterschool programs offer breakfast or they will prepare the breakfast your kid packs in their lunch. They will keep your kid’s lunch in their refrigerator and then walk or drive your kid to school, along with the rest of their charges. Then they will drive or walk over and pick up the kids after kindergarten and feed them lunch or warm up the lunches they brought and then let them rest for 2 hours or so until the other afterschoolers arrive. Then snacks are served and at least two workers are dispatched for homework help. This is the case for Children’s World and YMCA before/afterschool programs. There are several others in the communities.
The DASH program in Chula Vista is like the “6 to 6” program in SD in that it is held in the school cafeteria before and after school and dispatches 2 workers to each school (depending on number of participants) for homework help after school. A few public elementary schools offer DASH coinciding with their normal breakfast times and a few more have dedicated before/afterschool program centers on the premises of the elem school grounds. These centers are run by contractors. The kids who don’t have homework or have finished it can play on the playground or in the gym until they are picked up. Whatever is open to DASH (gym and/or playground) has a DASH worker dispatched to those areas also. Last time I looked (maybe 2005/6), DASH was relatively inexpensive (abt $37-$57 per week for the first child with slight discounts for more children of the same family). The fee is adjusted to the family incomes and is waived for new workers who were previously on TANF.
My kids loved all their daycare providers and pre-K experiences. I NEVER picked them up tired or hungry and they were very rarely sick. I got to the daycare homes (one whom took young infants) or before/afterschool center between 5:35 and 6:00 every day. In the end (2007?), I was paying about $366 mo for private before/afterschool care which had a full kitchen where they heated snacks daily and baked birthday cakes for every single child. They also had a 1 AC well-equipped playground. It was awesome.
