The Agriculture Department and General Services Administration are working on plans to relocate a District day-care center for 95 children of federal employees and contractors that is slated to close because of space and safety concerns.
Officials announced plans last month to close the USDA Child Development Center at 14th Street NW in May, but GSA has since pushed the closing date to September after complaints from concerned parents.
The day-care center, in the basement of the department’s Yates Building, lacks a ground-level entrance and is near sewer lines that need repair, according to union officials.
“There is no imminent threat” to the children, USDA spokesman Justin DeJong said last week, adding that the department is working with the parents to find alternative locations.
Some parents with children in the facility said they understand the safety risks, but are more upset with the short notice about the closing.
“To close a day-care center in three to four months is ridiculous, because it takes a year or longer to get into any day-care center in the District — on a good day,” said one mother who works as a USDA contractor. “I’m on waiting lists right now that are two to three years. To give parents three to four months is absurd.”
Parents who contacted The Washington Post about the impending closure — all of whom are employees or contractors with the USDA or the nearby Education Department — asked that their names be withheld because it against agency or company policy to speak to the media.
“My husband and I are pulling our hair trying to find another center in the downtown D.C. area,” said another mother who has two children at the center. “Most places have at least a two-year wait list. We live in Woodbridge, so putting our daughters in day care in that area isn’t possible.”
The USDA center opened in 1991 and cares for 95 children. It is part of a GSA-owned network of 29 federal day-care centers in the Washington region that serve more than 2,300 children each day. GSA is working to open three more locations in the coming years at the departments of Homeland Security, Interior and State.
The agency discovered concerns with the entrance and the need to renovate other portions of the basement after taking control of the center in 2009, according to GSA spokesman Adam Elkington.
Mark Thompson, who represents Foreign Agricultural Service employees as vice president of AFSCME Local 3976, said he held productive meetings with USDA officials on the topic last week.
“I know a lot of people in my agency came here because they knew there was day care,” Thompson said. “You can stop by at lunchtime, you can get there right away if the kid is sick, you can take time off in the middle of the day to see them if you want.”
Federal employees, many of whom commute to downtown Washington with kids in tow, have long cherished the convenience of the day-care centers. Although openings at the centers are offered first to eligible federal employees and contractors, parents not working for the federal government also are eligible to apply.
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