Quality daycare can be expensive. This program offers scholarships to Miami parents

Life can become stressful if parents don’t have the financial resources to provide their children with early education.

And if a child faces any learning or behavioral difficulties, the parents’ worries — as well as their bills — can increase.

Montavia and Miguel De Paz, ages 29 and 28, respectively, met while walking around Amelia Earhart Park, north of Hialeah, about five years ago. They got married a year later and their family grew. Today, they have three children: Mason, 4, Matthew, 3, and Miles, 1.

Miguel works at a warehouse called All Florida Paper, from 6:30 p.m. to 5 a.m., while Montavia works at the family corporation NEBA (National Employee Benefits Administrators). Their family income, about $4,000 a month in total, does not allow them to cover the educational care of their three children.

“Before Miles was born, we began to see that covering Mason and Matthew’s daycare center could exceed $380 a week. The only cheap nurseries, which I did not trust, were in homes, without certifications. I considered the possibility to stay at home to take care of them because we couldn’t afford a school for each one,” the young mother explained to el Nuevo Herald.

Many other working-class mothers in Miami face the same issues.

The De Paz family applied for a Thrive By 5 scholarship at The Children’s Trust, awarded to parents who do not qualify for school readiness grants, but cannot afford the high cost of quality childcare.

They now pay $145 a week for their three children at Springview Academy, thanks to the Thrive By 5 program. Previously, for 1-year-old Miles alone, they paid $225 a week — an unmanageable rate for their budget.

Springview Academy, located at 18505 NW 75 Pl., in Hialeah, is a school for children between six weeks and 4 years old. It is associated with the assistance program for low-income families, and it also offers education for children with special needs.

Two of the De Paz children have had learning difficulties. The eldest began to speak late, while the second was recently diagnosed with autism and a developmental language disorder, his representative told el Nuevo Herald. His family’s insurance and his school will help him, through a behavior therapist, to improve his academic, social and emotional development.

Through the Thrive By 5 program, specialized autism diagnostic assessments are provided for children ages 2 to 5 who exhibit behaviors that suggest they may have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children are referred by the Miami-Dade County School District or the organization “Early Steps.”

Families receive detailed feedback of their children’s test, a diagnosis and recommended interventions, as well as connections to specialized schools and intervention services.

According to The Children’s Trust, “this program fills the gap in the provision of care coordination and early intervention services for children with mild developmental delays who do not meet state-defined criteria for receiving early intervention services through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).”

Last year, 415 children in Miami-Dade received an average of 12 sessions and 90% of the participants surveyed who were later enrolled in public schools did not need special education.

“Thrive By 5 has helped me pay for a qualified school that hires great teachers and staff, who helped me notice some of the early signs of autism,” said Montavia De Paz.

A vocation to meet the needs of special children

Lety Carvajal, CEO and founder of Springview Academy, was a certified early childhood education teacher in Florida for 15 years when she founded this educational institution. She did it thinking of her own experience as a mother of a child with special needs.

Ten years ago, when her son was 7 years old, she couldn’t find schools that offered help for children with language and behavior difficulties.

“When I was looking for a school for my son, I saw such a need that I decided to start a school that could help children from early childhood. It was very hard to find a place where they understood that he had the abilities to do things but that he needed a lot of support,” explained Carvajal.

Children with special difficulties as well as neurotypical children are accepted at Springview Academy. It currently has 111 children enrolled, of which 25 are enrolled in the Thrive By 5 program. Many of them have been diagnosed with autism and speech difficulties, among other diagnoses.

“I wanted to offer that option, because the first stage of education is essential for their development. There wasn’t the same acceptance as now,” she said.

She added that they try to work with families so that they have early intervention.

“Children with autism need family support. They are here with us for seven or eight hours, but if they don’t do the routine at home, they won’t advance. We have to work together with the therapist and the family,” explained Carvajal.

Springview Academy teachers are certified by the intervention coalition working with The Children’s Trust, where they are trained to teach children with special needs.

“We teach all children the same, understanding that there are some who have a hard time and need more support, but we treat them the same. We help them learn to socialize,” Carvajal said.

This school performs three annual evaluations of each child, to see how their cognitive development evolves. Those students who are in the Thrive By 5 program are also given an age and stage questionnaire that allows them to identify if they are in the average range of students, in order to identify their academic, social and emotional development.

This academy has several locations: Doral, Miami, Kendall and another in East Hialeah. But not all of them offer the same assistance programs. Springview Academy qualifies for the Thrive By 5 program at the Hialeah location because it is a sector with lower incomes than the other ones, Carvajal said.