The Shattuck Child Care Center provides high quality, affordable child care for working families at the Shattuck Hospital and in the Jamaica Plain community. Over the past 43 years more than 1500 children have benefitted from an early start on their education through the loving care and expertise of the Center and its staff. Two-thirds of all slots are reserved for the children of Shattuck employees. The center has been notified that it will need to move because its current building is being closed. The Commonwealth has also informed the Shattuck Child Care Center Board that it will be ending the successful, four decades long public-private partnership by withdrawing all subsidies for this amazing child care center that helps children thrive and succeed in a diverse and supportive environment. The diverse group of children at the Shattuck will be uprooted and their families will have to scramble to find care at a time when quality, affordable child care spots are limited.
The Board of the Shattuck, current and former Shattuck employee parents, community parents, and the broader Jamaica Plain community fully support the child care remaining on the Shattuck Campus, being a part of any master planning process, and continuing to receive subsidy from the Commonwealth to provide its quality educational services for children. It goes without saying that closing the Shattuck will forever impact the quality of full-day care available to local children and their families.
Governor Patrick, at the very moment that you and your administration are calling for expansion of quality early education, we call upon your administration to continue to support the Shattuck Child Care Center in remaining on the campus and in supporting the Center and the children it serves. We call upon you to work with the Board to find a solution that keeps the Center on campus and that continues a level of subsidy to the Center that is comparable with other facilities and that supports your vision of affordable quality child care. Please do not let the Shattuck Childcare Center be swept away after 43 years, when it has been a safe harbor for so many children and their families.
