ARLINGTON CHILD CARE SUMMIT
CONTRIBUTES TO INNOVATIVE ONLINE
CHILDCARE SEARCH TOOL
On March 30, 2020, The Best Place for Kids™ launched
the FIND! Child Care Search Tool to support Tarrant
County residents and essential workers in need of
childcare for kids 0-12 years of age as a part of the
community response to COVID-19. While this tool
has been a long-stated need and effort within the
community, it was a topic of discussion at the inaugural
Arlington Child Care Summit last September. Hosted by
the Arlington Tomorrow Foundation and championed by
Deputy Mayor Pro Tempore Victoria Farrar-Myers, the
summit highlighted strategies to increase the access
to and quality of childcare in Arlington and surrounding
areas.
When the COVID-19 pandemic made childcare scarce
this spring, partners The Best Place for Kids™ and Child
Care Associates took the lead on developing an online
childcare search tool in just a couple of days. “We
have long-envisioned a platform like FIND! In fact, Fort
Worth’s Rep. Craig Goldman sponsored a bill to get a
statewide tool funded during the last legislative session
with our goals in mind. That bill did not pass, but
because we had done the research on what our working
parents needed and what would serve our workforce,
when COVID hit, we were able to fast-track it locally to
meet immediate needs in Tarrant County and the longerterm
goals of The Best Place for Kids™,” said program
director Cheraya Peña.
As the FIND! tool was established, a coordinated effort
of local early childcare mentors (who were also working
from home due to stay at home orders) sprang into
action to call all licensed childcare centers in Tarrant
County to identify which centers were operational and
the availability at those centers. The data received
from over 1,200 hours of calls was used to build the
initial availability information in the FIND! search tool in
Tarrant County. On March 30, essential service workers
could immediately locate childcare options across
Tarrant County that fit their specific childcare needs.
More than 7,700 childcare slots were available in nearly
700 licensed facilities, including several providers who
attended the Arlington Child Care Summit. As of early
May 2020, there are more than 8,600 available slots
in Tarrant County for children 0-12 years old listed on
the FIND! search tool, with over 2,000 available slots in
Arlington.
“THE PARTICIPATION OF ARLINGTON CHILDCARE
PROVIDERS IN THE BEST PLACE FOR KIDS™ FIND!
CHILD CARE SEARCH TOOL MEANS THAT ARLINGTON
FAMILIES CAN EASILY FIND CHILDCARE CLOSE TO
HOME AND WORK FOR OUR ESSENTIAL WORKERS.
I AM PROUD OF THE WORK THAT HAS BEEN
ACCOMPLISHED BY OUR PASSIONATE CHILDCARE
INDUSTRY LEADERS.”
— ARLINGTON MAYOR JEFF WILLIAMS