South Bend daycare offers free, 1-hour daycare to avoid sitting in hot cars

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WSBT) — A new form of emergency childcare service is available free of charge in South Bend.

Public safety is at the heart of this initiative.

Bright Beginnings is a daycare on the south side of South Bend.

Their goal is to reduce the risk of heat related illnesses and death for children and infants.

It has been just over two weeks since we saw a record heat wave spread across the Midwest and East Coast.

Our reporting partners at CBS report 38 children die every year from heat stroke while inside a vehicle.

Bright Beginnings now offer one hour of free drop-in childcare when temperatures exceed 75 degrees.

The Hot Car Initiative offers parents a fast way to register with the daycare and drop off their child at a moment’s notice.

It all happens through a website called Storkii, which was created by Bright Beginnings’ founder Ramal Taylor.

The form takes just 10 minutes to fill out and allows parents to provide basic information before choosing the daycare closest to them for drop-in care.

Some reports show that temperatures of a parked car can be as much as 20 degrees hotter than outside temperatures.

Bright Beginnings Program Director Ashley Nance said, “Every year we hear these terrible stories of these babies unfortunately dying in cars. What can we do to help stop this? So this is our way of telling parents out there, even relatives, siblings, aunts, uncles, you have an option so that you don’t have to leave a child in the car for an hour and risk their life.”

Nance says she cannot imagine having too many parents take advantage of the service, and the organization will not turn anyone away.

“So not at the moment, there’s not a cap at all. Of course, I’m not going to turn away a parent who needs that emergency care. And I say, ‘Oh we don’t have enough staffing, if I need to step in the classroom and that means keeping a child safe, by all means I will step into the classroom,” said Nance.

The service is free and available to anyone, regardless of income.

“I know that an hour is a short time. I will be flexible, if you have a job interview, I’ll allow you some travel time. Maybe an hour, an hour and a half as long as you communicate,” said Nance.

Nance says not only is the one hour window flexible, there is no explanation required when dropping a child off. If temperatures are hotter than 75 degrees, parents can use the service and get their child the care they need.