With only a few day’s notice, parents with children enrolled at the Tarrant County College Children’s Center Laboratory School in Hurst found out that it was abruptly closing its doors. The final day of operation for the center, which weeks ago celebrated its 50-year anniversary, was Friday, Oct. 11.
“I walked in to pick (my child) up on Tuesday, and I was very rudely rushed into an office,” said Hannah Boyd, a parent who has a 3-year-old son enrolled in the day care center. Boyd said that she was called into an office with Tarrant County College Northeast Campus administrative staff, including Interim President Jan Clayton.
“They quickly told me that they are being closed on Friday. And they handed me a packet saying, ‘There’s a list of day cares in the area.’ And the packet did not even include phone numbers for these day cares,” Boyd said.
The center is a child care institution. Generations have gone to the center, and several parents say they’ve been on waitlists for longer than a year to have their child attend. Parents have called the center “incredible” and “a beautifully abnormal little community.”
It’s small, with a few more than 25 students in the classes for 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds. The center is also connected to the Northeast campus’ child development program, where TCC students get hands-on experience in early childhood education. Parents dismayed by the decision organized to protest, with several speaking out at a recent TCC board of trustees meeting this week.
The moment Boyd found out about the center’s closing, she was in shock and in tears. She said she didn’t have an opportunity to ask questions. Now, many parents say their questions remain unanswered. Why did the center close? Why so suddenly? How will they get their tuition refunded? What will happen to the teachers?
Tarrant County College officials did not respond to specific questions when reached by the Report. A spokesperson sent a copy of the one-page letter that Tarrant County College Chancellor Elva LeBlanc emailed to day care parents and others in the TCC community.
“Some operations (at the center) do not align with standards of respect, care and professionalism that TCC demands.” said LeBlanc in her Oct. 9 letter. “This is deeply concerning and will be addressed.”
LeBlanc did not provide further details on what happened at the center that she characterized as “deeply concerning.”
Several parents expressed their concerns with the decision to close the center at an Oct. 10 board meeting. One of them was Jenny Zhang, the parent of a child who experienced a “recent incident” at the center. She told board members to urge the Northeast campus to reconsider the center’s closing.“While we’re disappointed by the recent incident, I do indeed appreciate the openness and the integrity shown by the director and the staff, especially by the employee, who came forward with the information,” said Zhang, who did not detail what happened in the incident. “These individuals should not be punished for doing the right thing.”
State reporting shows that the child care center had two self-reported incidents and one independently reported incident over the past 60 months, or five years. Two high-level deficiencies were found over the past 60 months, according to the Texas Health and Human Services website.
A TCC police log has a record of an Oct. 4 incident that happened in the building, which houses the Children’s Center. The incident, which is under active investigation, is categorized as “injury to a child/elderly/disabled, reckless bodily injury,” according to TCC’s student newspaper, The Collegian.
Boyd said she’s “livid” with LeBlanc’s response. She’s an elementary school teacher and knows more than 20 families who have sent their children to the center. They have nothing but good things to say about it, she said.
“I took one tour and was beyond impressed by how developmentally appropriate (the classes) are. How they focus everything around play, and that children learn through play,” said Boyd. “It has been nothing short of amazing.”
Josh Mauldin has two children who were enrolled in the center, and he’s a day care alum. Mauldin, who works in construction, recalls his first memories formed at the center: playing with a bucket of Legos and being sent to the “timeout tube” when he misbehaved.
“When my son Luke was born, his grandmother’s first question to me was, ‘Is he healthy?’ Her second was, ‘Have you registered him for TCC?’” said Mauldin, who spoke at the TCC board meeting. “That’s how important the Children’s Center is to our family.”
He says the college is not being forthcoming with parents.
“You would think, at an absolute minimum, they would be like, ‘Look, this sucks. I know this is ripping everybody’s life apart, but let’s at least be straightforward,” said Mauldin. “But instead we’ve been treated like, ‘Don’t tell the kids.’ What’s really going on?”
In LeBlanc’s letter to parents, she also charted a path forward.
“We intend to re-envision our approach to early education, re-evaluate the purpose of a laboratory school, and restructure our preparations for early childhood professionals to meet job demand,” said LeBlanc. “An advisory group will help inform our efforts.”
At the Oct. 10 TCC board meeting, Kenneth Barr, a former Fort Worth mayor and vice president of the board, thanked the parents for their testimony.
“We understand it’s impactful to you and your children, and we’re very concerned about it,” said Barr. “We will be working with the chancellor as we try to figure out where things go from here.”
Meanwhile, parents say they have been left scrambling to figure out where their toddlers and preschoolers go from here.