Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
WORLAND — Although they are battling state budget cuts and a pandemic, Children’s Resource Center is continuing to provide all the early development services for young children in Worland and the Big Horn Basin.
According to Heidi Dupree, family service coordinator for the CRC in Worland, they lost a couple of staff members due to state budget cuts and regionally, the CRC director closed all centers on Friday afternoons.
According to the CRC Facebook page, during recent budget cuts announced by Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, “Wyoming Child Development Centers received a 22% cut in funding from the Department of Health; the greatest cut that any one program received, which directly impacts the infant children we serve. Not only is the 22% cut in funding a huge concern for the viability of our programs, we are further concerned regarding the second round of cuts that the Governor will be determining this fall.”
The Children’s Resource Center is continuing to offer the same services including early development screenings and preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds, Dupree said.
For the preschool, Dupree said they have extra safety protocols in place due to COVID-19, including staff wearing masks, and taking the temperature of the staff and the children daily.
Parents wait outside when dropping off or picking up their children in order to maintain proper social distancing.
Due to the young age and the fact that many of the students have some type of disability or developmental delay, students are not required to wear masks but if a parent sends their child with a mask, the staff works to try to ensure the child leaves the mask on.
She said they are also sanitizing toys and surfaces in between classes and a deep cleaning is completed weekly.
While students always had to wash their hands when arriving at school, there is a lot more hand washing.
One other change is that no snacks are served during the 90-minute preschool time for the 3-year-olds, or during the two-hour preschool for the 4-year-olds.
The centers closed in the spring when the state shut down all K-12 public schools.
The Worland center has two 3-year-old preschool classes and one for the 4-year-olds.
SERVICES
According to the CRC website, the center provides services to children from birth to 5 years of age and their families. They serve families in Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin with centers in Powell, Cody, Basin, Lovell, Worland and Thermopolis.
According to the website, “Children’s Resource Center believes that each child is a unique individual and through early intervention has the right to develop to his/her maximum potential. Children’s Resource Center is an agency uniquely designed to serve the child with or without developmental disabilities and their families.”
Program services include:
• Developmental Screenings
• Infant Stimulation and Socialization
• Special Instruction and Education
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Occupation Therapy
• Physical Therapy
• Vision Screening
• Hearing Screening and Services
• Family Services and Coordination
• Psychological Services
• Assistive Technology
• Medical Service for Diagnostic/Evaluation Purposes
• Child Development Education for Families
• Community Resource for All Families, Birth - Age 5
Dupree said, “All children can benefit from development screening.” It is a good way to track a child’s development. “There may not be a deficit but maybe there is an area the child needs to work on,” Dupree said, adding that the screenings also recognize a child’s strengths and provides opportunity for a child to build on those things.
All of services are free. “We’re lucky in Wyoming because that’s not the same in every state.
Hopefully it will be able to stay that way as we face more budget cuts. In the past the legislators have always seen importance of early intervention in child development,” Dupree said.
Of the services offered, Dupree said there are options for parents with COVID-19 concerns. They can do telehealth therapies.
For the home-based program for children birth to 3, the staff utilizes the same precautions including wearing masks, except for speech therapy where it is not feasible.
She said the staff has worked to be flexible for parents with the pandemic, but noted preschool numbers are about average for the year. “Most parents of our preschoolers feel they are safe here.”
She said they help about 100 children per year in Worland and Ten Sleep.
Anyone wanting more information about CRC may call the Worland center at 347-8677.