Providing peace of mind to parents is important to us. While our goal is to maintain a 2:1 staffing ratio, we carefully assess each child and their unique needs and carefully schedule with staff to ensure each child receives the undivided attention and highest level of care possible.
Respite Care is open 24 hours, 7 days a week, with the exception of a few national holidays. Families submit requests for schedule blocks at least two weeks in advance. For weather and emergency situations that fall on a Monday – Friday, we close with Poudre School District and/or Thompson School District. Emergency closures on days that school is out of session are the decision of either our Executive Director, or the weekend on-call Admin Team Lead. For these decisions, we follow recommendations of the local authorities and the Department of Transportation.
Our “home away from home” features six bedrooms and specially designed bathrooms in our back wing which allows us to provide overnight care. We are currently servicing overnights on Fridays & Saturdays. This overnight care gives our parents the opportunity to find respite, take the weekend vacation they have been putting off, or have the time and energy to spend with siblings that often must take a back burner.
It is important to us to be able to provide quality care to our families at an affordable rate. Parents pay on a sliding fee scale according to their income, with an average hourly rate of only $4.50 per hour per child. Our cost to provide this care is significantly higher. With the help of the local community support in the form of individual contributions, grants, in-kind donations, our Respite Giving Society, and fundraising events, we are able to subsidize this cost and keep the rates as low as possible.
All of our Childcare Specialists go through many different levels of highly specialized training. In addition to first aid and basic health and precautions, we are overseen by a Registered Nurse who conducts training sessions for staff in medication administration, seizure management, and gastrostomy tube feedings.