Orange County Courthouse day care facing closure

November 12, 8:24 AMOrlando Parenting ExaminerRobyn Kurth

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Budget cuts and a drop in donations might shut down the Orange County Courthouse day care.

A Place for Children

Earlier this week, WESH 2 News reported that A Place for Children, which is located on the second floor of the Orange County Courthouse at 425 N Orange Ave. in downtown Orlando, might be closed as early as November 17 due to lack of funding. After budget cuts and a drop in donations, A Place for Children needs $70,000 to continue operations.

A Place for Children was opened in 1998 as a way to provide free, quality day care for the children of caregivers who must make court appearances, and it is also available to parents on jury duty. A Place for Children is available to families with official court business for children up to the age of fourteen. The children can spend four hour blocks of time at the Center, which is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

According to the Web page for A Place for Children, the day care was created to alleviate the pressures of bringing children into the courtroom because there was no safe place for them to stay:

“Children are routinely brought to the Courthouse because their caregivers have no safe place to leave them while they are required to make court appearances. Often children are left in the halls outside the courtrooms because they become too disruptive in the courtrooms. Further they can be exposed to disturbing and inappropriate proceedings. A Place for Children – a licensed drop-in child care center for children whose families have business with the court – lets children be children, instead of spending long sessions listening to adult interactions that could be painful or frightening for them.

A Place for Children’s goal is to provide on-site, safe, high quality child care for families with official court business while ensuring linkage to available social services. A key component of A Place for Children is that it will serve as a link between much needed social services and the high-risk families who could use these services. It is hoped that linking families with needed services may break the cycle of repeated visits to court and that A Place for Children will provide a vehicle for reaching out to individuals with information about the community services to which they and their families are entitled.”

The Web page states that anyone who wishes to support A Place for Children can call 407-836-2108.