Although Rice University will be reopening Tuesday, some Houston-area school districts, including HISD, remain closed until Sept. 11 as they continue to recover from Tropical Storm Harvey. Some day care centers may also remain closed next week. We realize this poses challenges for those of you who have children.

We continue to work on options for the next week. At this point, we are suggesting the following steps for those of you who have children:

Option 1. We encourage anyone who can solve their childcare needs through parent cooperatives, family members, etc. to do that. This leaves the limited spots we are able to generate for those most in need.

Option 2. If the nature of your work allows it, contact your supervisor to see whether you can get approval to work from home next week.

Option 3. The Rice Children’s Campus will open at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 5. Through Friday, Sept. 8, all children currently registered and their siblings between the ages of 2 months and eighth grade are welcome. In addition, for next week only, any Rice children through eighth grade who have previously attended the RCC may return. This plan is contingent on staffing levels, so we must reserve the right to limit numbers. Parents should contact Karen.Gatten@discovercece.org no later than noon Monday, Sept. 4, if they would like to bring siblings or children who previously attended RCC. If parents wish to bring a high school student to help out, please inform Karen Gatten.

Option 4. Work with your departmental colleagues and gain approval from your supervisor to use conference or other rooms in Rice buildings for an on-campus parent cooperative. These must be limited to school-aged children (K-8); one staff person from your unit must be in the room at all times; high school children may volunteer to help. You will need to work this out with your departmental colleagues directly. We are also working to provide spaces on campus available for recreation time. If you are going to pursue this option, all adults working with the children must complete the following very short training related to minors on campus: https://www.classmarker.com/online-test/start/?quiz=dkq4fd8bd7050f57

Option 5. We will have a limited number of slots available for child care on campus, but provided by an external vendor. If you feel you will need to use this option, please fill out this short child care survey: https://emergency.rice.edu/childcare.

We realize that the coming week will be complicated. Know that we are committed to working with our Rice community to ensure that all feel supported as we move into this next stage of recovery from Hurricane Harvey.

As always, if you have questions or concerns, please send an email to cmtcomment@rice.edu.

Marie Lynn Miranda
Provost

Kevin Kirby
Vice President for Administration
Chair of the Crisis Management Team