Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras acknowledges that a huge number of parents with children in the school system may need help with child care to avoid financial ruin.

On Monday, he notified the School Board during a special meeting that 63 percent, or 850 of the 1,344 parents who responded to an online survey, reported that they would have no other option but to quit working to look after their children now that classes will be offered only online beginning Tuesday, Sept. 8.

“We’ve heard some heart-wrenching stories in writing and during tonight’s public comments,” Mr. Kamras noted, “from parents worried about losing their jobs and their homes because they want their children to have the proper supervision during the virtual semester” and are out of options because private day care is financially out of reach.

How widespread the impact may be is unknown as the survey drew responses from only a small fraction of the estimated 12,000 to 14,000 households with RPS students.

Even so, at a time when the city is working to create a robust program of day care with supervised virtual learning, RPS appears to be dragging in its support of the effort to provide relief to worried working single parents like Mina Clemons, who wrote the board pleading for day care help that she cannot afford and describing the problems she is facing in trying to keep her family financially afloat.

On Monday, the School Board voted 6-0 to open five school buildings for use by the city and its partners to run such a day care program, with priority going to families of essential workers and those with low incomes.

The five schools to be used are Linwood Holton Elementary in North Side, Martin Luther King Jr. Middle in the East End and Blackwell and Miles Jones Elementary schools and Huguenot High in South Side.

Mr. Kamras’ approved plan would limit the day care use to a maximum of 500 children, or 100 per building, even though the school system’s survey shows a greater need and the buildings have enough classrooms to accommodate three to four times that number even with 10 children to a classroom.

The board also requested that a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, be drawn up between RPS and the city because of a lack of clarity in how the day care system would be implemented, how it would be staffed and financed and how COVID-19-related responsibilities would be handled.

Mr. Kamras stated the school system is not going to dip into its own resources to back the effort. The plan the board approved allows the city’s program access to the buildings, but bars RPS from providing any transportation services for the children or any janitorial services.

Mr. Kamras also said his administration would not open the buildings until the MOU is completed — virtually ensuring that the five school buildings will not be available for use when the new school year begins next week.

School Board member J. Scott Barlow, 2nd District, told the superintendent and the board that any agreement should include a provision that would allow the board to rescind its approval at any time. He voiced concern about the expectations and the liability in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak at one of the buildings.

Mr. Barlow and board member Kenya Gibson, 3rd District, abstained from voting on the proposal. Ms. Gibson expressed disappointment in the lack of details given to the board about the plan that she said was being presented to the board for rushed consideration too close to the start of school. Board member Linda Owen did not attend the meeting.

Mayor Levar M. Stoney, whose administration spent three weeks lobbying Mr. Kamras to help on day care after Mr. Kamras and his staff initially rejected the idea, publicly expressed satisfaction.

In a statement, the mayor praised the School Board for its “willingness to partner with the city to offer emergency child care in school buildings” that would follow federal guidelines.

“Now that we have secured safe, reliable child care sites, my administration is getting to work on planning and implementing high-quality emergency child care.”

In his statement, Mayor Stoney did not provide any details of the program to be offered, when service might be available and who might qualify. He said that he expects to announce more details later, but no timeframe was specified.

The mayor has promised to put $3 million in federal CARES Act money the city has received to support the program, though the funding was not listed in a description presented to City Council’s Finance Committee on Aug. 20 of the ways the city plans to spend the entire $40.2 million in federal funds.

City Councilwoman Stephanie A. Lynch, 5th District, who has fought to make day care a priority since first raising the alarm in early July, said surveys conducted by RPS and the city show “there is a real need.”

She said her best estimate is the city would need to serve 1,500 to 2,000 children and possibly be prepared to serve more. “We really don’t have a handle on the size of the problem.”

She said she has been told the city will roll out an even bigger day care program that will involve more than the school buildings. A city task force is making plans to provide day care in some of the city’s recreation centers, and she said city staff is reaching out to churches and others with larger buildings to secure more space through MOUs.

Ms. Lynch expressed dismay that the School Board did not fully embrace the program and make school buses and cleaning services available. She said School Board members need to talk with people in public housing and lower-income neighborhoods to understand the desperation. Some parents feel ill-equipped to ensure their children get the most of the computer learning, while others who work need a safe place to keep their kids.

For most, Ms. Lynch said, private day care is not an option. But she noted that the city program will be needed more than ever with many of the private child care programs facing financial collapse. A recent Richmond survey of child care businesses found that 70 percent expect to be out of business in six months.