San Antonio's home for emergency child care
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
San Antonio families who need an urgent and safe place for their children to stay now have a newly renovated house as a free option.
Why it matters: The first permanent crisis nursery in the region helps parents facing emergencies ranging from housing instability to domestic violence to medical care. Its aim is to prevent child neglect and abuse before it happens, Rebecca Helterbrand, president and CEO of Respite Care of San Antonio, tells Axios.
- Not everyone has an immediate family or support system for child care needs, meaning families can be one emergency away from a child care crisis that could lead to foster care intervention.
Driving the news: Respite Care opened the 12-bed house in Monte Vista on Tuesday. It can house children for just a day or overnight depending on the family's situation.
How it works: The nonprofit is part of a coalition with other local nonprofits, operating as the Safety Nest Network, that offers varying emergency child care services, Helterbrand says.
- An intake call helps determine the level of care a family needs and for how long.
State of play: Respite Care has been piloting the crisis nursery for about eight months in other homes it owns. It now has a capacity of 42 beds across multiple properties.
- The group is seeking Bexar County funding to allow the new house to serve solely as a crisis nursery.
What they're saying: "The Safety Nest Network is really designed to make sure that before a potentially bad decision happens, or a crisis creates the stressors that lead to abuse and neglect, that we resolve that," Helterbrand says.
- The nonprofit can take in kids for brief periods, such as during a parent's job interview.
Zoom in: Krizia Ramirez-Franklin sent her four children to the crisis nursery this spring while she was recovering from a double mastectomy surgery.
- "I knew they'd be safe and have all their needs met," Ramirez-Franklin tells Axios. She expects to bring her children back this fall while she undergoes a follow-up surgery.
The big picture: State officials completed more than 11,100 child protective investigations for abuse or neglect in Bexar County in fiscal year 2025, per state data.
- That's about 22 investigations per 1,000 children, higher than the statewide incidence of about 18.5 investigations per 1,000 children.
The bottom line: "The Safety Nest Network will allow for people like myself, who are just trying to do the right thing without having to worry about getting caught up in the system … get the help that they need," Ramirez-Franklin says.