The King County Health Department has ordered Seattle community centers to bar Madrona K-8 students—although it's not clear that students from Aki Kurose and Stevens Elementary are also banned—from attending after-school programs and day camps at the centers.

Community centers around the city have posted signs on their front doors notifying Madrona students that they aren't welcome. Unfortunately, about 70% of students at Madrona and Aki Kurose are on free and reduced lunch, which will likely put parents in the uncomfortable position of having to decide whether to skip work and stay home with their kids, when people are already worried about losing their jobs in our bad economy. One staff member, who asked not to be identified, at the Garfield Community Center says the center has already had to turn away a number of families. "There's been some frustration there," the staff member says.

In the last 24 hours, city and county officials and staff at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) have been discussing the possibility of opening up several community centers around the city to act as daycares for kids displaced by sudden closures. However, it appears that someone realized that putting all of the kids from these schools into one place would defeat the purpose of the closures, and the plan has been put on hold. "We looked at all the options and determined it’s really not the best course of action," says EOC spokeswoman Lori Patrick.

Parks department staff are still expecting an influx of students at community centers—which could make the Madrona student ban tough to enforce— and are working will the health department to monitor increased attendance and spot potentially sick kids.

UPDATE: The city now says they're not "turning children away" from facilities, but are not allowing students from shuttered schools into licensed childcare programs after community centers.

From my experience working in childcare, licensed programs tend to completely take over community centers after school. If kids from quarantined schools aren't allowed near the kids in after school programs, it would seem that they'd be pretty much have to be excluded from the facility. I'm still trying to nail this down and I'll have more in a bit.