Under big kiawe trees at Lahaina’s Hanakaoo Park, parents and young children gather together on mats and tarps, surrounded by play stations stocked with watercolor paints, toy pots and pans and a water table. 

Ka Paalana, which staff describe as a “mobile preschool,” allows caregivers to attend early learning classes alongside their children ages 0 to 5. In weekly sessions, families receive access to academic activities as well as resources around mental health, housing and more, said project director Kasey Popken. 

Run under the nonprofit Partners in Development Foundation, Ka Paalana recently expanded its services to Maui with a $2 million grant from the Hawaii Community Foundation. The program began last month and serves around 20 children.  

Correction: A previous version of this story said the grant was $20 million.

“Our ultimate goal is to serve the entire family,” Popken said. 

Following the August wildfires, early learning advocates estimated that Lahaina lost over 250 licensed child care seats. As of last month, a tracking map showed that the six child care and preschool centers in the 5-square-mile burn zone remained closed, although some programs have since relocated to other parts of West Maui. 

Entering the new school year, nonprofits and early learning providers on Maui are reopening or expanding their services to meet families’ dire need for child care. Some providers are also focusing on supporting caregivers’ mental health, recognizing that parents are working through the trauma of the fires while also raising their families.  

“The struggles are far from being over,” said Karyn Kanekoa, site coordinator for the Hawaiian immersion preschool Punana Leo o Lahaina. The school temporarily closed last year when its center at Waiola Church was destroyed in the fires. 

Even before the fires, Lahaina faced a shortage of child care providers. When the fires destroyed decades-old preschools like Holy Innocents or Children of the Rainbow, families had nowhere to send their children, and some parents were unable to return to work, said Nida Otto, operations manager at Ka Paalana. 

As a result, she added, it’s been difficult for Ka Paalana to hire more staff members and expand its services in Lahaina. Right now, the program meets families at the beach park once a week but ultimately hopes to increase its classes to four times a week. 

While the fire destroyed much of Lahaina’s child care infrastructure, some providers are determined to reopen in the new school year. 

In Kaanapali, Sacred Hearts School plans to reopen its early learning center starting next month. Most of the school’s Lahaina campus was destroyed in the fires, and the new temporary site in Kaanapali will serve up to 48 children in preschool and junior kindergarten, said principal Tonata Lolesio.

The demand for child care in West Maui remains just as high as before the fires, Lolesio said, adding that the school has filled almost all of its early learning center seats. She expects interest in the program to continually grow as more families find out about the school’s new location.

For the first time in August, Princess Nahienaena Elementary will host multiple early learning programs on its Lahaina campus, including a new public pre-kindergarten classroom. The campus will also host two private child care and preschool classes and federal Head Start programs serving low-income children. 

At the elementary school, Punana Leo o Lahaina will set up its program in an unused classroom and plans to serve up to 24 families, Kanekoa said. Punana Leo is still finalizing its agreement with Princess Nahienaena Elementary and determining if the preschool will pay rent to the Department of Education in the upcoming year. 

Maui Family Support Services also plans to use the elementary school campus for its Early Head Start program. The Early Head Start initiative offers home visits to families as well as twice-monthly meetings for parents and young children to meet and socialize together. The program has reached its capacity of 12 children and has 16 more families on the waitlist, said chief executive officer Edeluisa Baguio-Larena. 

“We are ready to open,” she said. 

In addition to promoting children’s growth and learning, Baguio-Larena said, it’s been crucial to provide young parents with resources and a sense of community following the fires. 

To meet this need, Maui Family Support Services recently opened a program at the Lahaina Civic Center providing children with academic activities and games, Baguio-Larena said. Caregivers attend these lessons to learn how they can support their children’s development and learning. 

Ka Paalana takes a similar family-centered approach, asking caregivers to accompany their children to classes at the beach park. 

The weekly sessions allow caregivers to develop a strong community while also learning about resources around financial aid or child care, Popken said. Ka Paalana is also working to bring a therapist on board who can work with parents and children to address their trauma from the fires, she added. 

Maui is currently facing a severe shortage of mental health providers and has needed to bring in out-of-state therapists to address survivors’ needs. 

At Punana Leo, Kanekoa said she’s looking forward to the upcoming year and is grateful to have a stable place to hold her classes at Princess Nahienaena Elementary. After the fires last summer, Kanekoa held informal classes for a dozen students in her backyard, but heavy rain sometimes prevented her class from meeting for days at a time.  

Even still, Kanekoa said, holding classes at her home allowed her to reach students and parents who needed a safe space after the fires. Children, often accompanied by their parents, spent their days weeding taro patches and learning outside, she added, and families were relieved to take their children out of hotel rooms and away from meetings with government agencies. 

“It was definitely a critical time, we felt, to keep the keiki together, to give the parents the space they needed,” Kanekoa said.

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.

Civil Beat’s community health coverage is supported by the Cooke Foundation, Atherton Family Foundation and Papa Ola Lokahi.