Day Care During A Pandemic?

As cities are opening up during the COVID-19 pandemic, families are wondering if it is safe to have their children return to day care centers.

Although day care availability depends primarily upon local public health guidelines and stay-at-home orders, returning to day care is a personal choice based equality on the needs of your family and child, financial considerations, and health risk. For some families, return to day care is a very easy decision. For others, the choice is more difficult.

Here’s the short answer. —>  If you and your partner are going back to work and your child needs supervision, by all means YES! Send them back to day care. But if you able to care for your child at home, it may be best to wait for a few weeks to return.

Here are a few things to consider: 

You are not returning to the same center. Every licensed child care facility has done a wonderful job to make accommodations and changes based on local health care recommendations. (An example of public health recommendations can be found here for the state of Kansas.) Things like limiting access into the buildings, smaller class sizes and new cleaning procedures… These new workflows were put into place quickly and were no small feat! All these measures will help to limit direct contact and illness exposures while our children are in safe hands, but will certainly change the feel and flow of every child’s daily experience.

Education and socialization opportunities might be different. As child care centers are changing protocols for infection protection, many are also altering programming to accommodate the requirements. Interaction between children will be limited. Playground access will change. Shared supplies will be left on the shelf. Lunchtime might be different. Of course, the basic curriculum will continue under the careful and dedicated eye of care providers. Some of the extra-fun stuff that makes day care centers special, however, may not be available. Be sure to ask your center how the daily routines might be modified for the foreseeable future. If the extra-fun stuff is why you send your child to day care (vs. the need for supervision), postponing your child’s entry may decrease health risk. Financially supporting trusted care providers during any hiatus should also be a consideration.

Know there will be outbreaks. Research continues to demonstrate that although children are (thankfully) not getting as ill with COVID-19 as adults, children are equally susceptible to getting infected by the virus. Children have been shown to spread the virus and day care outbreaks have been reported in areas. Even in smaller groups, spending hours with other children who are incapable of physical distancing is an environment for all types of viral and bacterial diseases to spread. So, know what your center is prepared to do once a child is identified as positive for the virus. How will you be notified? How will the center limit spread (shut downs, cleaning, removal of exposed care providers, etc)? When will the ill child be allowed back into care? Equally important, what alternative child care plans are in place should your child be the one to become ill.

What about grandparents as a child care option? We know that our grandparents are in a high-risk group for significant COVID-19 illness. It is a very personal decision, therefore, to consider accepting help from grandparents during the coming months. If you choose to use grandparents rather than a license child care center, be sure to have honest discussions about expectations. Each family unit should continue to stay-at-home outside of working hours. Kids should be without any illness symptoms in oder to be with grandparents. Most importantly, an alternate care plan *that can be quickly executed* should be in place if your child develop any illness symptoms. For grandparents with any chronic health conditions, another child care option is best.

Would a nanny be better? In-home nannies are a option for some families. If you are inviting another caregiver into your home, ensuring the nanny is trustworthy is paramount. If this individual is not following physical distancing, masking, and limited group activities as directed by your local health department, the nanny could be a troublesome welcome. With appropriate conversation and upfront expectations, however, this working relationship may decrease the risk of infection for your children versus a larger center. 

Bottom line: How we choose our child care is another opportunity for us to respond as a community. For those of us who need to use day care centers, low class numbers creates less exposure risk to classmates and staff. And for those of us who have the ability to keep kids at home or have other care options, we can offer less exposure risk to our own child and those at the center, while keeping child care availability prioritized to those who need it most.

To all our KC day care providers and owners, please know that I’m thankful to all of you who have kept centers open for essential workers over the last few weeks. Knowing our children were cared for by people who we know and trust, while we dove head-first into a new reality, was a needed and welcomed comfort. Be well.