Covid at daycare/preschool - outdated policies

[Anonymous]

Both of my children's daycare/preschool classrooms were completely shut down this week because of two separate covid cases. I will have two weeks of juggling childcare and work and no compensation for the closure.

WHY are we still doing this. Why has every segment of society essentially returned to normal except daycares? I understand that small children cannot get a vaccine but its been proven time and again that small children are not seriously affected by Covid. I have accepted that this is endemic, but why have daycares not.

What is your daycare's policy? Are they all living like this is 2020?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both of my children's daycare/preschool classrooms were completely shut down this week because of two separate covid cases. I will have two weeks of juggling childcare and work and no compensation for the closure.

WHY are we still doing this. Why has every segment of society essentially returned to normal except daycares? I understand that small children cannot get a vaccine but its been proven time and again that small children are not seriously affected by Covid. I have accepted that this is endemic, but why have daycares not.

What is your daycare's policy? Are they all living like this is 2020?

I also think it is ridiculous considering every other contagious illness only applies to those that are symptomatic.

Our daycare policy is one case does not shut down but two cases in a cohort- they can combine classes in early morning and late afternoon classes along with playground- means closing for 5 days from the last day the positive child was in care. We have to test at 5 days post exposure and require a negative test to return on day 6 with required masking (exception naps and eating) for days 6-10.

It is unclear to me what happens if my son tests positive on day 5 and is asymptomatic.

[Anonymous]

That's so inconvenient.
Our preschool shut down twice for 2 weeks, but this was in September and maybe November? I don't even remember. Now children can "test to stay" on the 5th day since exposure

[Anonymous]

I think the health department is still shutting schools and rooms down.

[Anonymous]

It is OSSE/DCHealth policy that a positive case in a daycare results in a 5 day classroom shutdown. I'll look for the link to the "official" document stating this; it's hard to find. DCPS can implement test-to-stay, but daycares cannot. Why? OSSE says it's b/c of the "vulnerable populations" at daycares (i.e., children 2 yrs old and under). Even taking that at face value, why not adopt an AGE-BASED criterion for test-to-stay (i.e., only children age 2 and older can test-to-stay, otherwise it's a 5 day quarantine). At present, test-to-stay is based on LOCATION where a child is enrolled, not age. So a 2 year old enrolled in DCPS pk3 (i.e., a child with a September birthday who begins school in August) can test-to-stay, but a 2 year old enrolled in daycare cannot. 3 and 4 year olds enrolled in DCPS can test-to-stay. 3 and 4 year olds enrolled in daycare cannot. That hurts families (it's disruptive for working adults and children alike). I've been in touch w/ OSSE on this and urge anyone else interested to start emailing and calling.

[Anonymous]

Our preschooler is out this week because of a COVID case. I believe the school is following dept of health guidance/requirements. It sucks, doubly so for us with a 4 year old because the vaccinated kids are in school as if nothing happened.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I think this is coming from the local health departments and agree it is outdated and frustrating. Not only because small children tend not to be severely affected by covid, but because clearly the vaccine is not preventing transmission either! I'd like to see a comparison of spread among unvaccinated preschoolers vs. vaccinated school-age children vs. vaccinated adults. The latter two groups wouldn't have to quarantine for exposure whereas the former would, but I'm not sure they science is there to justify this. In fact I'd be willing to bet there is nothing substantial to justify it.

[Anonymous]

Although it hasn't affected my DS' classroom yet, we just got notified about an outbreak at our center, largely affecting the pre-K rooms. Of the families we know in those rooms, all have had their kids vaccinated if eligible, and most kids/teachers still mask even though it is not technically required. I think this variant is just really contagious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Although it hasn't affected my DS' classroom yet, we just got notified about an outbreak at our center, largely affecting the pre-K rooms. Of the families we know in those rooms, all have had their kids vaccinated if eligible, and most kids/teachers still mask even though it is not technically required.

I think this variant is just really contagious.

Well that just makes it worse. If one Covid case can shut down a classroom and more and more people are catching it, then it’s possible to go weeks without childcare. Say when the two weeks are up and they go back and a kid reports a Covid case and “exposes” the other kids, can’t the whole cycle just start again? How is that sustainable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although it hasn't affected my DS' classroom yet, we just got notified about an outbreak at our center, largely affecting the pre-K rooms. Of the families we know in those rooms, all have had their kids vaccinated if eligible, and most kids/teachers still mask even though it is not technically required.

I think this variant is just really contagious.

Well that just makes it worse. If one Covid case can shut down a classroom and more and more people are catching it, then it’s possible to go weeks without childcare. Say when the two weeks are up and they go back and a kid reports a Covid case and “exposes” the other kids, can’t the whole cycle just start again? How is that sustainable.

Yeah it would be better in a way for everyone to just get it at once than piecemeal.

[Anonymous]

We haven't had a case in a couple of months, and I think it's because no one is testing. The policy seems to be don't ask, don't tell.

[Anonymous]

Our small private school is shutting down entire classes for one case, even for older kids in grade level classes. The school also has an early childhood program so not sure if that’s why but it seems really outdated, extreme, and unnecessary at this point.

[Anonymous]

Our daycare has yet to publish any new guidelines, but they do seem to be being flexible on an ad-hoc basis (in terms of out-of-school exposure or parent cases). But we still haven't had many cases, and our last closure was in January during Omicron.

I do think they are likely to shut down a classroom for 10 days if there is a case in the room, though. I guess we'll probably eventually find out. Has CDC flowed new guidance that suggests they shouldn't? I don't think so.

I am most angry that these restrictions/policies come with no support, like paid parental leave. It is fine for me, but not for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our daycare has yet to publish any new guidelines, but they do seem to be being flexible on an ad-hoc basis (in terms of out-of-school exposure or parent cases). But we still haven't had many cases, and our last closure was in January during Omicron.

I do think they are likely to shut down a classroom for 10 days if there is a case in the room, though. I guess we'll probably eventually find out. Has CDC flowed new guidance that suggests they shouldn't? I don't think so.

I am most angry that these restrictions/policies come with no support, like paid parental leave. It is fine for me, but not for everyone.

Yep we've gone 2 years without any of us getting covid or being symptomatic but I oscillate between 15 hours and 40 because every 2-3 months i have to take off 1-2 days for an exposure and test or class closure and test or weekend virus then test.
I've got a whole week during summer to cover when daycare is closed and there is no way I will have 40 hours saved up. Not to mention what happens if I get sick or my son actually gets sick. The stress is heavy every single time. It feels crushing at times with anxiety of balancing my own needs, work, daycare closures, my DH having a freak accident. There's no bandwidth for emergency for most normally and now it's even less.

[Anonymous]

We are at a daycare center in NoVA. Daycare’s policy is to shut down a classroom for 10 days upon a confirmed positive case (either student or staff) in that room. Policy is dictated by the county health department. Our daycare doesn’t require masks for children under 5, and there’s no test to stay option.
We just completed our 6th shutdown since Nov 2020 between my 2 kids. Each shutdown has been due to a positive staff member. None of those cases resulted in further spread within the school. That’s 60 days’ worth of juggling childcare and work between my DH and myself, cobbling together a mixture of leave, WFH, working late at night, etc. it is untenable.
Meanwhile, we had an RSV outbreak in both the infant and toddler classrooms last summer, yet no classroom shutdown was required.