Covid at daycare/preschool - outdated policies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d advocate with the local government (or at least start there). It took a lot of parents advocating to reopen schools to get it done. The elected officials have very little motivation to get things back to normal it seems (none of the Board of Surpervisors in Fairfax County cared at all about reopening schools - and I contacted almost all of them). Good luck. It will be a battle I’m sure as many are clinging to updated guidance.

Everything is back to normal. You don't send sick kids to school and infect everyone.

Before Covid we never kept kids out of preschool or k-12 simply because their siblings or classmates were sick. Yet that’s the situation at many preschools and child care centers.

So no, things absolutely aren’t normal for kids.

This.
Why is this so hard for people to understand? If my child isquarantined for 10 days with no signs of illness just because they’ve been in a room with someone who tested positive (and the threshold is in the room for as little as 15 minutes) then, no, things are absolutely not back to normal.
No one does this for flu, RSV, HFM, etc, and those can be far more severe for this age group than covid. RSV ran rampant through 3 rooms at our daycare last summer…no one was quarantined, and my younger DD ended up in the ER for it.

[Anonymous]

The only answer is to stop testing. Sure if your kid is sick, keep him or her at home. But testing and reporting is only going to shut down classrooms and blow up the schedules (and sanity) of a dozen set of parents in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only answer is to stop testing. Sure if your kid is sick, keep him or her at home. But testing and reporting is only going to shut down classrooms and blow up the schedules (and sanity) of a dozen set of parents in the classroom.

he problem is that many daycares require a test for just about any symptom, runny nose included. It's hard to be vague about being sick these days. But yeah, DH and I aren't testing ourselves, that's for sure.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t believe it, but our daycare just sent out OSSE’s and DC Health’s new guidance and it no longer requires mandatory 10-day exclusions for children under 2 for Covid exposures. It suggests facilities follow CDC’s recommendations but facilities can do what works for them. After near back-to-back closures in our lo’s daycare over the past month, I’m crying happy tears.

Here’s the new guidance: https://coronavirus.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/coronavirus/page_content/attachments/COVID-19_DC_Health_Guidance_for_Schools_and_Childcare_Facilities-6-13-22.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t believe it, but our daycare just sent out OSSE’s and DC Health’s new guidance and it no longer requires mandatory 10-day exclusions for children under 2 for Covid exposures. It suggests facilities follow CDC’s recommendations but facilities can do what works for them. After near back-to-back closures in our lo’s daycare over the past month, I’m crying happy tears.

Here’s the new guidance: https://coronavirus.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/coronavirus/page_content/attachments/COVID-19_DC_Health_Guidance_for_Schools_and_Childcare_Facilities-6-13-22.pdf

Maryland never strictly required it, but most daycares and preschools continue to enforce 5-10 day quarantines, which effectively means closing a classroom for 1-2 weeks.

What makes you think your child's daycare will change policies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only answer is to stop testing. Sure if your kid is sick, keep him or her at home. But testing and reporting is only going to shut down classrooms and blow up the schedules (and sanity) of a dozen set of parents in the classroom.

he problem is that many daycares require a test for just about any symptom, runny nose included. It's hard to be vague about being sick these days. But yeah, DH and I aren't testing ourselves, that's for sure.

Easy. Everything is a tummy ache or ear ache. Don't ever reference a symptom on the Covid list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only answer is to stop testing. Sure if your kid is sick, keep him or her at home. But testing and reporting is only going to shut down classrooms and blow up the schedules (and sanity) of a dozen set of parents in the classroom.

he problem is that many daycares require a test for just about any symptom, runny nose included. It's hard to be vague about being sick these days. But yeah, DH and I aren't testing ourselves, that's for sure.

Easy. Everything is a tummy ache or ear ache. Don't ever reference a symptom on the Covid list.

I’m pretty sure most daycares would lump “tummy ache” into nausea/vomiting. Earache is good though, provided your child isn’t very verbal yet.

[Anonymous]

Now why is Virginia (specifically Alexandria) behind Maryland and DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t believe it, but our daycare just sent out OSSE’s and DC Health’s new guidance and it no longer requires mandatory 10-day exclusions for children under 2 for Covid exposures. It suggests facilities follow CDC’s recommendations but facilities can do what works for them. After near back-to-back closures in our lo’s daycare over the past month, I’m crying happy tears.

Here’s the new guidance: https://coronavirus.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/coronavirus/page_content/attachments/COVID-19_DC_Health_Guidance_for_Schools_and_Childcare_Facilities-6-13-22.pdf

Maryland never strictly required it, but most daycares and preschools continue to enforce 5-10 day quarantines, which effectively means closing a classroom for 1-2 weeks.

What makes you think your child's daycare will change policies?

PP here, we are in a new independent daycare facility that has open discussions about their policies with parents. Up until now there was no flexibility in how they address Covid exposures because of DC’s policies. But now, there is a dialogue about how to move forward, especially in light of the fact that nearly all the kid’s in my lo’s class have had Covid in the past 6 months with no cases of reinfection.