Daycare now requiring masks for 2 year olds- ok to ask for deposit back?
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Anonymous
DP but thanks for this. Unfortunately my daycare has indicated they will continue following whoever's guidance is the most conservative between the county/state/federal, so we are stuck with masks until the vaccine is approved for kids unless the CDC changes their tune. |
Anonymous
It's not that I'm deliberately searching for a provider who doesn't require masks- again I have an infant and if masking is still in place by the time she turns 2 we have bigger issues- just that all the in home daycares we've looked aren't having the kids wear masks so I'm surprised to learn about this requirement. There aren't a lot of centers near our home and the timetable to return to the office is up in the air so we have mainly been looking at in-home providers. |
Anonymous
You're right that the County order will expire and I missed that. However, the State order, while it does not require child care facilities to make 2-4 year olds wear masks, strongly recommends that they do. I do not blame child care providers at all for choosing to comply with that recommendation. I blame our public health officials for utterly failing to weight the developmental risks of requiring masks for young children against the public health benefits in a population we know is much less likely to transmit Covid than other groups.
https://phpa.health.maryland.gov/Documents/2021.05.14.01%20Amended%20Order%20Regulating%20Limiting%20the%20Spread%20of%20COVID-19.pdf |
Anonymous
Agreed. That’s how you can make changes. |
Anonymous
Also I wouldn't discount reaching out to the local and state health officials as well. I wish the CDC had gone with the WHO recommendation of 5+ because once they started with 2yos it became widely adopted (in this area at least) and difficult to unwind. They should have started with 5 and looked at spread amongst the younger set to see if it was an issue and then re-evaluate. |
Anonymous
I’m surprised parents haven’t reached out to the local and state health officials. It seems many parents on here are passionate about this topic. |
Anonymous
PP here- I have. I rarely get a response but keep trying. |
Anonymous
| They are only “strongly recommended” for 2-4. |
Anonymous
Good luck getting *anyone* to respond. The problem is that CDC creates guidance, not rules. So, they can say things like "2 year olds should wear masks, but don't fret if they can't." Then the states, counties and schools think they need to create enforceable rules based off of that guidance, rather than just allowing them to be treated as recommendations. And in this process, they become more strict. Until quite recently, the movement was in the wrong direction. The Smithsonian's mask requirements this year apply to 2-year-olds, whereas they were for 5 year olds last year. No one seems willing to acknowledge that risk is inherent. So rather than rationally balancing risks, it turns into taking every mitigation possible. In this case, the CDC would rather give uber-conservative guidance, and then provide caveats around it. |
Anonymous
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It seems like there are so many comments on this post not because of the specifics of this case, but because various local governments (DC/MD) are making policy on masks for children not based on science, but based on liberal public perceptions of the risk of COVID. As per various epidemiologists and physicians in a recent WaPo editorial (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/26/its-time-children-finally-get-back-normal-life/):
"Overall, the risk to children is too low to justify the remaining restrictions they face. Somewhere between 0.1 and 1.9 percent of covid-19 infections in children result in hospitalizations — and that’s likely an overestimate given that recent studies suggest approximately 40 percent of pediatric covid-19 admissions were misclassified. The risk of a child developing MIS-C, a serious inflammatory condition with effective treatments, is less than 1 in 1,000. The virus has claimed the lives of nearly 400 children in 17 months, lower than the estimated deaths among children in recent influenza seasons." Why are we forcing small children to wear masks based on a tiny - and growing even smaller - risk? DC is removing restrictions in all areas, restaurants etc., except for child care facilities. I'm guessing this is partially based on input from daycare directors/providers, who have nothing to loose from kids continuing to wear masks. How can parents who think the same way on this band together and make our voices known to the DC government? Are there any coalitions or petitions out there that we can join onto? The lack of any local press on this issue is annoying. Parents of small children in DC are a forgotten constituency. |