My son got accepted to the free special ed preschool for FCPS. We’ll decide 2 weeks before school starts whether to send him or not. I work in the ER, so we not only have to weigh the risk of our son getting the disease from classmates, but also how many kids could I possibly harm if I become infected at work and my son passes the disease to multiple children? My son would really benefit from a special ed preschool though. I have a feeling we’ll end up keeping our son home.

Go with a nanny. This newly discovered Kawasaki-like mutation of COVID is scaring the crap out of me.

Even with school there are a lot of days off. And would there be aftercare? Would you want a kid there that long? Daycare usually provides a lot more coverage than school...

We gave up our DCPS spot, bought a SFH in Alexandria city, and hired a nanny for this exact reason. More space plus childcare even with rolling social distancing. He can go to preK when he’s 4. Even if we had stayed in DC we probably would’ve kept him home. Only because of the rolling social distancing that is likely to happen over the next year.

Another thing to consider - if schools don’t open or if they open and close again (as could happen) can you work from home / do child care and telework? If you can, then risking preschool is fine. If you can’t or don’t want to (because damn is it hard) then hiring a nanny now will be to your benefit.

Tough discussion and I’m in the same boat
I wanted to offer nanny share with a fellow parent but it would be the same risk as taking DC back in

You can control where people go, it’s just a matter of praying for the best

We matched at a dcps preschool for our 4 year old, and were so excited to drop our daycare payments and save some money. Are others thinking of pulling kids out of preschool even if they are open? We can afford a nanny, but it would be a challenge. Are others foregoing free preschool in exchange for a nanny? If so, when should we start looking for a nanny who would start in August? Also, would you do a nanny share—i.e. exposure to one other family would be safer than exposure to a whole preschool.