Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, despite releasing quarantine and isolation guidance on January 16 that aligns with the Maryland state guidance by allowing a 5-day quarantine period for exposed children under 5, Montgomery County Health Department Officials are apparently telling childcare providers that they have to implement a 10-day quarantine period for all children under 5. This directly contravenes statements by county health leaders that the January 16 Health Department guidance allows a 5-day quarantine.

If you agree that this is unacceptable and will needlessly crush working families, please contact our local officials by email and on Twitter as soon as possible.

Please also share this far and wide - to parents groups, WhatsApp groups, listservs, Facebook groups, etc., that you are a part of.

Here are some sample Tweets/messages:

"@MoCoDHHS is contradicting the state, the CDC, and its own guidance by telling providers a 10 (vs. 5) day quarantine is required for children <5. This is unconscionable & will cause the collapse of childcare as an essential service, cost parents their jobs, & drive flight from MoCo daycares. Please help."

"If @MoCoDHHS' rationale is that kids under 5 don’t mask all day, note that both the MoCo and MD guidance accounts for this fact. Moreover, imposing such a policy perpetuates the cruelty of forcibly masking toddlers and preschoolers while requiring quarantines that treat them as if they’re fully unmasked."

"@MoCoDHHS urgently needs to clarify that its guidance permits a 5-day quarantine for children <5, as @EarlStoddard has also confirmed."

"In addition, it's critical that @MoCoDHHSprovide approval for childcare providers to implement test-to-stay. It's CDC-approved for unvaxxed kids and being implemented in DC daycares. Providers wouldn't need to procure and administer tests; parents could do that."

"Not approving this evidence-based solution will drive parent flight from MoCo daycares."

"Parents are at a breaking point. They are burning paid time off, leaving their jobs, and self-medicating with drugs and alcohol. Teachers and health care workers with young children are forced to stay home, further exacerbating staffing shortages in hospitals and schools. Children are being placed into suboptimal care with older siblings and vulnerable grandparents. End these damaging policies now."

Here is the list of officials to contact:

COUNTY EXECUTIVE AND COUNCILMEMBERS:
Marc.Elrich@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Riemer@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Jawando@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Glass@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Albornoz@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Friedson@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Rice@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Katz@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Navarro@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Hucker@montgomerycountymd.gov

COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS:
clark.beil@montgomerycountymd.gov
james.bridgers@montgomerycountymdgov
raymond.crowel@montgomerycountymd.gov
Kenneth.Welch@montgomerycountymd.gov
Eli.Hernandez@montgomerycountymd.gov
earl.stoddard@montgomerycountymd.gov

Twitter handles: @Marc_Elrich, @MontCoExec, @hansriemer, @willjawando, @EvanMGlass, @albornoz_gabe, @Andrew_Friedson, @RicePolitics, @MC_Council_Katz, @nancy_navarro, @tomhucker, @MoCoDHHS, @MCDHHSDirector, @riccimike, @EarlStoddard

Anonymous wrote:For anyone who's following this roller coaster of a story... In no small part due to the pressure and outreach from parents, last night MoCo revised the K-12 and childcare guidance to allow for a 5-day quarantine for children under 5 who are exposed but test negative! (https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/Resources/Files/quarantine/I-Q-guidance-schools-childcare.pdf)

I know many daycares are planning to follow this, but some are not. I highly encourage you to flag this change for your centers and tell them that others in MoCo are following it.

Do also continue to push for test-to-stay, because 5 days is still too long to quarantine healthy children. We should also press county officials to help us understand why their guidance subjects children under 5 to a 10-day isolation period following infection with no option to test out, since the CDC and Maryland guidance do not impose this requirement on children under 5.

Anonymous wrote:For anyone who's following this roller coaster of a story... In no small part due to the pressure and outreach from parents, last night MoCo revised the K-12 and childcare guidance to allow for a 5-day quarantine for children under 5 who are exposed but test negative! (https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/Resources/Files/quarantine/I-Q-guidance-schools-childcare.pdf)

I know many daycares are planning to follow this, but some are not. I highly encourage you to flag this change for your centers and tell them that others in MoCo are following it.

Do also continue to push for test-to-stay, because 5 days is still too long to quarantine healthy children. We should also press county officials to help us understand why their guidance subjects children under 5 to a 10-day isolation period following infection with no option to test out, since the CDC and Maryland guidance do not impose this requirement on children under 5.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DHHS isn't actually issuing quarantine orders to kids, are they? They're just telling the child care centers to instruct the kids to quarantine for 10 days.

Or am I misunderstanding the process here? I believe the county health officer *can* legally order quarantines, but I didn't think that's what was going on.

This is a snippet from what our center sent out to parents:

“ The County is still requiring 10 day quarantines from the date of exposure for children older than 2 and 14 days of quarantine for children 2 and under. Also, the County makes the determination for the start date for quarantine – CENTER does not have the discretion to set its own start dates or test out policies.”

Anonymous wrote:DHHS isn't actually issuing quarantine orders to kids, are they? They're just telling the child care centers to instruct the kids to quarantine for 10 days.

Or am I misunderstanding the process here? I believe the county health officer *can* legally order quarantines, but I didn't think that's what was going on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a daycare in Montgomery County and haven’t heard anything to the contrary from the county. We already adopted the state guidance, we’re licensed and regulated by the state and not the county.

If the county opposes these new guidelines, well that ship has sailed! The new guidance came out last week. If they oppose that they would’ve put out a statement or email to daycare‘s but they haven’t.

That is a big relief to hear. We are hearing a different assessment from other providers, however. They believe that licensing requires them to report cases to the MoCo Health Dept., and that if the Health Dept. then gives them quarantine guidance that differs from the state's, (i.e., quarantine a class for 14 days vs. 5), that providers have to follow that even if it is more strict.

What are you thoughts on that?

If daycares have strict safety measures in place they would not have to follow 14-day guidelines for every student. That is what has been communicated to my facility multiple times. Direct your frustrations at these facilities for failing to implement adequate measures to overcome state guidance. Quarantines would affect less students with proper spacing or sectioning children into smaller groups. This has kept most of the children in my facilities from qurantines over the past few weeks. There are steps these daycares can take--have you spoken with them? Might be easier to move the needle there then at the health department.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a daycare in Montgomery County and haven’t heard anything to the contrary from the county. We already adopted the state guidance, we’re licensed and regulated by the state and not the county.

If the county opposes these new guidelines, well that ship has sailed! The new guidance came out last week. If they oppose that they would’ve put out a statement or email to daycare‘s but they haven’t.

That is a big relief to hear. We are hearing a different assessment from other providers, however. They believe that licensing requires them to report cases to the MoCo Health Dept., and that if the Health Dept. then gives them quarantine guidance that differs from the state's, (i.e., quarantine a class for 14 days vs. 5), that providers have to follow that even if it is more strict.

What are you thoughts on that?

If daycares have strict safety measures in place they would not have to follow 14-day guidelines for every student. That is what has been communicated to my facility multiple times. Direct your frustrations at these facilities for failing to implement adequate measures to overcome state guidance. Quarantines would affect less students with proper spacing or sectioning children into smaller groups. This has kept most of the children in my facilities from qurantines over the past few weeks. There are steps these daycares can take--have you spoken with them? Might be easier to move the needle there then at the health department.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a daycare in Montgomery County and haven’t heard anything to the contrary from the county. We already adopted the state guidance, we’re licensed and regulated by the state and not the county.

If the county opposes these new guidelines, well that ship has sailed! The new guidance came out last week. If they oppose that they would’ve put out a statement or email to daycare‘s but they haven’t.

That is a big relief to hear. We are hearing a different assessment from other providers, however. They believe that licensing requires them to report cases to the MoCo Health Dept., and that if the Health Dept. then gives them quarantine guidance that differs from the state's, (i.e., quarantine a class for 14 days vs. 5), that providers have to follow that even if it is more strict.

What are you thoughts on that?