Anonymous wrote:The ones in Virginia have test to stay for close contacts. If your child tests positive, then it is 5 day quarantine and return with mask for days 6-10. Not sure how you change the policy if this is the posture of the local health department and they are notified of all positive cases.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Director as well here (DC). When the new guidance came out in June, we did away with most of our policies. No more sending kids home for runny noses, hallelujah! Unfortunately right now I have 2classrooms that I had no choice but to shut down because a staff person with allergies just tested positive as did one of her coworkers. She is actually quite ill. So I can’t open classrooms because we are already working with a skeleton crew despite large pay increases, bonuses and the Early Childhood Pay Equity Fund set to begin dispersing this fall. Hiring is brutal because everyone wants to work from home these days. Not sure what the answer is but believe me, directors are beyond over it. Many of us are contemplating leaving the field as well.

Do you refund tuition when you have to shutdown due to staffing reasons? I know that’s not listed as a legitimate closure in the enrollment contract my center has.

NP - The alternative is to reduce capacity and terminate families. We've considered closing our infant and toddler rooms which have the greatest staff requirements but realize this would impact a ton of families who are already struggling to find care.

Or raise tuition to either hire more staff or issue refunds for closures.

I wish this was an answer. Did you see the earlier post in this thread from the teacher who left to nanny share? She was making $18/hour at a center and is now making $33/hour. Even with a tuition increase, we couldn't come close to that. This is the reality of every Director right now and the crisis that nobody talks about. Behaviors are more challenging, parents less supportive, increased regulations, and current teachers are overworked and hanging on by a thread. Don't get me started on the lack of candidates in the talent pool - nobody is even APPLYING for daycare jobs these days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vote with your feet. Have you even started getting on waitlists of other providers?

Never understood this. Why not stay and make the rules better for everyone? Makes no sense to leave every time you don’t like something.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Director as well here (DC). When the new guidance came out in June, we did away with most of our policies. No more sending kids home for runny noses, hallelujah! Unfortunately right now I have 2classrooms that I had no choice but to shut down because a staff person with allergies just tested positive as did one of her coworkers. She is actually quite ill. So I can’t open classrooms because we are already working with a skeleton crew despite large pay increases, bonuses and the Early Childhood Pay Equity Fund set to begin dispersing this fall. Hiring is brutal because everyone wants to work from home these days. Not sure what the answer is but believe me, directors are beyond over it. Many of us are contemplating leaving the field as well.

Do you refund tuition when you have to shutdown due to staffing reasons? I know that’s not listed as a legitimate closure in the enrollment contract my center has.

NP - The alternative is to reduce capacity and terminate families. We've considered closing our infant and toddler rooms which have the greatest staff requirements but realize this would impact a ton of families who are already struggling to find care.

Or raise tuition to either hire more staff or issue refunds for closures.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter's teacher tested positive over the weekend. We were just told to look out for symptoms, test if there are symptoms but otherwise send to school as normal. We haven't had any classrooms shut down for Covid since they opened back up in June 2020. And my kids (at the time I had two there) never got Covid (we'll see if my daughter develops symptoms this week). The teachers masked - now they are about 50/50 on masking. Kids never masked.

We're in Northern VA.

My God this school sounds amazing. We are in MoCo--would love to find someplace similar. Does anyone know if such a place exists?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Director as well here (DC). When the new guidance came out in June, we did away with most of our policies. No more sending kids home for runny noses, hallelujah! Unfortunately right now I have 2classrooms that I had no choice but to shut down because a staff person with allergies just tested positive as did one of her coworkers. She is actually quite ill. So I can’t open classrooms because we are already working with a skeleton crew despite large pay increases, bonuses and the Early Childhood Pay Equity Fund set to begin dispersing this fall. Hiring is brutal because everyone wants to work from home these days. Not sure what the answer is but believe me, directors are beyond over it. Many of us are contemplating leaving the field as well.

OP here -- that's tough. I know hiring and staffing has been a challenge for my child's daycare in NoVa too. One thing our center has done to make it a bit easier is to mandate vaccines so that staff can follow the CDC guidelines for vaccinated people (5 days quarantine + masked days 6-10, no quarantine just for exposure). That gets teachers back at work sooner and they explicitly said that was a reason for their vaccine mandate.

So, you don’t care a teacher is sick or contagious?

Anonymous wrote:My daughter's teacher tested positive over the weekend. We were just told to look out for symptoms, test if there are symptoms but otherwise send to school as normal. We haven't had any classrooms shut down for Covid since they opened back up in June 2020. And my kids (at the time I had two there) never got Covid (we'll see if my daughter develops symptoms this week). The teachers masked - now they are about 50/50 on masking. Kids never masked.

We're in Northern VA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Director as well here (DC). When the new guidance came out in June, we did away with most of our policies. No more sending kids home for runny noses, hallelujah! Unfortunately right now I have 2classrooms that I had no choice but to shut down because a staff person with allergies just tested positive as did one of her coworkers. She is actually quite ill. So I can’t open classrooms because we are already working with a skeleton crew despite large pay increases, bonuses and the Early Childhood Pay Equity Fund set to begin dispersing this fall. Hiring is brutal because everyone wants to work from home these days. Not sure what the answer is but believe me, directors are beyond over it. Many of us are contemplating leaving the field as well.

OP here -- that's tough. I know hiring and staffing has been a challenge for my child's daycare in NoVa too. One thing our center has done to make it a bit easier is to mandate vaccines so that staff can follow the CDC guidelines for vaccinated people (5 days quarantine + masked days 6-10, no quarantine just for exposure). That gets teachers back at work sooner and they explicitly said that was a reason for their vaccine mandate.

So, you don’t care a teacher is sick or contagious?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Director as well here (DC). When the new guidance came out in June, we did away with most of our policies. No more sending kids home for runny noses, hallelujah! Unfortunately right now I have 2classrooms that I had no choice but to shut down because a staff person with allergies just tested positive as did one of her coworkers. She is actually quite ill. So I can’t open classrooms because we are already working with a skeleton crew despite large pay increases, bonuses and the Early Childhood Pay Equity Fund set to begin dispersing this fall. Hiring is brutal because everyone wants to work from home these days. Not sure what the answer is but believe me, directors are beyond over it. Many of us are contemplating leaving the field as well.

OP here -- that's tough. I know hiring and staffing has been a challenge for my child's daycare in NoVa too. One thing our center has done to make it a bit easier is to mandate vaccines so that staff can follow the CDC guidelines for vaccinated people (5 days quarantine + masked days 6-10, no quarantine just for exposure). That gets teachers back at work sooner and they explicitly said that was a reason for their vaccine mandate.

Anonymous wrote:Director as well here (DC). When the new guidance came out in June, we did away with most of our policies. No more sending kids home for runny noses, hallelujah! Unfortunately right now I have 2classrooms that I had no choice but to shut down because a staff person with allergies just tested positive as did one of her coworkers. She is actually quite ill. So I can’t open classrooms because we are already working with a skeleton crew despite large pay increases, bonuses and the Early Childhood Pay Equity Fund set to begin dispersing this fall. Hiring is brutal because everyone wants to work from home these days. Not sure what the answer is but believe me, directors are beyond over it. Many of us are contemplating leaving the field as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
OP: Write a letter to your center director advocating for some specific policy changes. Point to guidance from the CDC or other nearby municipalities. Try to talk to other parents at pick up or drop off since you don't have a family directory and see if they will sign on to your letter.

Also a Director and not sure how helpful this is. Every Director that I know already has a general understanding of changes that parents want in COVID policies. Why not have an individual conversation with the Director at your program and see why certain policies are in place. If they are not a good fit, be willing to find a program with policies that work better for you.

Your previous post mentions test to stay. Unfortunately test to stay doesn't fully prevent spread in the classroom. If Sally comes to school on Monday and is negative and then has a positive test on Tuesday, she has already exposed the classroom on Monday and there will likely be additional cases.

The only solution I see is to get children vaccinated and then treat COVID like cold/flu and require quarntine only for positive children. The 3 series vaccine would mean your center could potentially adjust the quarantine policies in mid/late Fall. So again, not sure how helpful an advocacy letter would be right now since there is not yet an actual solution available. I'd must rather have a conversation with my parents and let them make the decision to do what's best for their family.