Page 4 - Perspectives Fall - English

Maintaining Health and Safety in the Child Care Setting
As California’s economy adjusts to COVID-19 and employees return to the work place, the need for child care is increasing. Whether you are planning to open your doors again for the first time since the pandemic began or you are already caring for children, there are some important health and safety guidelines to bear in mind.
The California Department of Public Health issued guidance in September regarding the number of children in a child care setting. CDPH is advising care providers to form a cohort, which is a group of no more than 14 children and no more than two supervising adults who remain together for all activities and avoid others outside the group. The purpose is to limit the risk of exposure to COVID-19 by maintaining the same points of contact and being able to identify who was exposed in the event of a positive test.
If more than one cohort is formed, CDPH recommends preventative measures to keep the different cohorts from interacting. No matter how many cohorts there are, children and staff in the individual groups are advised to wear protective face coverings and maintain social distancing. Outdoor meetings and meetings in large rooms with open windows are preferred over gatherings in small rooms with windows closed.
Guidance was issued in August regarding how to respond to potential infections, when the closure of an entire child care facility should be considered and, if COVID-19 exposure does occur, when the facility
should re-open.
CDPH recommends excluding children, parents, providers, and other staff with COVID-19 symptoms from the facility.
If a child develops or experiences symptoms while in the facility, he or she should be immediately removed from the cohort and placed in an area away from other children. The child’s parent or caregiver should be contacted for immediate pick up. Care providers who develop symptoms while at work should immediately leave the facility and not return until they meet criteria established by the Centers for Disease Control to end quarantine. In order to return to the facility, the staff member should be fever free for at least one day, should have improved symptoms, and 10 days must have passed since the onset of symptoms.
Total closure of the facility should be considered, according to CDPH, if COVID-19 has been identified in more than one cohort or group and the infected person cannot be excluded from the facility. This is relevant in scenarios where the child care facility is a home setting and the infected individual lives in the home, either the care provider or their child.
The facility can re-open after a COVID-19 closure once it complies with cleaning and disinfection procedures and after consultation with the local health department. CDC guidance on cleaning and disinfecting includes sanitizing toys that can be put in the, as well as other hard surfaces, including diaper changing stations, door knobs, and floors. The CDC states that any decision about temporary closures of child care programs
should be made in cooperation with federal, state, and local educational officials as well as state and local health officials. Child care programs are not expected to make decisions about closures on their own.
CDPH has a COVID-19 information line you can call for additional information, 1-833-422-4255.
4 | Perspectives Newsletter