Childcare Facilities Taking Extra Precaution As Facilities Reopen Around the Country

More childcare facilities continue to reopen across the country. The facilities are taking extra precautions to keep kids safe and give working parents some much needed help.

Laura and Brian Behrmann have been working from their New Jersey home and are ready to send their youngest child, two-and-a-half-year-old Madison, back to daycare. Madison is ready, too. Laura Behrmann says of her daughter, “She definitely misses the routine, the schedule, the activities, and the people. She’s a real social kid.” When Madison returns to Bell’s Little Learners next week, she’ll be dropped off at the front door, get daily temperature checks, and her parents won’t be allowed in the building. “We trust the owner. We trust the staff. And they have laid out all the precautions,” Behrmann says.

Owner Stacie Bell has also opened more classrooms to keep kids in smaller groups, and removed toys that are tough to clean. “I feel like once people see that there’s other children back at the schools, they’ll get more comfortable,” Bell says. “I think there’s a lot of fear right now of the unknown.”

The increased safety measures are a visible reminder these are not normal times, but childcare professionals point out their top priority is your kids. Kim Vukelja owns Imagination Station Montessori in Daytona Beach, Florida. She says, “Our fear of COVID has to be secondary to taking care of the children. It can’t be the first concern.” Vukelja’s facility has been open since early May with similar protocols, like sanitizing kids’ lunchboxes and individual work trays.

Dad Matt Metz waited to send his two children back to Imagination Station. “We figured, well, if we wait two weeks, and no one’s calling out sick, or they’re not losing a lot of the teachers, none of the kids are getting sick, then we at least have a pretty good idea that it’s safe for our children to go,” he says.

Both Metz and Behrmann say, as parents, communication with their childcare providers has been key. Parents say that as tough as it’s been to work from home with children, they appreciate the extra family time.