Care facilities ready as parents head back to jobs
As the county slowly reopens amidst a decline in COVID-19 cases, some parents are wondering where they should leave their young children during the day.
State Department of Human Services secretary Teresa Miller discussed this topic earlier this week as Butler and other counties were scheduled to move Friday to the green phase of Gov. Tom Wolf's reopening plan. The safety precautions, Miller said, are designed to reduce the spread of the disease.
“As counties enter the yellow and green phases, we are monitoring the prevalence of COVID-19 in child care facilities,” Miller said.
Since March, she said, there have been 18 confirmed COVID-19 cases in 18 child care facilities across eight counties. Butler isn't one of them.
“Our child care areas are now called sanctuary spaces,” said Rachel Campbell, clinical director of youth services for the Butler YMCA. “Only child care and administration are allowed with masks at child care areas.”
Campbell went on to explain that while children are not mandated to wear masks, they can if parents want them to. Children attending the day care are taken directly to the classroom where there is no additional adult interaction other than the teachers.
“That's one of the big things. Making it a tight space,” Campbell said. “So there's no outside interaction with other people.”
Butler County's YMCA opened its child care programs in late May with safety measures in place to prevent the spread of the virus, Campbell said. These measures fall in line with Miller's suggestions. They include keeping each class of children separated from the other classes, mandatory masks being worn by the staff and encouraging parents to not enter the buildings. So far, Campbell said, the measures appear to be working and parents are cooperating.
Butler County Family YMCA Association is currently operating its child care facility at its Butler City site, which provides space for six groups of children and HIS Kids Christian school, where staff is wiping down frequently touched areas hourly.
They also have an infant center behind the main building that is also isolated. At the main site, Campbell said, the Y recovered about 70 percent of its clients. The same staff must also go through a health check regularly and have their temperatures taken every day. Children must go through a similar process, and those with a temperature higher than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit are not allowed inside.
“We're grateful that families came back to us strongly right out of the gate,” Campbell said. “Parents need us and we're here for them. They're ready to go back to work and a lot of centers weren't ready, but we are.”
The setup, Campbell said, required a lot of planning.
“The children stay with their group and don't intermix,” Campbell said. “It requires scheduling bathroom breaks, so there's no cross interactions. The same thing with lunch and it's all aimed to reduce interactions.”
She said so far, the child care service has been approved by parents.
“It's going extremely well. We're super pleased. Zero complaints — knock on wood — from parents,” she said. “It's in the way you present to people and explain how we're keeping everyone safe. We have a really great plan and we're confident in it.”
Alexandra Feicht, owner Ali's Little Hands Learning Center, received a similar response from her clientele.
“There's been overwhelming support from the parents,” Feicht said. “It's a little bit different — social distancing makes it harder for employees to do jobs.”
Feicht enacted measures similar to the ones observed at the YMCA.
The facility reopened May 18 and it has since seen a return of about 40 percent of its client base.While the county was in the red phase, Feicht was able to work with essential workers by providing baby-sitting services. She said that wasn't a normal service for her company, but it was something they decided to offer to meet the changing times.“So, we helped out where we could,” Feicht said.But not all child care facilities are rebounding so quickly.In Saxonburg, Small Impressions Childcare has been around for 15 years. Before the pandemic, it had 74 children attending day care, according to manager Amy Vargo. It reopened its two day care facilities, including one in Sarver, on Monday. So far, it has only drawn about 22 children, Vargo said.“We'll get a few more, but nothing compared to what it was before,” Vargo said. “It's a huge income loss. It's just been a huge hit.”For now, she said, they'll wait it out to see if things return to normal. She said the day care opened after consulting with parents and workers to see what the demand was for its services and how comfortable workers were with returning.The day care center originally planned to open two weeks ago, but after testing the waters decided the demand wasn't high enough yet because many parents were still at home. At the time, she said, there would only have been about 10 children who needed the center's services.The precautions being taken include frequent sanitizing, barring parents from entering the building and keeping children in separate pods, according to Miller.But they're not emphasizing one precaution: the use of masks.“Parents and staff agreed that we didn't need to wear masks,” Vargo said. “So, we decided that it's not necessary.”Melissa Colajezzi, of Saxonburg, decided to wear a mask Thursday afternoon when she came to pick up her 5-year-old daughter, Lillianna Kay.“It's great to be able to bring her back here again,” Colajezzi said.Several minutes later, Chad Danik drove up to the day care facility in a black pickup truck to pick up his 3-year-old son, Chase.“We both really missed this place,” Danik said. “He's always sad to leave, but at least now he knows we'll be back.”
