COVID Health & safety plan

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Pick Up & Drop Off 

· Pick up & drop off will continue to happen outdoors under the porch. 

· All adults dropping off or picking up will need to wear a face covering.

· Families will continue to drop off at their scheduled time to increase social distancing between parents and to allow time for health checks/hand washing.  Please do your best to arrive at your scheduled time. If you are late, please wait at least 2 minutes from the time you see the last parent leave until you come to the door. This gives us enough time to finish washing the child’s hands before then coming to greet you. 

· Please remember to keep socially distanced from Hector or Jessica during drop off whenever possible.

· The new rules require hand washing immediately upon entering the building and if that can’t happen children must use hand sanitizer. It must be kept out of reach of children, so we have a dispenser by the door high on the wall, under the parent board. Please help your child get sanitizer on their hands when you first arrive to speed up our drop off process.  

Daily Health Check 

· Health checks will only be recorded as pass/fail to ensure privacy. Each child’s temperature will be checked with our touchless thermometer each morning before they will be allowed to come inside. 

· Required health check questions will be asked when you drop off your child(ren) and must be answered daily. 

o Have your children or anyone in your household been exposed to a person with a positive or presumptive case of COVID-19 in the past 14 days?  

o Is your child or anyone in your household had an unusual cough, shortness of breath or fever? “Unusual cough” means something not normal for your child (e.g., allergies, asthma). 

o Does your child have symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting, headache, sore throat or rash? 

·  I know that in the past I have been fairly flexible with families when children had normal colds and things going on, but unfortunately with the risk of COVID right now we are going to be extremely strict on enforcing this. It is necessary for the protection of everyone!

· Staff will always be wearing a face covering when conducting health checks. 

Family Engagement 

· All families were informed of the new COVID-19 rules and how operation of our program would be changing via e-mail. This same information will be shared with any newly enrolled families via e-mail at the time of enrollment. 

· Per the new rules, we are required to conduct any normal in-person activities, such as new parent-teacher conferences, virtually or over the phone. As we begin this new process of becoming a Preschool, we are will be planning parent-teacher conferences for January as well as in the spring for all our preschool children.  

· Parents can enter the facility if they have a health or safety concern, but otherwise will not be allowed inside. 

· If a parent or care giver needs to enter the facility to breastfeed or help with special feeding needs for their child, they will be provided with a private area away from the rest of the children to do so that will be sanitized in between uses. 

· Tours for potential new families will only be conducted via Zoom. 

Group Size 

· We are operating as one stable group of 16 children. All staff members working in the facility are part of the same stable group as well. 

· We will remain as a stable group of 16 as long as Polk County remains in Phase 1 or 2. If we get rolled back to Baseline, like we were from March-May, we have to go back to stable groups of 10 that can’t interact with each other. Since the layout of our space makes having two separate stable groups incredibly challenging, thus why we haven’t done it, I am hoping we avoid this potential headache!  

PPE for Adults & Kids 

· All staff, visitors, or any adult who enters the childcare space is required to wear a face covering or face shield.  

· All children who are kindergarten age or order is required to wear a face covering or face shield, unless they have a doctor’s note excluding them. 

· Adults and children kindergarten age or older are required to wear face coverings or face shields outside when 6 ft of distance can’t be maintained, unless they have a doctor’s note excluding them. 

· Children cannot be disciplined for the inability to wear a mask or face shield and we will be doing our best to help the kids with this requirement.

· Children ages 2-5 years old can wear a mask if their parents want them to do so, but it must properly fit their face and they must be able to remove it without assistance. 

o Parents would also need to provide masks for their children. If this is something you’re interested in, please let me know. 

· Children under the age of 2 will never be wearing a face mask or face shield. 

· A clean face covering will be worn by all staff and children daily. 

· When feeding infants, adults will wear a long sleeve shirt during each feeding to ensure there is always a clean outer layer between the teacher and the infant. The same shirt will be used for each feeding and will be laundered daily.  

· If a child or staffs clothing become soiled by bodily fluids, they will be changed immediately. 

Daily Activities 

· No field trips are permitted unless they are conducted fully outdoors, and no transportation is provided. 

· Nap mats are placed at least 3 feet apart and children are sleeping head/toe to increase distance as much as possible. 

o This does not apply to siblings, who will be placed next to each other during nap time to help increase space for other children. 

· Limit sharing materials and toys between children during an activity. If sharing occurs, children must wash their hands or use hand sanitizer at the end of the activity. 

o Given that the children are using shared materials all day long, we will be increasing our hand washing significantly. 

o Every child currently has their own pencil box of art supplies so that we are not sharing crayons or markers. 

o Every child also has their own pencil box with their own container of playdough and playdough toys so that we can easily conduct this activity without much cross contamination between kids. 

· Activities where social distancing can’t be maintained will be eliminated or modified accordingly. 

· We have discontinued our morning teeth brushing due to COVID. If we are able to add this back into our routine in the future, I will let you know. 

· All materials and surfaces inside the classroom are being disinfected daily. High touch points are being sanitized a minimum of 3 times a day.

Handwashing & General Hygiene 

·  Children will be washing their hands frequently throughout the day. We wash hands upon entering of the building each morning, before/after each meal, after using the toilet or having their diaper changed, after coming insider from outdoor play and after an activity when shared materials were used. 

o Staff wash their hands during all the same times, plus before preparing or serving food, after helping a child blow their nose.

o When handwashing can’t occur easily, such as when we are outside, hand sanitizer will be used. 

· Hand sanitizer will always be stored out of reach from the children. 

Food & Nutrition 

· Children will not be allowed to serve themselves during mealtime. Only staff will serve children during meals. 

· Staff will closely supervise children during mealtime to ensure they aren’t sharing or touching each other’s food. 

Cleaning & Building Maintenance 

· We will be sanitizing and disinfecting daily per our cleaning chart provided by the Early Learning Division. 

o If you would like to see a copy of this, I am happy to send it to you. 

Responding to Possible & Confirmed Cases of COVID-19 

· Decisions about needing to close the facility due to COVID-19 exposure will be made in conjunction with the Early Learning Division and the Oregon Health Authority. 

· The Office of Child Care and the Oregon Health Authority will be notified if anyone who has entered the childcare facility tests positive for COVID-19. 

· Staff and children must be excluded as follows: 

o Had an illness with fever, unusual cough or shortness of breath in the last 10 days. 

o Child or staff must stay away from the facility for 10 days after onset of symptoms and 72 hours after both fever/ cough resolve, without the use of fever reducing medication. 

· 10 days applies if you receive a positive test or does not get tested. If COVID test is negative, may return 48 hours after resolution of cough and fever without the use of fever reducing medication.

o If the child or staff with symptoms of COVID and is advised by  

medical professional they can return to care (e.g., diagnosed with  

something else and given antibiotics), they are allowed to return to care.

o Documentation from the medical professional is required and the person must be fever free for at least 72 hours. 

o If adult or child has been exposed to someone with a current presumptive or positive COVID case 

§ Exposure is defined as an individual who has close contact (less than 6 ft) for longer than 15 minutes with a COVID case. 

§ Presumptive case is defined as a person who was exposed to a positive COVID case and developed symptoms. 

§ Anyone exposed much quarantine for 14 days. Start counting 14 days from the last time they had contact with the person with the  

presumptive or positive COVID case. 

o If a child or staff member has symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting, headache, sore throat or rash, they must be excluded and advised to consult a medical professional. 

§ If seen by a medical professional and is cleared, they can remain in or return to the program following the documented direction of the  

medical professional. 

§ If not seen by a medical professional, they may return 72 hours after resolution of symptoms. 

· If our program has a confirmed case of COVID, we must: 

o Notify the local public health authority and the Office of Child Care. 

o Communicate with all families and other individuals who have been in the facility in the past 14 days. 

o Ensure all children and staff in the stable cohort, and anyone who came in contact with the group, do not come to the program and are informed about the need to be quarantined at home for 14 days. 

Transportation 

· We will not be providing transportation of any kind during the COVID-19 pandemic and while emergency childcare rules remain in place. 

Professional Development 

·  All staff will continue to meet all training requirements needed, including first aid & CPR.

· Staff will be provided access to online training that meets their current needs and individual professional development plans. 

· All staff will review Health & Safety Guidelines for Child Care and Early Education Operating During COVID-19, as well as any updates to the guidance that occurs, prior to its implementation. New staff members will review this information as part of their new employee orientation. 

COVID-19 Health & Safety Plan 

·  Each childcare facility must continue to monitor its “COVID-19 Health and Safety Plan” throughout the year and update as needed. All revisions must be shared with all families and staff and posted in an easily visible area.