COVID-19 Precautions & Protocols for September 2020 Reopening
We will be holding school mostly outside, weather permitting, at least for the beginning of the year.
All adults will wear masks. Children are required to wear masks indoors as of September 21, 2020. The Office of Early Childhood is now requiring all children age 3 and up to wear masks when indoors. Click here to read the latest regulations. We recommend getting your child comfortable with masks as it gets closer to the start of school. Wear masks around the house, allow your child to play with them and show him or her that you are the person under the mask. Make the masks feel normal and ordinary.
We will monitor handwashing, ensuring that all children will wash their hands for 20 seconds. We will have children wash their hands every thirty minutes when we are in the classroom. Adults will practice safe handwashing as well and will wash hands frequently.
We will be doing dropoff and pickup outside, weather permitting. There will be a designated teacher greeting each family in the morning. Dropoff and pickup will be limited to one person. Every child and dropping off adult will have temperatures taken upon entry. I will provide more information about temperatures and illness in our COVD-19 policies that you will receive soon. You will also receive more detailed information about dropoff and pickup procedures. When indoors, the dropoff and pickup will take place in the cubby space, one family allowed at a time. No parents/grandparents/babysitters or visitors will be allowed to enter the school unless it is an emergency. This is not typical practice for us, and we will change this rule only when it is safe to do so.
Classroom windows will be open for air circulation (in the winter they will be opened for a few minutes every couple of hours). Air Filters will run for eight hours a day.
No toys or other items from home will be allowed (only extra clothes in cubbies). We will not be having stuffed animals in the classroom. We will have sand play but will spray it after each child uses it. Water play will be in individual buckets and play-dough as well. All classroom toys/materials will be cleaned and sanitized daily. We will be following our regular cleaning & sanitizing protocols PLUS we will be cleaning high touch surfaces during the day, toys after use, cots and cubbies daily. All surfaces will be cleaned at the end of the day. We will be using CDC approved products.
We will still ask families to sign up to send in snack, but no homemade items will be allowed. We will accept prepackaged items and whole fruits and vegetables that the staff will cut up. Children will not be self-serving snack family style for now and will also not pour water from pitchers. Teachers will give each child his or her snack. We will be asking each child to have a water bottle every day, clearly labeled with his or her name. Water fountains will be shut off for the time being. Cooking will not be a part of our curriculum for the duration of the pandemic.
We will not have real birthday candles to blow out for your child’s birthday, but we will still sing and celebrate.
Bethesda will provide cot sheets and designated rest time bags for those children staying until 3:00 p.m. We will not be giving out stuffed animals or pillows. If your child needs these items to rest, please provide one that can be permanently left in his or her own rest bag.
All staff will be trained regarding COVID, cleaning & sanitizing.
Rules and procedures will be very strict, and we will loosen them during the year if and when it is allowed. We will follow recommendations from the CDC, the Office of Early Childhood and other centers that have remained open during the pandemic.
