Colorado Recommends Day Care Centers Stay Open During Coronavirus
DENVER (CBS4) - As state officials issue new restricted guidelines for restaurants, bars and a number of other public establishments, the recommendation for child care providers is to try and remain open.
With guidance from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Colorado Department of Human Services, a letter issued to child care providers and preschools over the weekend urged them not to take their cue from K thru 12 schools or colleges. They recommended the centers keep their doors open.
The notice left many providers and parents confused about the best path forward.
"I definitely had a lot of ambivalence today deciding whether to take her or not," one parent said about her 2-year-old daughter.
The letter to child care providers from DHS says there are a number of reasons for their recommendation. The first being that the day care facilities and preschools are typically smaller than K-12 or college campus, and secondly, they say continuing to offer child care helps to support a critical workforce, including first responders and medical professionals.
Emily Bustos is the CEO of Denver's Early Childhood Council.
"We are getting a lot of questions from providers about what they should do with this guidance which is sort of contradictory," she said.
Bustos says child care providers understand the critical need for their services, but at the same time they are now required to follow increased public health regulations which is causing new challenges.
"In some cases, they are running out of health and safety supplies, disinfecting supplies, gloves so they are very concerned about being able to meet those mandates, but at the same time they are being told to stay open," Bustos said.
Some facilities have made the difficult decision based on their own presumptive positive cases, while others remain open.
Parents of at least one child care facility in Westminster say despite having a presumptive positive case of COVID-19, the CDPHE is recommending they stay open and they will follow those guidelines.
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A number of facilities that are without presumptive positive cases are keeping their doors open and doing everything they can to protect their staff and families they serve.
Bustos says it's now become a family-by-family decision on whether to let their child attend.
"I can see from their perspective," one parent said. "If we all have to stop working we are in a lot of trouble."
In the same letter, the DHS says facilities choosing to close must notify them, and those seeing lower attendance should consider helping families of emergency personnel. They are not however issuing any waivers for increased capacity.
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