Many child care centers in Southwest Florida are requiring children to wear masks and have adopted other restrictions to prevent shutdowns because ofCOVID-19.
Data for the month of August shownine centers shut down temporarily out of 353 centers in the four-county region under the oversight of the Early Learning Coalition of Southwest Florida. The counties are Lee, Collier, Hendry and Glades.
The nonprofit coalition provides guidance and program development to child care centers, including to voluntary prekindergarten programs,and secures funding and oversees accountabilitybased on state regulations.
In addition, 65 classrooms within centers in the four counties were quarantined in August to control the spread of COVID-19.
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Temporarily closing classrooms after cases are found has become a more common practice compared to a year ago when entire centers would close, said Susan Block, chief executive officer of the Southwest Florida coalition.
“We have gotten a little more sophisticated and are not shutting down,” she said.
What’s critical is preventing classrooms from interacting or switching rooms during the day, said Leona Adkins, interim chief quality and programs officer with the coalition. That’s outlined in guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“If the center does not follow the guidelines and children switch classrooms throughout the day, they would need to close the whole center,” Adkins said.
Limiting quarantines to classrooms means removing a symptomatic child promptly from the classroom, detailed contact tracing and consulting with county health departments on what measures to take, Block said.
“Our child care centers and (voluntary prekindergarten programs) are faced with a lot of quarantine decisions,” she said.
The delta variant is infecting and causing more serious illness among children, whichhas prompted physicians to urge mask wearing among children and for families to vaccinate everyone in their households who are eligible for the shots.
Officials at Golisano Children’s Hospital, which serves children in the region, had a dozen or more children hospitalized with the virus recently.The NCH Healthcare System in Collier has had up to three children hospitalized.
NCH reported 97 children tested positive for COVID-19 during the second week in mid-August after the start of school.
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“We are seeing programs struggle and a handful of programs have closed,” Block said.
So far, 14 centers in the four-county region have closed permanently, according to the early learning coalition.
The challenge of hiring and retainingteachers in traditionally low-paying positions has an added burden of exposure risk to COVID-19. That’s meant some teachers have quit for other types of jobs.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and it is the most challenging I have ever seen,” said Heather Singleton, chief executive officer of Child’s Path, which has four child care centers in Collier.
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Child’s Path doesn’t require staff to get vaccinated, which would have made retention even more difficult, Singleton said. Most of her employees have gotten vaccinated on their own.
She’soffered sign-on bonuses for new hires, provided raises to existing staff and pays for training requirements to keep employees.
“It is a very competitive environment,” she said.
What about masks?
Roughly 90% of the child care centers in Southwest Florida are privately operated, Block said.
That means it is up to the centers’ discretion to require children to wear masks or not, although the CDC recommends children 2and older wear them indoors.
The remaining 10% of centers in Southwest Florida are at school sites.
A statewide mask ban in public schools that was struck down last month by a Leon County circuit judge is on appeal.
Child care centers in Southwest Florida are mixed in their mask policies, according to a recent poll the early learning coalition conducted with 42 centers responding.
The results show 19 centers have children wearing masks while 23 are not; teachers are required in 25 centers to wear masks and not in 17 centers.
Child’s Path in Collier is in an unusual spot; it operates two centers in private locations and it runs two centers at Golden Gate High School and Immokalee High School.
The two school-based sites are for children of students in the Teenagers as Parents Program in the school district and are for children of school district employees.
Both school-based sites are subject to district policies where children are not required to wear masks or have their temperatures checked when they arrive, according to Child’s Path website.
At the two private centers, located 3144 Santa Barbara Blvd. and 777 Mooring Line Drive inside of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, children four and older wear masks, the same as teachers, Singleton said.
Temperatures are taken of all the children at the private centers when they arrive in the morning, Singleton said. The combined enrollment at the two private locations is 135 children.
“If their temperature is above 99.5, they are excluded from class,” she said, adding that parents are not allowed to leave until their children have passed screening.
If children develop symptoms during the day, they are removed from their class to the office until the parents or guardians can pick up the children.
The mask policy went into effect last year and parents have accepted it, she said,
“Kids are very resilient, they have adapted to it,” Singleton said. “It has not impeded their learning.”
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At the privately-operated Heights Center/Early Learning, located at 15570 Hagie Drive south of Fort Myers, masks are required for kids three and older and for teachers, said Blanca Acosta, the director. The center’s total enrollment is 73 kids aged one month to five years old.
“I have no issues with my parents,” Acosta said. “For the kids it started this year. They are getting used to the routine.”
Temperatures are taken before the children walk in the building and parents must stay until their children are cleared to go inside, Acosta said.
A mask requirement for children won’t work at Step-by-Step Child Care Center at 3596 Evans Ave. in central Fort Myers, said Stefani Underwood, the director and owner. She is licensed for 72 kids.
“We did try it with four year olds,” she said. “I had parents tell me I cannot make them so I had to make a decision.”
If parents pull their kids out of her center over masks, on top of when parents don’t pay when their kids are in quarantine if exposed to COVID-19, she would be hard-pressed to stay open. Her enrollment was down to 40 children recently.
“It’s a huge financial strain,” Underwood said.
How common are quarantines?
Childs Path in Collier closed three classes in the last two weeks in August to quarantine that impacted 20 children, Singleton, the CEO, said. That’s out of 17 classes combined at all four locations.
Her staff contacts a registered nurse, Danna Breeden, at the health department in Collier who is available to all centers about what steps to take with quarantining. It’s based on how many kids have symptoms and length of contact between them.
“We always erron the side of caution,” Singleton said. “We will close a class rather than gamble with the children’s health.”
The health department makes recommendations but it is up to the center to implement them, Kristine Hollingsworth, spokeswoman for department, said in an email.
“The childcare center makes decisions to close classrooms based upon several factors including the number of symptomatic children, identified close contacts and whether there are enough employees to staff the facility,” she said.
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The delta variant and how contagious it has been is far worse than what Child’s Path experienced during last year’s pandemic, Singleton said.
“We did not see the numbers of children sick last year,” she said.
Parents have been instructed to have a backup plan in case their child’s class is closed for quarantine.
“I’m sure parents have had to pivot and it’s frustrating,” she said.“Once we explain, they typically are very understanding.”
At Step-by-Step in Fort Myers, working parents are in a crisis when a quarantine is necessary, whether it is at her center or at a school, Underwood said.
Recently she faced a mother who dropped off a child who is not enrolled in her center but was quarantined from a public school.
The mother was in a bind with her job and couldn’t leave her school-aged child at home alone.
“She had to come pick up her kid,” she said. “The parents can be desperate.”
Underwood recently had to quarantine her 4-year-old class with 20 kids.
It would be easier to close the center entirely for a quarantine but that would put her out of business and she’s got 10 employees.
Underwood did close her center last May when she got COVID-19 because she had close contact with the children. She almost lost the business then and knows it could still happen.
“I feel scared like everybody else,” she said.
