Jill Schramm/MDN Employee Hunter Olson cleans while youngsters nap in ABC Child Care Center in Minot on Monday.
Little Raiders Daycare in Anamoose divided a room in its facility, increased its cleaning frequency and sent children outside to play more often this summer.
“We had to change our procedures,” director Carrie Hager said of the daycare’s operation since the coronavirus pandemic began. “We made the decision when school closed back in March to stay open – because we do have a lot of essential workers – but with, obviously, limited numbers of kids coming.”
Now going into fall, Little Raiders and other child-care operations across the state face continued challenges in safely keeping their doors open to working families as demand for their services rises.
Last week, the legislative Budget Section approved the Emergency Commission’s proposal to extend the Child Care Emergency Operating Grant program through December, adding another $12 million to the grant pool.
The program has distributed about $26.2 million from March 30 through July 31 to help almost 800 licensed and self-declared child-care providers remain open and caring for more than 17,000 children, according to the Department of Human Services. The money has been coming from federal CARES Act dollars allocated to North Dakota.
Jill Schramm/MDN John Colon, an employee at ABC Child Care Center, interacts with his young charges while wiping down furnishings after use in the daycare Monday.
“It’s helped us with staffing. It’s helped us with purchasing the supplies we need,” Hager said, citing the increased cost of cleaning and disinfecting products.
In Minot, ABC Child Care Center director Rachel Filkins said the grant money made it possible to keep staff employed.
“A lot of parents pulled out, so the grant money helped with covering their spots,” she said. “I still had to pay employees, and we weren’t getting that income. That kept us afloat for the summer while we were missing so many kids. It’s still helping because we are still down about 10% of our children.”
Lower staff-to-child ratios increase safety but limit the ability to get back to capacity, and the ABC Child Care also lost some staff members who were concerned about COVID-19 exposure. The center now is looking for two teachers to be able to open more spots to families on its waiting list. Filkins said the time it takes to process background checks pushes any start date for new employees out at least two months.
Meanwhile, ABC Child Care follows state recommendations regarding COVID-19. Current guidance for child-care providers includes limiting group sizes to no more than 15, providing 35 square feet of space per child, conducting daily child and staff health screenings and following cleaning and sanitizing procedures.
Despite the most diligent effort, there’s no guarantee that someone won’t unknowingly introduce the virus and trigger some degree of closure.
“That’s where the grant money will help the most continuing forward,” Filkins said. “If we do get a case, I still have to pay all my employees. That’s where that grant money is really going to help.”
Since the pandemic started, the North Dakota Department of Health has worked with about 60 daycares regarding virus cases, said Molly Howell, assistant director of disease control. The impact of a positive case varies depending on the number of close contacts within the facility. A close contact is someone within six feet for at least 15 consecutive minutes. Operational changes that limit the number of contacts reduces the potential impact if an infection is discovered.
“The vast majority of the time, it’s just one room – wherever the case was located,” Howell said.
Kay Larson, team lead with Child Care Aware of North Dakota, said the agency knows of only a small number of daycares in the state that have had to close temporarily due to COVID-19 infection. A Minot daycare has been among those impacted.
An entire daycare might close only a few days to allow health officials to do contract tracing, or longer if there are many close contacts needing to quarantine for 14 days.
Families affected when COVID-19 touches their daycares receive a letter from the state letting them know how to respond, including whether to test and how long to quarantine a child. Identification as a close contact doesn’t mean a child will become ill, but parents are given information on signs to watch for, Larson said.
“The best a program can do is keep the kids with the same staff in the same space as much as possible. That’s hard with some of our centers,” Larson said.
However, Howell said childcare providers overall are coping under the health department’s new operational recommendations.
“They seem to be managing it well,” she said.
- Jill Schramm/MDN John Colon, an employee at ABC Child Care Center, interacts with his young charges while wiping down furnishings after use in the daycare Monday.
- Jill Schramm/MDN Employee Hunter Olson cleans while youngsters nap in ABC Child Care Center in Minot on Monday.
- Kim Fundingsland/MDN An active shooter training exercise was conducted at the Minot Municipal Airport in conjunction with the Minot Police Department Monday morning. Airport staff and police participated in a scenario that included two gunmen inside the airport terminal. Deanna Stoddard, Airport Operations Manager, said the exercise was “not a police training drill, but an important opportunity for everyone employed at the Minot International Airport to learn how to properly react in case an active shooter is in our facility.”