Atlanta

Day care owners feel encouraged as state releases new round of COVID-19 safety guidelines

By Matt Johnson, WSB-TV
By Matt Johnson, WSB-TV

ATLANTA — Georgia, along with the rest of the country, continues fighting two battles: the coronavirus and rebuilding the economy.

Caught in the middle of everything are the children.

How can mothers, fathers and grandparents go to work and be assured the children are learning in a safe environment?

The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning released more than 30 pages of guidelines on how day cares should handle the coronavirus and keep children safe.

[READ THE GUIDELINES HERE]

“We definitely don’t feel like we’re out of the woods; this has been a real challenging season,” said day care owner Frank Bealer. “It’s difficult financially with teachers and staffing and keeping those low ratios. But at the end of the day, that’s what’s best for families.”

Bealer is the CEO of Phase Family Center in Alpharetta. He said the new guidebook released Wednesday by DECAL is critical for his staff.

It tells them step by step what to do in case children or teachers test positive for COVID-19.

“It’s actually been some clarity on if this issue arises, here’s the very clear steps,” Bealer said.

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The guide tells day cares: "The entire facility does not need to be closed when a positive case is identified."

It tells child care providers that infected staff and children need to be quarantined but also states: "All close contacts must be excluded from the facility until 14 days after last contact with case (usually last day the case attended)."

It lays out how to report a positive case and how to assess a probable case.

At Phase Family Center, it keeps children in color-coded areas in case of a positive test.

“If we have any kind of concern, it really exposes one or two classes together. We don’t have to worry about the whole school being shut down or the whole school being exposed,” Bealer said.

The guide also helps to make sure staff has information before waiting for a call from a health department.

“We know local health departments are overwhelmed right now with phone calls with what to do with many different scenarios,” said DECAL Commissioner Amy Jacobs.

She told Channel 2′s Matt Johnson that it’s important to keep child care providers informed even though the virus has only affected a fraction of them.

The state conducts virtual inspections now, and COVID-19 measures are part of it.

“The last time we checked, it was less than 2% of all programs that had any type of positive case,” Jacobs said.

Sharon Foster said part of owning Bells Ferry Learning Center in Cobb County is preparing for the worst.

“It’s probably inevitable that at some point, someone will test positive in our facility,” Foster said.

But so far, the worst hasn't happened.

“To go the first five months without it, I’m very proud of my team and what a great job they’ve done,” Foster said.

She told Johnson that many child care centers are still battling low enrollment because of skepticism from parents.

“Parents are very skeptical about bringing their child into group situation,” Foster said.

The hope is that more parents turn to day cares and feel good about it as more school districts keep their campuses closed.

“I feel like what we’ve been doing has been working so far,” Foster said.

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Cox Media Group

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