Since 2020, families have been compliant in quarantining their young children for 10 days at a time due to exposure to covid-19. When the pandemic started, it was imperative that we all follow this guidance to keep everyone safe from harm. In the last two years, while the percentage of positive cases in children have gone up, we have also been able to see that children are in fact handling the virus with the same resilience we see them fight viruses like the flu and RSV. In fact, as a provider for over 12 years I have seen RSV cause much more harm in children than covid.

As a childcare provider, we have stayed the course in all emergency regulations and policies even while we watch families fall apart. Just in this 2021-2022 school year, we have some families that have had to take more than 40 days off from work due to a classroom exposure that led to their child needing to quarantine. In the same token, not once has a child tested positive during their 10-day quarantine. We are following this guidance blindly because our licenses are at risk, otherwise. Yet, we know this is no longer necessary or sustainable for anyone.

We have watched this policy put families into very difficult positions. Now, after a 10-day stint at home with a healthy child, no one has the time off to keep their actual sick child home. Parents should be able to keep their unwell or under the weather children at home, but instead they are afraid of jeopardizing their jobs for more time off so they send in their child who may need to be home resting. Families have no more time off to take a vacation and recoup together. We are putting families into situations that lead to parents fighting with each other about whose turn it is to take off from work and adding a burden of stress to their lives by randomly having to tell them without notice that their child cannot be in care for 10 days. This type of stressful household is not what is best for a child. More importantly, we are doing exactly what we know is detrimental to a child’s well-being. We already know that stability, structure and consistency play a huge role in a child’s healthy development. Yet, we are still saying that it’s more important that we continue to quarantine due to a known exposure than for their daily routine to be kept steady. Do you think anyone is calling a family after they get off a plane or out of a movie or out of the grocery store to say, hey- someone had covid please stay home for 10 days? Why do we have to continue to be the ones charging parents for QUALITY CARE and also being the only ones still out there following a strict quarantine rule for healthy children. School districts are no longer quarantining due to exposure at school, and they are no longer masked and most children aren’t vaccinated so why in the world are we doing this to the most fragile population? The children who need the most consistency are the ones getting the least. There isn’t funding for ECE, yet you are putting us all at risk of closing our doors because families will find other care. Without quality programs out there, the entire economic system has the potential to fail. Families are no longer able to tell their employers that they have to work from home or miss a call because their child is home. And children shouldn’t be placed in front of the tv or ipad for hours on end because their parents can’t send them to preschool.

The childcare system was already very broken prior to covid and now it’s 10 times worse. Due to the ratios and importance of finding quality staff, it’s vital that providers can provide consistent and reliable childcare without the fear of violating policies. It’s also important that parents are not so burnt out from these constant quarantines that we are able to say we will be closing for a day due to too many staff members out with the stomach bug without them being angry. Childcare teachers and providers deserve the support of families when things like that happen and instead, we have a frustrated parent body and for good reason.

This guidance telling us that children must quarantine for 10 days (because we know they cannot wear a tight fitted mask for 5 full days for 8-10 hours), must end. This alone, has the ability take down our entire childcare system. We will continue to fight for this for not just our center, but for centers all over who are at risk of losing clientele and for children who deserve stable childcare. Children deserve to not have their routine broken unexpectedly time and time again. Anyone who works with young children (0-5 years old), knows the negative impact of doing this to a child. We cannot continue to watch our children not meet milestones and struggle with connection and routines because of a piece of guidance that no longer falls in line with the evidence and that negatively impacts the well-being of children and families.