It is the weekend before children head back to school from winter break and once again early childhood educators and admin are scrambling to support their teachers, families, and all children ages 0-4 who are returning to childcare this week. Covid-19 test kits have been difficult to find either to purchase or in free test drops. The Vermont Department of Heath did many K-12 specific, free testing drops over the past week. Who is missing from this population of children? The most vulnerable students, children ages 0-4 who are still left without a vaccine and many of whom are too young to mask. A parent and local farmer Kendra Dias expressed their frustration saying “Any family that is even mildly COVID conscious and has kids under 5 are perpetually living in 2020. The more resources the rest of society gets, the more difficult it becomes to keep our most vulnerable safe, it seems. With vaccines and testing so many have just forgone masking and distancing- and even those strategies aren't available for our youngest. It's frustrating to see everyone move on without you- to forget about you completely."

We have heard from many frustrated parents like Kendra as well as administrators, and educators all calling for action on message boards, via email, and in person. Billie Slade, director of Wonder in the Woods in Dummerston, VT summed up this frustration well when she said: “It’s great that school agers are being given this opportunity but once again our younger children are left out of the equation! These children are even more vulnerable because they aren’t eligible to be vaccinated and some are too young to mask. Child care programs are having to foot the bill for tests, if they can even find them. The ripple effects are far reaching and can undermine our state infrastructure if child care programs need to close due to Covid, which means parents can’t work. It seems like providing tests would be a good investment in preventing that problem and not doing so is short sighted. Once again the inequities are glaring and unfair and need addressing!”

As a collective, we are demanding that the state act now to protect one of our most vulnerable populations and the essential persons who care for them.