Students returned to schools across the state last week for the first time since March, but younger children have been attending child care facilities for some time.
Arkansas never mandated that child care facilities close although providers could shut down if they wanted, according to Debbie Mays, who chairs the Arkansas Early Childhood Commission and owns and operates Bright Beginnings Preschool in Siloam Springs.
"Child care is the foundation of what keeps working class people working," Mays said. "If it wasn't there, we would really be in a sad shape. Many facilities closed and, sadly, some of them have closed for good but others have reopened."
Child care is a two-generation workforce issue because it supports the workforce of today and develops the workforce of tomorrow, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Parents rely on child care to work, but quality, affordable care is hard to come by, the organization's website, uschamberfoundation.org states. Because of the covid-19 pandemic, families are experiencing additional challenges and finding child care is nearly impossible, it states.
Mays chose to close her in-home preschool on March 17 and reopened on June 1 for a seven-week summer program. Students returned for the fall session on Aug. 17, she said.
She has reduced the number of children she serves to 10 and no longer allows parents to come inside the building, which has been an especially difficult change. Instead she meets parents at their cars and unloads students. She also checks children's temperatures when they arrive and has them wash their hands. Mays and her husband Randy wear masks, although children are not required to, and she has purchased a hospital grade mister to sanitize her facility every afternoon.
Friendship Pediatric Services, which provides care for children age six weeks to school age, never technically shut down, according to program administrator Renee Philpot.
Currently, the facility serves about 85 children but it typically serves close to 100, Philpot said. About 85 percent of the children served by the facility have a diagnosis of developmental delay or disability, she said. Friendship is also an Arkansas Better Chance (ABC) preschool provider for infants through preschool age children, she said.
The facility did shut down classroom services for six weeks but continued to provide therapies and weekly well-child checks, Philpot said. They also provided families with learning packets each week based on each child's needs. When classrooms were reopened, it was with limited hours and the facility no longer provides extended care because it would require mixing groups of children, which would cause problems if the need for contact tracing arose, she said.
Initially, Friendship Pediatric Services was impacted by attendance because many families chose to keep their children home, which caused the facility to lower staff hours, Philpot said. Now the child care provider is impacted by the overwhelming task of cleaning, keeping children separated and meeting all the new requirements while continuing to provide child care with an environment that provides a sense of safety, trust and learning, she said.
Before the pandemic, Friendship employed 65 people but currently employs 52, Philpot said. All but three employees were furloughed for the time the facility was closed and most applied for and received unemployment benefits. The facility lost several employees during the closure and is having trouble finding new staff members. For every position Philpot posts, she gets only one or two applicants. For some positions, she hasn't received any, she said.
Friendship has implemented a long list of safety protocols, including screening anyone entering the building for covid-19 symptoms and checking their temperatures, not allowing anyone past the front desk except for children, requiring all adults to wear masks, handwashing upon entering and multiple times a day, sanitizing shoes, hourly cleaning, sanitizing playground equipment between classes, placing children in groups that are not mixed with others, dividing classrooms, removing soft toys or items that could be contaminated from classrooms and requiring staff members working with babies and toddlers to wear smocks.
Philpot is concerned the long list of restrictions placed on classrooms are not developmentally appropriate for children and may have long-term effects, she said. For example, items that had to be removed until safer conditions warrant include the water table, sand table, soft toys, cloth items, play dough, paints, writing instruments and cozy nooks, she said.
"Removing all of these items will create developmental delays in fine motor, social/emotional skills and enhance developmental delays already present for many children," she said.
Mays also said the stringent requirements make it difficult to provide quality child care and may be causing undue trauma to children. She is so concerned about the impact restrictions may have on children that she dropped her ABC Preschool status and funding. Instead, Mays has sought out other streams of revenue so that she can continue to provide her services to families for free, including from federal sources such as the Child Care and Development Fund, Ottawa Tribe funding and CARES Act money available for caring for children of essential workers. She also received a $2,000 grant for cleaning and sanitation supplies, she said.
On Thursday, Bright Beginnings Preschool became a nationally accredited facility, Mays said.
Mays has found alternative ways to help keep her students safe. For example, each child has their own basket of play dough and art materials that they don't share, which reduced the possibility of spreading the virus, she said. Students spend as much time as possible outside, where adults don't have to wear masks. She explained that facial expressions are key to helping students learn about social interactions and understanding emotions. All of her student's parents are supportive of the measures she has taken, she said.
"When you are an advocate for children, you are an advocate for children every day. ... I cannot be a part of a program that cannot put children's needs first, you do what is right for kids regardless," she said.
Even with the additional funding sources, Mays said she has seen a significant decrease in income. Still the parade of cars that comes down her driveway each morning filled with bright young faces eager to come to school make it worthwhile, she said.
The majority of child care across the country is provided by small business owners like Mays, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Many closed due to health and safety concerns while others that opened are experiencing increased operational costs but greatly reduced revenue, its website states.
If a child does test positive for covid-19, the child care facility must consult the Arkansas Department of Health and it is likely the facility will be shut down for 14 days, Mays said. She would like to see CARES funding extended for emergency leave for child care employees, she said.
"Child care providers are essential workers, they have to have us or they can't go to work," she said.
So far, only 137 children in child care facilities in Arkansas have tested positive for covid-19, Mays said. One of her students had to quarantine for nearly a month over the summer because a family member tested positive, but none of her students have tested positive, she said.
Friendship Pediatrics has had no positive cases, Philpot said.
Mays said that some good things are coming out of the situation, including better communication between the Department of Human Services and providers through weekly Zoom meetings.
"I think everybody is doing the best we can and it's just a hard time for everybody," she said.
"Ultimately, we are all in this together and must keep the children's well-being as our top priority irregardless of what age they are or what stage of education they are in," Philpot said. "Children need to have predictability, structure, and social interaction. Without these things, we will raise a generation of citizens who have no impulse control and unable to effectively interact with others in the world. As an educator, my job is to keep children safe while providing them experiences that will prepare them for adulthood. Covid-19 has made us change our strategies and procedures but it has not changed our commitment to children. We cannot fear this, we have to embrace the change and grow from it."
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