How Hampton Roads day cares have weathered the COVID-19 storm

In a pre-pandemic world at LeaRN Lily Child Development Center in Williamsburg, the LEGO block that went into little Sally or Ben’s mouth during playtime used to be put into the green bucket once they were done with it, and at the end of the day, the bucket full of toys would be bleached.

Now, the bucket is sanitized every hour or two. And teachers wipe little hands as soon as they see children put them to their mouths. Kids even have their own personal play space.

As pressure mounts for public school districts to figure out the safest ways to reopen their doors this fall, tactics to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus have been deployed in the Virginia day cares deemed essential for our youngest population.

Day care owners and directors that chose to remain open have had to alter their daily operations — implementing more rigorous sanitization and strictly limiting who enters the facility — while worrying about staying afloat financially as parents pull their kids out of programs.

“I was scared; I thought I was going to lose my business,” said Judy Bradby, a registered nurse who runs LeaRN Lily, which accepts children with special medical needs.

She went from having 52 kids in February to 22 in April, losing 75% of her income in two months, mostly because parents lost their jobs and pulled their kids out. She had to reduce her staff’s hours, and her caterer closed.

At the same time, she had to implement tougher cleaning and social distancing regulations from the state and federal government, and modify according to whatever phase Virginia was in.

“I completely understand why (the restrictions) are in place, and I don’t disagree at all with whatever I’m handed, but it makes life very difficult,” she said. “We have to go by what the governor says, then what the state rules are for child care, then we have to do the whole CDC health department thing — we’re kind of flooded with rules and regulations.”

As of July 14, 2,261 of Virginia’s more than 6,000 child care centers had closed, the Virginia Mercury reported. Of those, only 664 had contacted the social services department with a reopening date.

A new cleaning routine

Parents — comprising essential workers like firefighters, doctors and military personnel — aren’t allowed past the lobby of the building, where LeaRN Lily has called home for four years.

Kids’ temperatures are taken at the door and recorded, and those with a fever can return within 48 hours, a change from the required 24 hours before the pandemic. Hands are washed every hour, and a staff member is always on sanitization duty, wiping doorknobs and toilet handles.

“If we see them doing something like putting their hand in their mouth, we run in with wipes and hand sanitizer,” Bradby said.

While information on COVID-19 and children is limited, the Centers for Disease Control said that kids don’t appear to be at a higher risk of catching the virus than adults. In Virginia, children aged 0 to 9 make up 3.5% of positive cases so far, according to the state health department.

Now in mid-July, Bradby, her staff and the children pretty much have the new rules down, and things are looking up. Her kid count is up to 44, she found a caterer in nearby Food for Thought — a Williamsburg restaurant that had to close its dining room on the governor’s orders — and she’s contracted with a company to do a deep clean once a week, in addition to the everyday cleaning done by her staff.

So far, Bradby hasn’t recorded any illness among her kids and staff members — no COVID-19, no colds, nothing.

The same goes for the five Creative Critters Learning Centers in Williamsburg, New Kent and West Point, and for Parkdale Private School & Daycare in Norfolk, which also remained open to serve essential workers and their children.

At Creative Critters, parents must wear masks and can stay in the center up to 10 minutes. They and their children must wash their hands as soon as they arrive, and the staff tries to space out the kids as best they can during table activities.

But caring for children as young as 6 weeks and as old as 5 years means social distancing is virtually impossible, except at mealtimes and nap times. Young children just don’t understand why they need to stay apart from one another and the staff.

“We’re still hugging our kids, and picking them up when they need to be picked up. We can’t live in a bubble,” Creative Critters owner Kathy Gray said.

At Parkdale, children over 3 years old and parents are required to wear masks, and director Kim Tougas has put paint on the floor so the kids stay 6 feet apart when standing in line.

“For the most part, they seem to be handling it really well,” Tougas said. “Obviously, you’re not giving them numbers, you’re just letting them know there’s a virus out there that’s bad and we need to keep everyone safe, and that’s why they’re wearing their masks and washing their hands more and keeping things more clean.”

Both Bradby and Gray say they won’t go back to pre-pandemic cleaning routines, since what they’re doing now seems to work to keep illness out. They also recognize that their facilities and small class sizes allow them to more easily implement rigorous cleaning and spacing regulations than a typical public school.

“I think logistically, it’s a nightmare for whoever is going to have to figure this out (for schools),” Bradby said.

Financial hits

At Creative Critters, Gray’s clientele also shrank by 75% at the beginning of the pandemic, but between the generosity of parents continuing to pay half of their tuition even when their kids were out, the federal PPP loan she was granted and a smart savings plan, Gray didn’t have to lay off any staff. Now 99% of her clients are back.

Emily Griffey, from Voices for Virginia’s Children, a youth advocacy group, said many day cares closed because of a combination of health and financial fears as parents pulled their kids out. And the ones that have remained open have taken a financial hit, because they’re working on such slim margins.

Between April and June, the state Department of Social Services, which regulates child-care facilities, allowed centers to continue receiving payments for children with financial assistance if they closed because of health reasons. But on July 1, those payments went away, Griffey said.

A recent survey of 1,000 parents of 3- to 5-year-olds by the National Institute for Early Education Research at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education found that prior to the pandemic, 61% of children attended a preschool classroom, and nearly three-quarters of them saw their programs closed as a result of the pandemic, with more than 90% of the closures happening in March.

Of the 26% of children whose programs remained open, 45% stopped attending, although the survey didn’t ask parents why.

For children whose preschool programs closed, the majority of their parents said the kids participated less than once a week in each of 10 learning activities, including reading, physical exercise and singing or listening to music.

Government help

Griffey is keeping an eye on the $50 billion proposal introduced in May and cosponsored by U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Newport News, for a child-care stabilization fund as part of Congress’ next coronavirus stimulus package. The grants would help cover operating expenses and staff salaries as well as prioritize underserved populations.

She’s also asking for some guidance from the state as to what a child-care provider must do if a child or staff member tests positive for COVID-19. She’s heard anecdotally from providers who say the guidance has been inconsistent from one local health department to another.

But more broadly, she’s asking state lawmakers — who are convening Aug. 18 to amend the two-year budget that was drastically altered by the economic impact of the pandemic — to better support early childhood education providers and include them in the larger conversation about safety and access to education during the pandemic.

“To me, that is sort of the key element of the system,” she said. “We have to look at these educators and caregivers in the same light in what they are providing and what they need for protection.”

Staff writer Moss Brennan contributed reporting.

Marie Albiges, 757-247-4962, malbiges@dailypress.com

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