Somerville Day Care Helps Working Parents Amid Coronavirus
SOMERVILLE, NJ — While essential families are headed to work, Ellie’s Academy in Somerville is standing by to help care for their children during the new coronavirus outbreak.
"We received our approval to remain open to serve essential families. However, because of this modification, we’re suffering hard, because as any business, we cannot survive on just a handful of customers," said Tirusha Dave, owner of Ellie’s Academy at 250 Route 202 in Somerville. "I have seen such an out-pour of support for other local businesses, and that has been so uplifting. But I feel that early educators have become the 'forgotten heroes' during this pandemic."
The child care center run by Dave and her husband Prashanth Gorantala is family-owned and has been in business for just over a year. Dave has 16 years of childcare experience.
As one of the few child care centers allowed to stay open Ellie’s Academy must follow even more stringent guidelines such as daily temperature checks of teacher, parents and children; and parents can no longer drop off children in the classroom, instead a staff member meets them at the front door.
Dave has also implemented extra steps including asking parents to leave a clean pair of shoes for the kids at the school to stop the spread of COVID-19.
As a new business Dave is spreading the word about Governor Phil Murphy's Executive Order No. 110 which allows essential families to sign up for childcare for free. Friday is the last day to sign up. For more information visit childcarenj.gov/Child-Care-for-COVID-19.
Ellie's Academy services children from infant to 13 years old.
For more information on Ellie’s Academy visit elliesacademy.com or facebook.com/elliesacademy or instagram.com/elliesacademy or twitter.com/elliesacademy.
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This article originally appeared on the Bridgewater Patch
