Health priority No. 1 at Catholic childcare centers

“It can be scary, challenging – but most of all rewarding – working with our babies,” said Carole Elliot, associate superintendent of elementary schools and co-leader of the two-hour sharing session held July 21 at St. Matthew the Apostle’s parish center.
    

Elliot said some of the 30 childcare professionals in attendance were especially primed to offer helpful – and hopeful – advice on how brick-and-mortar programs can safely operate. A handful of the centers, with their self-contained spaces and relatively small enrollments, had already been up and running since May and June of this year.
    

“We’re tapping into your experiences and asking you to share some of your findings,” Elliot told them.
 

Masked crusaders
    

The early childhood professionals pored over the Louisiana Department of Health’s most recently issued guidelines (released July 13) for the safe operation of childcare centers. All school programs that accept children ages 2 and younger must be licensed by the Louisiana Department of Education.
    

The discussion began with a look at the most talked-about new guideline for childcare staff: the mandatory covering of the face and nose with a cloth face mask. (Masks are not recommended for children younger than 2.)

While many of the directors said they were becoming acclimated to wearing a mask over longer periods of time, some harbored concerns about the facial coverings’ impact on communication cues between themselves and their little ones.
    

“We’re having a really difficult time with the kids responding (because) they can’t see our mouths anymore – they hear you but they’re not responding,” said Desirée Rindahl, director of St. Benilde’s Early Learning Center, a year-round program that resumed operation May 20 and enrolls children beginning at age 6 weeks. 
    

Rather than screaming through their masks, Rindahl and her staff came up with a safe and effective alternative: Whenever they have an important instruction for their toddlers, they move 10 feet away from the children and briefly lower their masks to speak to them freely.
    

“Otherwise, you’re killing your voice trying to get them to hear you through the mask,” Rindahl said.
 

Getting to know you
    

Masks also can look a bit scary to some children, especially in cases where separation anxiety is already an issue, the directors noted.
    

“Children need that visual affirmation. They need to know that they’re being welcomed,” said Katherine Shea, associate superintendent of education formation and accessibility and co-leader of the brainstorming session.
    

Clever ways nursery staff might soothe fearful youngsters include sending a video greeting of the unmasked teacher to families before school begins and arranging one-on-one introductory chats – ice-breakers used by Ursuline Academy’s Early Childhood Program with the help of the platform Google Meet. Staff could also wear T-shirts emblazoned with each staffer’s smiling, unmasked face; have their staff wear a laminated photo of themselves; and post photos of each caregiver, both masked and unmasked, at the nursery’s entrance.
    

Having her face hidden from her children was a major concern of Anjoli Jasmin, director of Cabrini High’s Crescent Cradle Preschool serving ages 6 weeks through 3. Jasmin came up with a clever solution: during morning drop-off, right before taking the child’s temperature, she pulls down her mask to briefly show the child her full face.
    

“I was surprised at how many kids actually were OK with (staff wearing masks),” Jasmin said. “The hardest ones were the infants. It took them longer, but now, even with the mask on, they can see your cheeks go up and they know you’re smiling – and they smile back!”
    

In another mask-related exchange, the nursery directors discussed how face shields do not offer the same level of protection as cloth masks, and so must be treated only as a secondary barrier. In cases in which a staffer cannot wear a mask for a prolonged period due to a respiratory issue, face shields are a “reasonable accommodation,” Shea said.     
    

Roy Delaney Sr., principal of Our Lady Lourdes School in Slidell, said faculty and staff who are unable to wear a mask for health reasons on his campus will place a sticker on their face shield to signify their status.
 

Thorough checks at intake
    

Mornings are – and will be, for those centers yet to open – an especially busy time for nursery staff. New protocols, such as staggering drop-off times, are designed not only to enforce social distancing, but also to provide adequate time for staff to conduct a health assessment of each young arrival.
    

All staff and children must have their temperature checked before entering the facility, and parents will be asked to confirm that their child has not been on fever-reducing medication in the last 24 hours; does not have shortness of breath, sore throat, rash (other than diaper rash) or a cough; and has not been in contact with someone with a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the last 14 days. Suggested visual inspections include looking for flushed cheeks, rapid or difficult breathing, fatigue and unusual fussiness.
    

Like their older counterparts, babies and toddlers with a fever of 100.4 or above will not be admitted to the given facility. State guidelines require childcare centers to re-check their children’s temperature later in the day, with some of the meeting attendees noting that this ideally could be done after naptime.
    

“But babies (present) with fever all the time,” Elliot said, pointing to causes as benign as teething, colds and allergies. Because every fever does not indicate COVID-19, the childcare professionals said a sound protocol for handling a feverish baby is the “48-hour rule”: parents must monitor their child’s temperature for the next 24 hours, then, if no other symptoms arise during that period, they must watch the child for an additional 24 hours before sending them back to school.
 

Maximum class sizes smaller
    

Hygiene, already high on Catholic childcare centers’ priority list, will get stepped-up attention in the fall, with mandatory cleanings of center spaces throughout the day and hourly cleanings of “high-touch” surfaces such as door handles, light switches, faucets, toys and games. Other steps reported by the attendees include sending nap mats home for daily laundering and labeling cots, to ensure that the same child uses his or hers each day.
    

Some of the nursery directors said they have partitioned classrooms and nap stations, both as a safety measure and to accommodate the smaller maximum group sizes mandated by Phase 2. Although teacher-student ratios for each age group have remained the same as they were before the pandemic, the maximum group size for infants is now 15 (with a required ratio of one teacher for every five babies); 21 for 1-year-old groups (1 teacher for every 7 children); and 22 for 2-year-old groups (1 teacher for every 11 children).
 

Necks get attention, too
    

Because alcohol-based hand sanitizers are not safe to use on young children, the childcare professionals said they are using baby wipes in situations in which they cannot immediately access the “gold standard” for hand cleanliness: soap and water.
    

Phase 2 guidelines require nursery staff to wash their  and their children’s hands at least every two hours, with even more frequency around feeding and diapering. In a guideline that reflects the young age group in their care, attendees were reminded to take extra care to wash not only their hands, but their forearms, necks and lower faces – areas that regularly come into contact with babies as they are held and cradled.
    

Another tip for staff is to pack multiple changes of clothing for the day – just as the babies in their care have been doing for years – and to wear workday attire that provides additional barriers, such as long sleeves and protective aprons.
    

“What the state is saying, is anybody who is handling the baby should have washable coverings on themselves that are removable several times a day if necessary,” Shea said.
    

Although there is no mandate regarding footwear, one attendee said nursery staff might consider leaving their shoes at the door and wearing no-slip socks during indoor time, to prevent the tracking-in of impurities.

Sharing of toys not advised
    

St. Rosalie principal Caren Creppel, whose program for ages 6 weeks through 2 reopened June 1, said her staff is using the enhanced safety measures as teachable moments during the nursery’s long hours of operation from 6:45 a.m. to 6 p.m.
    

“The teachers are showing the children how to wash their hands, keep their hands away from their face – everything we can show that will make the children safe,” Creppel said. “We sing songs or say a prayer during hand-washing to show the children how long to wash.”
    

Other hygiene-related suggestions are for parents to send art supplies and small toys with their children, so they can be used by them alone or at least remain within a single cohort of youngsters. State guidelines assert that toys are not be shared with other groups of infants or toddlers unless they are washed and sanitized before being moved to the next group.
    

Beth Donze can be reached at bdonze@clarionherald.org.