Questions
regarding the ways in which not only regular school but daycares and
pre-schools will be working this autumn are preying on parents, especially if
their kids are entering school for the first time. Will the idea of masks and
temperature taking, and no parents allowed in a building, work to turn a new
generation off education entirely?
Marco
della Cava has examined the issue of getting young kids in the door for the
start of their education in a new USA Today piece that finds that, “the calculus is
different for children ages 2 to 4, an impressionable phase that leaves parents
concerned about the possible impact of exposing children to a mask- and
temperature check-filled setting from which parents now are excluded for health
reasons.”
Gone are the days when clingy
children could be escorted by mom or dad into a classroom for that momentous
debut school experience, della Cava writes, noting that, “While protocols vary,
many pre-K and day care facilities now have measures to keep teachers and
children safe that include car drop-offs, fever checks and the wearing of masks
or shields.”
The best way to face all this
uncertainty, he’s found, may be virtual tours, app-based fever and illness
monitoring and updates, and in some cases in-class visits via apps or webcams.
In particular, della Cava speaks
with Jessica Chang of WeeCare, which helps connect parents with 2,500 child
care facilities around the country. In addition to sharing medical states, the
WeeCare facilities use air purifiers, encourage outdoor play when possible, and
parent “visits” with kids through the secure WeeCare app. And as with most
day care providers who are accredited to take infants, new measures for babies
focus on thoroughly sterilizing cribs and other crawling access areas as well
as making sure parents wash all crib linens and clothes nightly.
“We do see apprehension from
parents who haven’t returned their kids to school yet,” says Chang, herself a
mother of two young children. “Some of course have no choice due to employment
issues, and have to send them back. For the others, we offer virtual ways to
interact with providers to raise their comfort level. And we encourage
providers to make things fun when they can.”
For example, Chang says, to make
a car drop-off less frightening for a toddler, some of the care providers in
the network have taken to building a small maze with stations. One is for a
visual inspection, another for a fever check, and at each station the child
receives a stamp in a booklet, turning the chore into game.
As with many decisions related
to our coronavirus moment, experts say parents caught in this dilemma need to
assess their own comfort with risk, and balance that with everything from their
child’s development needs to their own employment demands.
“Just like weighing the risks
and benefits of K-12, parents need to figure out if pre-K is a good idea for
them and their family,” says Susan Hedges, director of quality assessment
at the National Association for the Education of Young Children, which
accredits facilities around the world. “In normal times, we’ve all sent a young
child with a slight fever to school simply because we have our own day to get
started. But now there can’t be any of that; this is deadly serious.
Everyone has a role to play.”