Daycare centres open for children of essential workers
Four of Niagara Region’s five facilities re-opened at the beginning of April
Niagara Region child care centres are again filled with the laughter of dozens of healthy children, while early childhood educators and other staff do everything they can to protect the youngsters in their care.
Niagara children’s services director Darlene Edgar said four of the Region’s five child care centres reopened at the start of April to provide daycare services to the children of essential workers, allowing them to continue doing their vital jobs.
They’re the children of workers at health-care facilities and seniors homes, and emergency service providers.
“There’s an extensive list of who is eligible to receive the service, directed by the Ministry of Education,” Edgar said.
She said that list was expanded last Friday to include people working in social services, homeless shelters and utility providers, after the demand for child care service grew among essential workers across the province.
While most child care centres throughout the region have closed their doors and laid off workers, Edgar said the Region centres have increased staffing levels to meet added demands of protecting the children.
“We have upped our staffing tremendously,” she said, adding emergency child care centres are exempt from limiting gatherings to no more than five people.
Despite having fewer children to care for, Edgar said added staff are there to enhance hygiene protocols “so every time something is touched, it’s cleaned immediately.”
The homes have put “very intensive screening” in place to ensure that no one entering the facilities have symptoms of the virus. Parents dropping off children are questioned about potential exposure before the door is even opened.
From there, the child’s temperature is taken before they’re permitted inside.
“We work very closely with (associate medical officer of health) Dr. (Andrea) Feller and the public health department,” Edgar said, adding the protocols being implemented at the child care centres were being reviewed on a regular basis.
Health department inspectors, she added, were “so secure in what’s happening as far as how stringent we are with cleaning and disinfecting that they are now visiting three times a week instead of every day.”
With the focus of attention on front-line health-care workers during the pandemic, Edgar said the vital role child care workers play is often overlooked.
“I think our staff certainly need to be acknowledged for the fact that they’re going into work to take care of the kids, whose parents have to do essential work,” she said.
As a result, the early childhood educators and others at the regional child care centres “are doing essential work, too.”
“I am so proud of our staff. They go in there day to day and they are facing the same kinds of situations as other emergency personnel have and they need to be recognized,” Edgar said.
In addition to the regional centres, Edgar said two home child care agencies are continuing to operate in Niagara, accommodating people providing emergency services working nights and weekends, after regional child care centres are closed at 6 p.m. on weekdays.
Edgar said Niagara’s child care centres have managed to accommodate all the children of essential workers, without a list of people waiting for services, “but I anticipate that will eventually happen, depending on how long the pandemic goes on.”