Danbury child care provider upbeat about new schedule
DANBURY — Ruth Pina tries to keep her voice down and not allow her excitement over the new vaccine distribution schedule to awaken the sleeping children in her care.
With nine children from age one through 12 years old, her home-based child care business is full, and if she and her assistant are going make it through the day, the young ones need to get their rest.
“The job that we do is very delicate, because we have to be one-on-one with these kids,” said Pina, 46, who started Isabella’s Playhouse three years ago after working for 15 years as a medical assistant. “We spend more time with the kids than their parents, so it’s important for us to be safe, and for the kids to be safe.”
That’s why Pina is elated about the new COVID-19 vaccine distribution schedule announced Monday by Gov. Ned Lamont that singles her out as a child care provider to be inoculated next against the deadly coronavirus.
“It’s exciting and hopeful because we are all hoping for a better future,” says Pina, a native of the Dominican Republic who has lived in Danbury since she was 16. “We are all hoping that this is going to go away.”
Pina was reacting to the expansion of the statewide vaccination policy that made all people ages 55 to 64 eligible to make inoculation appointments starting next week.
“The job that we do is very delicate, because we have to be one-on-one with these kids. We spend more time with the kids than their parents, so it’s important for us to be safe, and for the kids to be safe.”
Ruth Pina, Danbury child care provider
The exception to the new rule is educators and child care providers such as Pina, who can also make a vaccine appointment as soon as Monday.
“This really gives me peace of mind, because if this (vaccine) is going to change the world, I want to be with the first ones to get
it,” said Pina, a mother of two grown children. “I want all the child care providers to be encouraged to get this.”
The shift in strategy moves the state away from a previous plan to give the next round of vaccinations to essential workers and those with underlying medical conditions, in favor of a streamlined system of distribution by age group that experts believe is simpler and faster.
Under the new state plan, vaccination eligibility for those ages 45 to 54 will start on March 22. For people ages 34 to 45, inoculation will begin on April 12, and for those ages 16 to 34, vaccination will start on May 3.
The fact that the state government is singling out people like Pina is a boost to morale in the child care business at a time when pandemic restrictions are making the job harder.
“It does make me feel like what I’m doing is leading somewhere, and all the love and care that we give to the children is not just babysitting,” Pina said. “We are providers for these kids at a time when we are doing more than just caregiving — we are teachers.”
Pina said in addition to following all the virus infection-control and social-distancing protocols mandated by the state, Pina and her assistant are helping three schoolage children of working families attend class virtually on laptops.
The result, she said, is her work day is a challenge — but a “good challenge.”
“Some days are better than others, but every day is a challenge where you learn,” said Pina. “You see these kids grow, so every day you try to do better to make this not a job you do, but a job you love.”
The good news, Pina said, is she continues to get support from an incentive program run by the United Way of Western Connecticut to convert unregulated homebased child care services into certified child care providers.
As such, Pina is part of a network of newly licensed child care providers who are offering higher quality care, the United Way said.
“The early childhood community is very happy that they are being included with the K-through-12 educators in this next round of the vaccine,” said Caroline Lafleur, associate director of communications at United Way of Western Connecticut in Danbury.
Pina said she is grateful for the good news about vaccinations coming to Danbury’s child care community after a year dominated by stories of economic distress and lost lives.
“When you think about all the people who died, you feel like, ‘Oh my God, it’s going to happen to me,’ but at the same time I have hope that everything is going to go back to normal once everybody gets (vaccinated),” Pina said. “I feel in my heart it is going to change, and change for the better.”