INDIANAPOLIS — Before people can even walk into a Day Early Learning center in Indianapolis, a staff member takes temperatures and asks a series of questions in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic. These are a couple of the many new protocols Early Learning Indiana put in place to keep teachers and students safe.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Day Early Learning centers have remained open. At first, it was mostly for essential workers dropping their children off. Now, about 80 percent of families have returned, according to Christine Bell, the vice president of Day Early Learning Administration.
With so many little ones, the team learned to develop a new system early on.
"I can't say that we were always wiping down the phones, the doorknobs. We did those on occasion but now we actually have a system where the teachers are doing that and working with the maintenance and cleaning teams to do that on a much more frequent basis," Bell said.
When it came to teaching the children about the new protocols, Bell said some things were easier than others.
"Obviously, social distancing small little ones is much more of a challenge," she said.
But washing hands was easy to teach since they were already doing that beforehand.
Some of the new changes at the centers include keeping classes together to help with contact tracing, requiring masks for team members and recommending them for children 2 and older, spraying down playgrounds with disinfectant spray between classes and daily deep cleaning of toys and materials.
Bell said one of the hardest changes is limiting visitors, including parents.
"We've been trying to work hard on how we can still stay in touch and engaged with the families when they are not getting to see their child's teacher every morning," Bell said.
To reduce sharing, every student receives their own school box of supplies. For other toys that are harder to share, the staff cleans those at the end of every day.
But new safety practices also mean more money. Bell said the centers had to replace dishwashers and washing machines because of increased use. Another unexpected cost is new toys.
"We are throwing all these things in the dishwasher so much that they are starting to come apart. So now, we are going to have to start replacing things," Bell said.
So far, Day Early Learning has had 14 positive cases. Bell said the majority of the cases were parents and staff members, but two were children. Of those cases, none resulted in any outbreaks.
"It is safe, and we are being very diligent about making sure we keep it that way," Bell said.