Hours of Operation
- BTC is open from 8:00AM-4:00 PM Monday through Friday for Learning Pods A and B, and 2:00-6:00pm for Learning Pod D.
Staffing Ratio/ Group Size
- Each group is called a pod or a learning pod. They are separated by a stable partition mounted on the floor.
- Each classroom can have as many as 12 children and has enough space for children to work individually 6 ft apart. Pods A and B have a 1:3 student teacher ratio from 8am to 2pm and this ratio increases to 1:7 from 2:00-4:00pm.
- Pod D can have as many as 12 children and have a ratio of 1:6 from 2:00-6:00pm.
- Each Teachers may only watch and be with their own group. Should we need to have a substitute teacher, this teach can only sub for that group alone.
Daily Health Screening for ALL staff and Children Before Entry
- All children and adults entering the center MUST wear a face covering or a mask.
- A temperature check will be performed daily. A child or an adult who has a temperature above 100.0 will not be allowed to enter the premise and must stay home.
- The following questions will be asked to all children and staff who wish to enter the center:
- Do you have a cough?
- Do you have a cold?
- Are you having shortness of breath?
- Did you lose your sense of taste?
- Anyone entering the facility must step into the footbath and briefly soak and wipe the bottom of their shoes with disinfectant solution.
- When a child gets dropped off, a BTC teacher will sanitize their hands upon entering and leaving the facility.
- When a child exhibits any of the following symptoms, the child will be isolated in the office and a parent will be called to pick up the child as soon as possible.
- headache, cough, cold, shortness of breath, fatigue, fever
Individualized Play/Activity
- The goal is that children remain 6 ft apart from other children as much as possible, it is recommended that children engage in individual play. Rather than offering activities that draw children together in groups, activities will be offered at individual stations throughout the room/yards. We will be changing the classroom and outdoor environments, providing individual learning/activity stations spread throughout the room/yards, with clearly defined spaces for each child. Children can rotate between stations/areas. The tables/chairs will be disinfected, and the toys/materials will be changed out or disinfected between uses. Children will each have their own bins of regularly used materials (e.g. paper and markers), individual portions of sensory materials, etc. When we have children sit down for a story or singing, we will have clearly defined spaces where they can sit 6 feet apart.
- We remain deeply committed to supporting your child’s social, emotional, and mental health, and this has been much on our minds during these weeks of closure. We will be working, in this new mode, to find ways to meet children social and emotional needs, while keeping everyone as safe as possible from COVID-19. Because children’s social development is so important, we will be finding ways for children to continue to interact, talk to each other, share their ideas, experiences and feelings, etc., just from a bit of a distance. We will attempt to have as much social interaction, sharing, togetherness, etc. as possible between children. For example, we can set up two stations near each other, but distanced, with the same materials at each station. The children at these two stations will be encouraged to “play” with each other, show each other their work, ask each other questions, pose challenges to each other (“Can you make one like this?”), etc. There can be dialogue and interaction, just not proximity or sharing of materials.
- Children will be naturally drawn to each other, especially after being apart for so long. This is completely expected, and your children’s feelings will be validated (“You are so happy to see your friend, ___!”). Our role will be to redesign the environment to help with this and/or gently explain that, right now, to keep each other safe and not share our germs, we will be staying a little bit apart from each other. We will help show children the ways that they CAN show their friends how happy they are to see each other and be together (smile, wave, air hug, air high five, say, “I’m so happy to see you!”, etc.).
Cleaning and Disinfecting
- Daily Routine cleaning will include cleaning and disinfecting at the end of the day. Cleaning will involve washing non-porous surfaces with soap and water, and followed by a disinfectant solution applied with wipes or a paper towel.
- Throughout the day, a teacher will disinfect all tables as their group leaves a shared space upon transitioning to another space.
- All cleaning practices will follow the Cleaning matrix set forth by the LA Public Health. http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/docs/protection/CleaningMa trix.pdf.
Physical Environment/Learning Culture To support Social Distancing and Virus Mitigation
- Child-friendly Social markers are painted on the ground out in the playground, and parts of the floor inside the classroom to help children maintain 6ft physical distance when waiting in line to use the restroom.
- Restrooms are installed with a water heater to allow faucets to dispense warm water, using no-touch faucets, no-touch soap dispensers, and no-touch paper towel dispensers.
- Signs are placed in the restroom instructing children to wash their hands for 30 seconds.
- The restroom can only be used by one child at a time unless they are siblings. If a child is tired from wearing a mask, that child can be in the playhouse. This is the only place in the center that is a mask-free zone. However, only one child can be in the playhouse at one time.
- When children want to play with another friend, we acknowledge their desire to play with their friend but will offer a way to play with them safely. “ I see that you want to play with- let’s see how we can do that safely.”
- A hand sanitizer is placed throughout each classroom.
- A fan with an attached filter is placed in each classroom to increase ventilation inside the classroom, as well as two large fans pointing to the ceiling.
- Individual playing bins, and art bins are accessible for children in each classroom to prevent children from sharing materials and toys.
- Every teacher plans developmentally appropriate art activities while considering physical distancing measures and virus mitigation. For example, collaborative art projects are done one at a time to ensure each child contributes to the art project while physically apart.
Illness Policy
- To protect the safety of everyone in our community, we will have a strict illness policy. Based on the CDC’s current list of symptoms of COVID-19 and recommendations from Public Health and Child Care Licensing, we will be asking anyone with COVID-19-related symptoms to stay home. Teachers, children, and parents should stay home, even if they have mild symptoms.
- The most common symptoms are cough, shortness of breath/difficulty breathing, and fever. Anyone with any of these symptoms should stay home. In children, COVID-19 may present through cold symptoms, including a runny nose. Because children can have mild cases, but can carry the virus to others, we will be asking for children with runny noses to stay home. There are other identified symptoms of COVID-19 that may appear, and they should be monitored, especially when they show up in combination: chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, loss of smell or taste, vomiting and/or diarrhea. Vomiting and diarrhea are more common in children. The CDC recommends that parents should also watch for signs of fatigue and/or crankiness in their child, which can indicate that they are not feeling well. One new symptom that has come to light as unique to children is purple spots on the toes and fingers. It may be the only COVID-19 symptom that children exhibit, but they can still be carriers of the virus.
- Parents should conduct their own health screening (including a temperature check), on self and on child, at home each morning before leaving for school. Parents should closely monitor, their children and in members of their family (or anyone with whom their child comes into contact).
- Anyone who has fever in addition to cold/respiratory symptoms must stay home for a minimum of 10 days and a full 48 hours after symptoms have stopped (without any medication).
- Anyone who think they may have been exposed to COVID-19 must self-quarantine for 14 days. You are considered to have had close contact if you had contact with the person within 48 hours prior to when they first showed symptoms.
- While the virus may be most contagious when the infected person is clearly ill, some individuals may infect others even when they don’t have obvious symptoms or any symptoms at all. Given that risk, children who have been exposed to someone who has respiratory illness should remain home for 14 days to see if they also develop symptoms of illness. Home quarantine of an exposed child reduces the chance of spread to other children and staff. If no symptoms appear within 14 days, the child may return to TJB.
- Children will have health checks/temperature taken throughout the day at TJB. If your child comes down with any of the symptoms above he/she will need to leave the facility as quickly as possible. To facilitate quick pick up in such cases (or if the Center needs to close quickly due to a COVID-19 case in our population), parents should be reachable at all times, and should be available to get their child (or have a designated alternate pick up person get their child) within 30 minutes of being contacted.
- One concern that some families have expressed is that, when their child returns to the group care setting, their child will be interacting with other children whose families may not be taking the same protective measures that their family is taking (increasing their risk of exposure). It will be important for all families to care for each other’s health by following all of the physical distancing and other health-related requirements set forth by both our state and local governments and the Covid-19 Parent Contract for our program. It will be important to remember that what each of us does can affect the health of many others.
Drop-off and Pick-up
- Drop-offs and pick-ups will be happening at the front gate only. A separate entrance and exit will be designated for each pod. You can also call the school or send a text message to (626)394-8954 to arrange for a teacher to bring your child to you at the end of their day.
- At drop off, each child will have a health screening before entry. The goal is for parents to say goodbye to their child at the gate. If your child needs a bit of transition time (especially during the first couple of weeks back), after the parent receives a health screening the parent and child can find a separate spot on the yard (physically distancing from any others) and sit for a couple of minutes until the child is more ready to say goodbye.
- We will be limiting parents from entering our TJB building. Children’s belongings need to be in a bag/backpack to make things easier to transport and limit germs during this time.
Lunch/Snacks
- Lunches will need to be provided from parents at home and will no longer be warmed up in the center’s microwave.
- Children are not allowed to share snacks with each other.
- Snacks will be served with individual packaging or in ziplock bags.
Masks/Cloth Facial Coverings
- California requires cloth face coverings. It is a public health measure people should take to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in addition to physical distancing, frequent hand washing, and other everyday preventive actions.
- BTC staff will wear masks/facial coverings as much as possible while at the Center balancing health and safety and the need for children to see facial expressions and to help with language and communication.
- Parents are required to wear masks/facial coverings during all drop-off and pick-up.
Guidance on Corona Virus Exposure
- BTC follows guidance from the LA County Dept of Public Health should an exposure of COVID-19 at the center is detected: http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/coronavirus/docs/business/GuidanceWorkplac eResponse.pdf
- All parents and staff agree to sign a covid agreement form agreeing that they are practicing social distance measures at home. They also agree that they need to disclose an exposure to corona virus or confirmed covid positive test.
- Should a child or a staff in a classroom test positive, we will follow the procedures below:
“Health Report” and the following protocols will be followed:
- Notify CDC (213) 240-7941 and receive guidance from a Public Health Liasion.
- Notify parents of the learning pod via email with a subject heading, “Health Report.” Parents will be encouraged to get tested.
- Community Care Licensing will be called and an Unusual Incident Report submitted.
- The classroom will be closed for up to 5 days and will undergo deep cleaning.
- Should 3 or MORE staff or teacher test positive, this is considered an OUTBREAK, and the following protocol will be followed.
- A separate Dept of CDC will be contacted (213)240-7821.
- The entire school will be closed down for 2 weeks for deep cleaning and ALL children and staff will be ordered to quarantine and encouraged to get tested.
https://www.beyondtheclassroomsp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/COVID-19-BTC-Parent-Contract-To-Return.pdf
