COLUMBUS – The children of essential workers will go to the front of the line when Ohio’s childcare centers open Thursday under new regulations because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Governor DeWine announced Monday that any childcare facility that remains open to care for children under a Temporary Pandemic Child Care license must give priority to families on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Immediately after the governor’s executive order we allowed essential employees to enroll their children at licensed temporary pandemic childcare providers,” said Kim Hall, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the agency which regulates all public and private childcare facilities.
DeWine on Sunday ordered all childcare centers in the state to apply for temporary pandemic childcare licenses or Hall says they will be forced to keep their doors closed, starting Thursday. DeWine’s order remains in effect until April 30.
“We know that people can’t go to work often without having childcare, then extrapolate that and apply that to this pandemic response. We need, to the greatest degree possible, all hands on deck that are essential and not have people in a position of choosing between whether they provide [child] care or they perform their work as a case worker or a firefighter,” Hall said.
A partial list of essential occupations that will receive priority consideration at temporary pandemic childcare centers:
-doctors
-nurses
-pharmacists
-dentists
-hospital and clinic staff
-pharmacy staff
-psychiatrists
-psychologists
-nursing home workers
-elder care workers
-home health care workers
-children services case workers
-EMT’s
-firefighters
-police officers
-truckers
-postal workers
-grocery store clerks
-energy workers
-wastewater treatment plant employees
– adult protection workers
-developmental disability aides
-mental health counselors
Any remaining childcare openings will be open to other families.
A full list of child care centers operating under the special license can be found here.
The centers are operating under new, stringent rules, including one allowing a maximum of six children in each room to reduce the risk of spreading the virus among a large number of children who would be in close quarters in a single classroom.
Other provisions of the directive:
Children whose parents are employed by the same entity should be kept together whenever possible.
The same teachers and children in each room should be maintained whenever possible.
There should be limited use of shared space or mixing of groups.
If shared space is used, a rigorous cleaning schedule must be in place.
Parent interaction should be limited at drop off and pick up.
-Source: Ofc. of the Governor