Photo: Gustavo Fring. Source: Pexels

As the country moves through the coronavirus crisis, states will be able to learn from each other about how to navigate the pandemic and reopen early education and care problems.

The starting line for all states is reviewing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But individual states are taking their own approach.

A number of national organizations are tracking state responses, including the Hunt Institute, a national nonprofit organization that has released a summary of state actions.

“States are devising a number of health and safety protocols to address the new situation we’re in, so that they can promote child development while complying with social distancing guidelines,” Ryan Telingator, Strategies for Children’s new intern, says. Telingator has been monitoring these varied approaches.

Massachusetts, for example, has largely steered its own course. Governor Baker chose to close child care programs when coronavirus first hit the country hard and only offer emergency child care. Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina and a handful of other states made the same choice, and so did New York City.

Some New England states – Connecticut, Maine, and New Hampshire – as well as others like Colorado and New York gave programs the option to remain open.

To prepare for reopening, the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care has released updated guidelines, the Minimum Requirements for Health and Safety. While all states focus on health and safety, Massachusetts’ guidelines are in general more comprehensive, and they have been updated to provide more clarity and flexibility to providers.

Initially Massachusetts banned the use of “floaters,” staff who float from group to group.

However, the updated EEC guideline for floaters reads: “Programs should consider and submit staffing plans that follow the principle of minimizing or eliminating contact between groups of children in care. Adults caring for children should be assigned to a single group when considering relief for breaks or lunch.”

The guidelines also ban the use of plush, cloth, and soft toys. What about face masks? As EEC’s FAQ states: “No children under the age of 2 may wear a mask. Children 2-5 may wear a mask at the discretion of their parents, to be determined in partnership with the provider.”

Other states’ rules vary, Telingator has found, among them:

Illinois: “Staff must be limited to working with one group of children at all times. A ‘floating’ staff member is permitted between no more than 2 rooms if smocks/overgarments are changed between rooms.” 

Michigan: “Remove toys and objects which cannot be easily cleaned or sanitized between use. Toys should be limited to items made of materials that can be easily sanitized or disinfected. Cloth toys are not recommended at this time.”

Maine: “When feasible… older children should wear face coverings within the facility.”

Another area where states are taking different approaches is funding.

Massachusetts is temporarily continuing subsidy payments to child care providers during the closure.

Maine is using funds from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to provide child care subsidies to essential employees who exceed the current Child Care Subsidy Program income guidelines. Maine is also providing a one-time stipend to providers and dispensing grants to help them resume operations. Massachusetts is taking a similar approach with its CARES Act funds, offering short-term grants to help subsidized programs with their reopening expenses.

Michigan has increased access to its child care subsidy program, and it has established a Child Care Relief Fund to provide direct, non-competitive grants to child care providers. Grant recipients must reduce weekly rates for families by at least 10%; provide care for children of essential workers; and forego charging a fee to hold a child’s spot in the program.

And in New Hampshire, the Department of Health and Human Services and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation have set up the Emergency Child Care Collaborative to ensure robust care for essential workers. Early education and care programs can apply for incentive pay for staff to help provide child care for frontline workers. The collaborative also provides operational grants to help pay for cleaning supplies and other costs.

Keeping an eye on states is especially important now given widespread reports that many early education and care programs are closing. The New York Times reports:

“Around the country, 4.5 million child care spots — about 50 percent of the national total — are at risk of disappearing because of the pandemic, according to a report by the Center for American Progress. In a March survey of more than 6,000 child care providers by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, 30 percent said they would not survive being closed for more than two weeks without significant support.”

And as California parent Veronica Duarte, a single mother and essential grocery store worker who has struggled to find child care, tells the Times through an interpreter, “We have to make sure that people know that child care is essential.”