Zoom Call Summary 4.29.20

Thanks for joining! Here are our notes:

-Leadership- We talked about how having clear communication and making plans with the best facts you have today are essential as you lead your team and centers.

-Center on the Developing Child Podcast- A good podcast with episodes specific to COVID-19. These touch more on the psychological effects on children.

-Self-Regulation Worksheet- A good sharable resource for parents on regulating their own emotions and stress right now from https://elishabidwell.com/. Could be shared with parents through email or social media.

-Wearing A Mask Story- A story for children about wearing masks from We Rock the Spectrum – Gaithersburg found on Facebook.

-Article- An interesting article about What it Might Look like to Reopen Schools and ideas of how others are implementing.

-Advocacy- Continue to be loud on behalf of Early Childhood with our Government.

Contact Your Members of Congress: Contact your Congresspeople and ask them to continue to include funding for the Paycheck Protection Program and for Child Care in the next recovery bills. 

Find contact info for your Members of Congress 

OR Use this Child Care Aware Template Email

-Fairy Dust Teaching- Sally Haughey is a great ECE advocate and teacher. She is currently sharing her resources for free at https://fairydustteaching.com/ Additionally she has a workshop specifically for how to teach preschool online. (That one costs $27.)

-Erik Hite Foundation Protocols- Here is a link again to the Erik Hite Foundation and the protocols they are using at their center. Nohemy, the director there, shared that weekly communication with parents has been essential. She has also seen a few more kids attend her center as parents are beginning to feel more comfortable. Her center is an example as they are still open. They are following the CDC recommendations of no more than 10 people per classroom. This includes the teacher(s). Parents are only able to drop off and they are taking temperatures of everyone upon arrival. The biggest challenge has been the use of masks and decisions around this.

-NAEYC Webinar- New NAEYC Webinar for Families and supporting learning at home 4/30 12pm our time. Register HERE.

-Research Highlights from AAP- Emily shared Research Highlights presentation from the American Academy of Pediatrics(AAP) on Research of COVID-19 cases and effects on children here in the US. This presentation was very helpful.

-Other PCHD Recommendations- These are some other recommendations that Emily emailed out this week that were helpful.

Cleaning and Sanitation

Warning: There are companies who may be trying to take advantage of child care programs by offering unnecessary and costly deep cleaning services. This practice is NOT recommended by the CDC. Please review the CDC guidelines for cleaning and sanitation and contact me with any questions.

Sanitizing Wipes: The CDC recommends cleaning high touch surfaces frequently (e.g. light switches, door knobs). Sanitizing wipes can be convenient for these surfaces. However, please note ADHS BCCL clarification of child care rules:

R9-5-512.B.1: Sanitizing wipes may be used to clean tables in classrooms, but they should not be used on any toys that might be put in a child’s mouth or on the diaper changing surface. There could be potential residue build-up from this product, but if the contact time on the label is followed, it is an effective cleaning agent.

COVID-19 Testing

Testing criteria for COVID-19 is expanding, though not everyone who would like to be tested can be tested at this time. ADHS issued updated standing orders expanding their criteria for testing for COVID-19 to anyone who thinks they have been exposed to and could be infected with COVID-19. You will also need to sign a voluntary isolation agreement to not go anywhere until test results are back.

Testing can be requested by your health care provider. Screening and testing can also be completed by:  BannerEscaleraWalgreensNextCare Urgent Care, and several other urgent cares. We recommend calling before going.

-Office of Head Start Webinar- If you missed it, the office of Head Start did a webinar on Friday that was helpful Check it out HERE. We did discuss that in this webinar they stated that 10 kids per classroom did not include the teacher however, the CDC recommendations are that the 10 person ratio does include the teacher. You can read the guidelines yourself and make the best decision for your center based on this information.

-Paycheck Protection Program Update– We discussed approval of Small Business Loans and another one of our centers did get approved. HOORAY! Many are still waiting on this money. A reminder to keep in contact with your bank each day and to apply through some of the other lending options including Kabbage, Lendio, other local banks, and even paypal. We also heard that a few programs have received EIDL money in their bank account with no notification, email or otherwise about being approved for this money. If you applied for this money keep your eye out in your bank account as this might happen for you as well.

-Early Childhood Investigations Webinar- Jenny Douglas from Second Street shared that Early Childhood Investigations did a helpful webinar entitled COVID-19 Financial Survival Strategies for Early Childhood Programs: Emergent Resources and Advice.

Quality First Business Coaching Resources- These are two excel spreadsheets designed to help with keeping a record of contact with your families and to help with financial planning for your center.

-Credits on Accounts- We discussed credits on student billing accounts for months that had already been paid for before COVID-19 closure. Some ideas for this were asking parents if they would be okay with making a donation of this credit, or asking them to spread out the credit over time so that it does not impact monthly income as much.

-Teacher Appreciation Week- Teacher appreciation Week is next week. Make sure to show your teachers some love! Some fun ideas include making a short video of their students saying hi to them and why they love their teachers, sending love notes by snail mail, and a parking lot parade.

-Celebrating Graduates- We discussed celebrating our teachers who are graduating from higher education programs. If you have teachers who are graduating make sure to find a way to celebrate them! An idea Cynnamon Woodberry from Make Way for Books shared is to make a video just saying that we love and see you and are proud of you.

-Somos Enlace- A reminder that we have both Pima and U of A Somos Enlace early childhood student organizations. Check out the website for more information.

-NAEYC Survey- A reminder to take the NAEYC second survey. There have been very few who have taken it so far in Arizona. These surveys really help at both the national and state level. Take it today!

Very informative call today. Thank you for your participation and time. See you again next week Wednesday at 2pm!