03/16/2020
Families and Staff of Little Bears,
Below is a memo from our WI State Agency. I have quoted the information that provides the explanation of why the agencies are asking us to remain open at this time.
“MEMO issued to: Child Care, Head Start and 3 and 4-year old Kindergarten Programs and their Workforce, Issued Sunday, March 15, 2020. The department is committed to helping keep child care programs open during this time of crisis. Child care is a vital resource for many of our first responders who are actively assisting our friends, family, and neighbors. We understand and appreciate the challenges many of you face and value your continued efforts to serve the children and families of Wisconsin. The Department of Children and Families (DCF) has worked with the Department of Health Services (DHS) and the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to develop the guidance below to help keep the children in your care, your staff, and yourself safe. Background COVID-19 is a respiratory illness caused by a novel virus that has been spreading worldwide. We are gaining more understanding of COVID-19’s epidemiology, clinical course, and other factors as time progresses, and the situation is changing daily. The Department of Health Services is in the process of monitoring COVID-19, providing guidance on testing with local and federal partners, and providing guidance and resources to prevent, detect and respond to the occurrence of COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin. At this time, DHS is identifying more positive cases of COVID-19 in Wisconsin. Programs should prepare for possible impacts of COVID-19 and take precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, as well as other infectious diseases, including influenza. On March 13, 2020, Governor Evers ordered the Secretary of the Department of Health Services to close all public and private Wisconsin schools for purposes of pupil instruction and extracurricular activities, beginning Wednesday, March 18, 2020, with an anticipated reopening on April 6, 2020. The date of reopening is subject to change pending further information. The purpose of this memo is to provide guidance to child care, Head Start, and 3K/4K programs. “At this time, we recommend all programs remain open, unless remaining open is not feasible based on the guidance and until such time the program has a known positive case, or close contact with a known positive case, at which point we recommend you work with your local public health department to assess next steps. These programs operate on a much smaller scale than public and private schools with fewer people in congregate settings.” All programs should have a plan for what they can do in the event that COVID-19 becomes widespread in the community. The goals for your plan should be to reduce the spread of acute respiratory illnesses and minimize the impact of COVID-19 among your children and staff.” (end of memo)
DCF (Department of Children & Families) also sent us waivers on some of our mandated rules in order to help with operations.
At this time we continue to provide service to our families. If your child is not attending LBD, please call and report their absence and the reason why. DHS is asking providers to ask this question so we are made aware of any potential risks. Also influenza is still active and we need to be aware of those affected also. If your family is choosing to be out for a couple of days or a couple of weeks, tuition continues to be due every Thursday. Families not attending on Thursday can send tuition through the mail or drop off tuition in the front office whichever you feel more comfortable doing.
Here are some additional rules we want to put into place during this time:
1. At this time discontinue bringing in treats for St. Patrick’s Day or any other occasion until further notice.
2. All extra toys, stuffed animals etc. that are brought from home…..please leave home.
3. We want to mitigate any person/people that is not necessary from entering the building. (Vendors, neighbor to pick up or drop off children etc.)
4. Any temperature over 99.6 will be treated as “fever”, and the child will be sent home per our sick child policy.
As of last night there are no cases in Jefferson County that have been reported. We are thankful for that!
Thank you,
Terry Kuhl
Ashley Lowrey
