Children's Greenhouse and Covid-19

The Children’s Greenhouse will be open in August and for the Fall Semester and will make necessary adjustments and accommodations to provide for the health and safety of the children who attend the program, their parents and the staff of the center.

The center will operate adhering to guidance from the Office of Children and Family Services, the regulatory agency for child care in NYS (OCFS), the Department of Health (DOH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

These are some of the steps that will be taken:

• Drop off and pick up procedures will be modified to allow for strict social distancing and to minimize the amount of time parents are in the building.
• Covid19 health screening, including temperature checks, will be conducted daily for each child and adult entering the facility.
• Visitors will not be permitted to enter the facility.
• Employees will wear face coverings at all times when interacting with children, regardless of the distance between the employee and children.
• Group size will be limited, according to current regulations
• In order to minimize exposure, we will ensure that employee and children groupings are as static as possible by having the same group of children stay with the same staff whenever and wherever possible.
• Where appropriate, children will be provided with supplies for their own use and shared toys will be cleaned and disinfected regularly.
• We ensure adherence to hygiene and cleaning and disinfection requirements as advised by the CDC and DOH and we will maintain logs that include the date, time, and scope of cleaning and disinfection.
• We will conduct regular cleaning and disinfection of the center (indoors and outdoors) and more frequent cleaning and disinfection of high risk areas used by many individuals and for frequently touched surfaces. Cleaning and disinfection will be ongoing throughout the day.
• Staff and children will perform hand hygiene immediately upon entering the program and at multiple times throughout the day.
• Should a child become ill while at the center, he or she will be separated from the group and parents will be contacted to arrange for the child to be picked up as soon as possible.
• Should there be a case of COVID19 at the center, families will be notified, contact tracing will take place and the OCFS and the DOH will be informed.

Finally, while ensuring the health and safety of the children, we will also strive to continue to provide a warm and nurturing environment where children can learn, grow and have fun!