Returning to daycare during COVID-19: What you should be asking your childcare provider

Robin LaCroix, MD

Pediatric Infectious Disease

For many children, daycare is a home away from home. Due to COVID-19, many daycare facilities have been closed or parents have chosen to keep their children at home. As businesses reopen, you may be wondering what safety questions you should be asking your childcare provider as you explore sending your child back to daycare.

Robin LaCroix, MD, Medical Director and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, Prisma Health Children’s Hospital–Upstate, shared questions for you to ask so you can understand the changes your daycare facility is making to protect your children from the virus.

“Reaching out to your childcare provider to discuss some of the things they are doing to prevent the virus in their home or facility is a very reasonable discussion to have with them during a time like this,” said Dr. LaCroix.

What questions should you ask your childcare provider?

• What general safety precautions are you taking?
• Are you and other caregivers at the facility wearing masks?
• What is your policy with hand hygiene for caregivers?
• What hand hygiene procedures do you have in place for the children?
• How are you handling mealtimes/snack times?
• What procedures do you have in place for keeping the space and toys clean, especially multi-use or difficult to clean items?
• Are you and other childcare providers practicing social distancing, mask wearing and hand hygiene when not a work?
• What cleaning products are you using to disinfect?

“It is important we continue to protect everyone by taking all the precautions we can against COVID-19, and that includes our children when they are at daycare,” said Dr. LaCroix.

For more information and guidance, look to the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Health and Environmental Control or the American Academy of Pediatrics.