ONTARIO — Child care centres and home care providers across Ontario will be able to reopen with strict safety and operational requirements in place, similar to the safety guidelines required for emergency child care centres.
On Tuesday, the Ontario government announced its plan to reopen child care centres across the province to support the next stage of the province’s reopening framework. Developed in consultation with Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health and medical leaders at The Hospital for Sick Children, the plan will require child care operators to follow strict health protocols to ensure the safety of child care staff and children.
Centres will be required to adopt specific rules, including cohorting, putting children and staff in groups of 10 or less day over day; COVID-19 response plan, all child care settings will be required to have a plan in place if a child, parent or staff member/provider is exposed to COVID-19; screening, all staff and children must be screened prior to entry to the child care setting. Anyone feeling unwell must stay home.
Daily attendance records, child care settings must keep daily records of all attendees in order to support contact tracing; cleaning, child care settings must be thoroughly cleaned before opening and frequently thereafter; no visitors, only essential visitors are permitted entry into the child care setting; implementing drop-off and pick-up protocols in a way that facilitates physical distancing; and effectively immediately, staff can re-enter child care facilities and begin preparation for reopening. When these operators have met all the strict and stringent guidelines for reopening, they will be permitted to reopen.
Based on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Health and with strict health and safety protocols in place, the government is now enabling summer day camp programs across the province to reopen this summer. At this time, overnight camps are not permitted to operate this summer. Strict health and safety guidelines were developed by the Ministry of Health in partnership with public health, the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development, and municipalities, and distributed to local public health teams earlier this month.
“Having children safely re-engage in learning, play and social activities with other children is of great benefit to their mental, emotional and behavioural development,” says Dr. Ronald Cohn, President and CEO of The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). “Children thrive when they are able to interact with other children. The reopening of child care centres is an important step forward for allowing children to be with their peers and enjoy activities outside of their home environment.”
The Ministry of Education has been working with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development to develop these health and safety protocols. They will enable the safe reopening of child care centres across the province and enhance safety through effective contact tracing. This plan imposes strict requirements on operators, including mandatory training and reporting and support from the local medical officer of health before reopening.
