Mid-morning today we got an email from daycare requesting immediate pickup, and advising of closure through 10/26 due to a student covid case. The student tested positive on Friday in a pre-dental procedure test, and is asymptomatic. He has a younger sibling in DS's class. The little sib is being tested today, also asymptomatic. None of the family members were at daycare today.
I am unsure whether any of us have had "direct contact," assuming worst case scenario of the little sibling being covid+. We had a major storm/power outage last week, so DS was absent from daycare on Thurs/Fri/Mon while we went away to ride it out at my dad's. His last possible contact with little sib was 6 days ago, last Wed., two days prior to older sib's positive test.
If little sib is negative, I think we're probably ok to let DD continue to attend school, and ask MIL to help out with DS for the next 2 weeks while daycare is closed. None of us would have had direct contact with someone who was covid+. But we won't know that outcome immediately, and DD is at kindergarten right now, so we need to decide what to do in the meantime. The timeline is what's giving me pause on picking her up right away. If DS was exposed, it would have been on Mon-Wed last week, if little sib was + then.
This is so challenging. I think without a positive test for the little sib, I'd go on business as usual for your DD. I'd keep DS home until the sib's test comes back, but then agree that your MIL could help out and you could all interact safely with others.
I'd be curious why the child tested positive on Friday, but daycare allowed you all to show up today? Did they not know until today when the family called to say they wouldn't be in? Did he get the test on Friday but didn't get the results until a few days later? If you had notice over the weekend you could have had more time to make plans. And sending an email to pick up your kids is unhelpful - I hope they followed up with a phone call!
Was the sibling in your DS's class today? It sounds like no. If your DS was not in school since Thur, I think you were not exposed during the infectious window. You could call the K school nurse to discuss, that's the advice in my district. But honestly I'd just wait and see if the test on the sibling is positive or not before opening that can of worms (probably flameful).
ETA: actually, I take that back. Your son *may* have had exposure, but he's completely asymptomatic, right? In my district, your DD would be fine to go to school since she hasn't had any direct exposure. Even if your son ended up having to quarantine, your DD could attend school unless/until your son had any symptoms. God, this so confusing!!! Don't even feel bad about sending her. She's literally 3 steps removed from the positive test. You are fine! (Obviously you should double check the rules for your district, but this is based on what my district is doing).
The average incubation period is closer to seven days than 14. If he were exposed last week, then he’d be most likely to test positive this week.
If your MIL is high risk (and she might be just based on age), I’d probably get him tested out of an abundance of caution.
ETA: The test was NBD (I had to get DD tested last month) but we needed a doctor’s note.
Susie , before getting tested, I recommend checking your insurance coverage. I had to get DD1 tested last week and without Covid symptoms, the test would not be covered by insurance and costs $160. I didn't find that out until I was checking in to UC. I ended up finding a free state testing site and went there instead (but had to wait in line for an hour). It was a total PITA and I wish I had known up front.
Was the sibling in your DS's class today? It sounds like no. If your DS was not in school since Thur, I think you were not exposed during the infectious window. You could call the K school nurse to discuss, that's the advice in my district. But honestly I'd just wait and see if the test on the sibling is positive or not before opening that can of worms (probably flameful).
ETA: actually, I take that back. Your son *may* have had exposure, but he's completely asymptomatic, right? In my district, your DD would be fine to go to school since she hasn't had any direct exposure yet. God, this so confusing!!! Don't even feel bad about sending her. She's literally 3 steps removed from the positive test. You are fine!
Sibling was not in DS's class today, and DS hasn't been in daycare since last Wed (until this AM).
IDK why the sib tested positive Friday, and we didn't find out until mid-day today. Not sure whether the delay was parent reporting to daycare, daycare reporting to us...?
Both of my kids seem healthy/normal -- as normal as DS can seem with canines like a fraction of a mil below his gums. Poor babe is in so much teething pain.
Was the sibling in your DS's class today? It sounds like no. If your DS was not in school since Thur, I think you were not exposed during the infectious window. You could call the K school nurse to discuss, that's the advice in my district. But honestly I'd just wait and see if the test on the sibling is positive or not before opening that can of worms (probably flameful).
ETA: actually, I take that back. Your son *may* have had exposure, but he's completely asymptomatic, right? In my district, your DD would be fine to go to school since she hasn't had any direct exposure yet. God, this so confusing!!! Don't even feel bad about sending her. She's literally 3 steps removed from the positive test. You are fine!
Sibling was not in DS's class today, and DS hasn't been in daycare since last Wed (until this AM).
IDK why the sib tested positive Friday, and we didn't find out until mid-day today. Not sure whether the delay was parent reporting to daycare, daycare reporting to us...?
Both of my kids seem healthy/normal -- as normal as DS can seem with canines like a fraction of a mil below his gums. Poor babe is in so much teething pain.
Yeah, I was confused why they shut the daycare down today when the kids aren't even there. But if the sibling was tested Friday, maybe it took a while to get the results back? DD1's came back in 24 hours thankfully because she couldn't go back to school until we got it. I understand why, but the whole thing was incredibly frustrating. We (as a country) really need fast turnaround on testing if we have a hope of trying to contain it. They estimated 24-48 hours when they did the test, but numbers are going up in our state so I imagine the testing turnaround is going to take longer as more tests are being done.
You're in NY, right? I'm (unfortunately) very familiar with the rules. You don't have to do anything until you know that your son had direct contact with a positive person (the sibling, should the test be positive). Even at that point, your daughter can go to school until/unless SHE has direct contact with a positive person. I would not pick her up today.
In your situation, if the sibling's test comes back positive, I'd have your son tested. If it's negative, I still might have your son tested.
Thanks for the feedback. So far we're keeping DS at home, holding on bringing in any reinforcements, but have not picked DD up. We'll discuss more tonight.
As far as timeline, I'm guessing that the older sibling's test was done on Friday, and results came back over the 3 day weekend. The family probably called daycare to report the positive this morning when they reopened after the long weekend. Daycare then consulted with the state DOH on what to do. The email that we got referenced the closure as being discretionary following discussion with the DOH, but they said it being done in the interest of everyone's safety. I'm guessing the unfinished consultation with DOH is why we were all dropping off this morning, and then we got an email at 10:28am to come pick up. It sucks, but I get that these situations evolve rapidly. If the little sib is positive, and if DS is deemed a close contact [both of those are "ifs"; I'm guessing they will cross reference attendance sheets to determine whether DS's contact dates would be relevant], DOH will reach out to us directly for contact tracing/quarantine.
It isn't a surprise that we'd have to do this eventually but... this is going to be really, really challenging. Back in the spring when we were all at home, H had a different role that was much more flexible. He is now an administrative law judge, and spends all day behind a closed door, in pre-scheduled hearings. I will mostly be on my own with DS. I am not sure how I am going to get anything done outside of his limited nap time. After missing a bunch of work due to the storm/outage/etc. last week, I 100% understand why all this it is necessary but am equally freaking out about how I will manage and catch up during it. I would say send wine, but what I really need is hours in the day.
Post by redpenmama on Oct 13, 2020 18:09:02 GMT -5
This is tough. If you can get testing easily/free in your area, I would probably have everyone tested since exposure was a week ago at this point. I'd probably keep the kindergartener home only out of an abundance of caution.
I have two friends whose kids had a child in their daycare class with it, and the contact tracers said only the child with direct contact had to quarantine. The rest of the family did not have to. In both cases, the families quarantined and tested anyway (no one got it), but I was surprised that they didn't want the whole family to quarantine.
Ugh. I'm so sorry. We just went through something similar. I agree with how you've handled it... well, mostly because we did the same thing. DS1 is in K and we got a call on a Wed that there was a confirmed positive in his classroom. (They can't tell who, etc. but DS knew it was his teacher.) We called the daycare where DS2 is and were like, I guess we need to pick up DS2? There are two daycare co-directors and an owner... we talked to one of the directors and she was like, just hang tight and let us talk about it. They ultimately decided DS2 was ok to stay unless any of us came down with so much as a sniffle... then we'd have to pull him, test, etc. DS1 had to move to digital K--that transition was rough, but I work from home FT now and DH (who's regularly in an office) was able to WFH during DS1's 14-day self-isolation period from school. We had to juggle him... and he's 5. If we had to keep the little guy home, I don't know what we would have done... so I totally get how you're feeling. I know you said your H's hearings are pre-scheduled... but can he take sick time or something so y'all can tag team?
(We ended up all being fine and no one had symptoms... in fact, today is DS1's first day back in in-person school.)
Could you give your pedi a call and see if they have any advice? My sister was in a similar-ish situation a few weeks ago-a kid and teacher in my nephew's class tested positive around the same time so the whole class was quarantining for two weeks. My sister talked to their pedi and was told that as long as nephew wasn't showing symptoms BIL could go to work (sis is WFH) and niece could go to swim lessons (she's in KG but her district is still 100% remote). Basically, nephew was the only one who technically had to quarantine. Thankfully they cleared the quarantine period with no issues.
Ugh. I'm so sorry. We just went through something similar. I agree with how you've handled it... well, mostly because we did the same thing. DS1 is in K and we got a call on a Wed that there was a confirmed positive in his classroom. (They can't tell who, etc. but DS knew it was his teacher.) We called the daycare where DS2 is and were like, I guess we need to pick up DS2? There are two daycare co-directors and an owner... we talked to one of the directors and she was like, just hang tight and let us talk about it. They ultimately decided DS2 was ok to stay unless any of us came down with so much as a sniffle... then we'd have to pull him, test, etc. DS1 had to move to digital K--that transition was rough, but I work from home FT now and DH (who's regularly in an office) was able to WFH during DS1's 14-day self-isolation period from school. We had to juggle him... and he's 5. If we had to keep the little guy home, I don't know what we would have done... so I totally get how you're feeling. I know you said your H's hearings are pre-scheduled... but can he take sick time or something so y'all can tag team?
(We ended up all being fine and no one had symptoms... in fact, today is DS1's first day back in in-person school.)
He can, unfortunately he just took a sick day last week. He had vascular surgery on Wed., and we lost power Wed PM for several days. He couldn't work remotely on Thurs. without power, and he also couldn't drive/go to work in person because it was his right leg. We ended up using the day to drive to my dad's (obv I drove the whole way) so he could work remotely on Fri. Fridays are his one "planning day" a week w/ no hearings so it was easier to do on the fly.
For right now, I'm focused on making it through today/tomorrow. Fri is H's planning day again, so I'll lean on him that day. And by next Mon we should know a lot more about DS's status w/r/t his classmate's test result, to see if we can bring in grandparent reinforcements. H also said if DS is designated a close contact and has to quarantine, he has more options available for time off than if DS is just home due to a closed daycare.
Ugh. I'm so sorry. We just went through something similar. I agree with how you've handled it... well, mostly because we did the same thing. DS1 is in K and we got a call on a Wed that there was a confirmed positive in his classroom. (They can't tell who, etc. but DS knew it was his teacher.) We called the daycare where DS2 is and were like, I guess we need to pick up DS2? There are two daycare co-directors and an owner... we talked to one of the directors and she was like, just hang tight and let us talk about it. They ultimately decided DS2 was ok to stay unless any of us came down with so much as a sniffle... then we'd have to pull him, test, etc. DS1 had to move to digital K--that transition was rough, but I work from home FT now and DH (who's regularly in an office) was able to WFH during DS1's 14-day self-isolation period from school. We had to juggle him... and he's 5. If we had to keep the little guy home, I don't know what we would have done... so I totally get how you're feeling. I know you said your H's hearings are pre-scheduled... but can he take sick time or something so y'all can tag team?
(We ended up all being fine and no one had symptoms... in fact, today is DS1's first day back in in-person school.)
He can, unfortunately he just took a sick day last week. He had vascular surgery on Wed., and we lost power Wed PM for several days. He couldn't work remotely on Thurs. without power, and he also couldn't drive/go to work in person because it was his right leg. We ended up using the day to drive to my dad's (obv I drove the whole way) so he could work remotely on Fri. Fridays are his one "planning day" a week w/ no hearings so it was easier to do on the fly.
For right now, I'm focused on making it through today/tomorrow. Fri is H's planning day again, so I'll lean on him that day. And by next Mon we should know a lot more about DS's status w/r/t his classmate's test result, to see if we can bring in grandparent reinforcements. H also said if DS is designated a close contact and has to quarantine, he has more options available for time off than if DS is just home due to a closed daycare.
I'm so sorry that you're dealing with all of this. It is a lot. My husband's school has already had multiple closures, he's had to quarantine, and now my son's preschool is closed for today and tomorrow. I'm lucky in that my job is very flexible, but dealing with all of these last minute changes is tough, and more so for you where your job and your H's don't offer as much flexibility. Hang in there.
Susie Hang in there. That's all a lot! I'm so sorry! You're right to just take it one day at a time at this point. I'm hoping we make it through winter without any more closures, but I'm not optimistic. Blerg.
I think one of the things that frustrates me too, is that I thought all the cohort-separating, etc., was supposed to avoid the entire daycare shutting down like this. There are 8 classrooms, 9 if they also have a school age classroom like they planned to (I am not sure). This time, the positive came from a family with 2 kids in the center. That's 2 classrooms. Excluding that family, plus all the close contacts (teachers & students in those 2 classes) makes sense, even the younger classroom before the younger sib has a test result. But is it justified to shut down the other 6 classes? It doesn't affect me either way, DS would be home regardless and I think that's correct to do here, but it is really discouraging to think we will have half a month closure every time there's a case anywhere in the entire center. That isn't how I expected it to work when we stuck with group care for this year, and it's not how our schools are doing it either.
I think one of the things that frustrates me too, is that I thought all the cohort-separating, etc., was supposed to avoid the entire daycare shutting down like this. There are 8 classrooms, 9 if they also have a school age classroom like they planned to (I am not sure). This time, the positive came from a family with 2 kids in the center. That's 2 classrooms. Excluding that family, plus all the close contacts (teachers & students in those 2 classes) makes sense, even the younger classroom before the younger sib has a test result. But is it justified to shut down the other 6 classes? It doesn't affect me either way, DS would be home regardless and I think that's correct to do here, but it is really discouraging to think we will have half a month closure every time there's a case anywhere in the entire center. That isn't how I expected it to work when we stuck with group care for this year, and it's not how our schools are doing it either.
My experience with my H's (public, elementary) school has been that the entire school closes for in-person learning until contact tracing can be completed. After that, everyone who is not quarantined can come back. Now, in the district my daughter attends, there have been a few cases at the middle and high schools, and the whole schools haven't had to close. I'm not sure what the difference is/was, but it seems like maybe they've gotten lucky and between the hybrid schedule/the onset of symptoms, the infected individuals had already not been at school for a significant amount of time before the district learns they've tested positive. As far as I know, the school just calls the DOH, and they tell them what they have to do.
I think one of the things that frustrates me too, is that I thought all the cohort-separating, etc., was supposed to avoid the entire daycare shutting down like this. There are 8 classrooms, 9 if they also have a school age classroom like they planned to (I am not sure). This time, the positive came from a family with 2 kids in the center. That's 2 classrooms. Excluding that family, plus all the close contacts (teachers & students in those 2 classes) makes sense, even the younger classroom before the younger sib has a test result. But is it justified to shut down the other 6 classes? It doesn't affect me either way, DS would be home regardless and I think that's correct to do here, but it is really discouraging to think we will have half a month closure every time there's a case anywhere in the entire center. That isn't how I expected it to work when we stuck with group care for this year, and it's not how our schools are doing it either.
My experience with my H's (public, elementary) school has been that the entire school closes for in-person learning until contact tracing can be completed. After that, everyone who is not quarantined can come back. Now, in the district my daughter attends, there have been a few cases at the middle and high schools, and the whole schools haven't had to close. I'm not sure what the difference is/was, but it seems like maybe they've gotten lucky and between the hybrid schedule/the onset of symptoms, the infected individuals had already not been at school for a significant amount of time before the district learns they've tested positive. As far as I know, the school just calls the DOH, and they tell them what they have to do.
Daycare director did call the DOH here, and DOH said they didn't have to close, but director decided to "out of an abundance of caution." We're closed until Mon. 10/26, which is 15 days after the positive test, with no option to return earlier for those who didn't have contact.
I mean "abundance of caution" is great when it comes to our kids but... we're paying full price for half a month of care this month, and how many times is this going to happen? This isn't sustainable for parents.
My experience with my H's (public, elementary) school has been that the entire school closes for in-person learning until contact tracing can be completed. After that, everyone who is not quarantined can come back. Now, in the district my daughter attends, there have been a few cases at the middle and high schools, and the whole schools haven't had to close. I'm not sure what the difference is/was, but it seems like maybe they've gotten lucky and between the hybrid schedule/the onset of symptoms, the infected individuals had already not been at school for a significant amount of time before the district learns they've tested positive. As far as I know, the school just calls the DOH, and they tell them what they have to do.
Daycare director did call the DOH here, and DOH said they didn't have to close, but director decided to "out of an abundance of caution." We're closed until Mon. 10/26, which is 15 days after the positive test, with no option to return earlier for those who didn't have contact.
I mean "abundance of caution" is great when it comes to our kids but... we're paying full price for half a month of care this month, and how many times is this going to happen? This isn't sustainable for parents.
Oh wow, yeah, I missed it was closed for EVERYONE for 2 weeks. That's crazy. My son's preschool announced a 48 hour closure last night because our school district announced two related cases (same family) yesterday, 1 at the middle school, 1 at the high school. The preschool said they had "multiple staff members and their families" affected, which is puzzling to me since we're talking about 2 people out of hundreds (our MS/HS are fed by 5 elementary schools - I don't know exact sizes, but they're not small), and there are only 6 teachers and the director at the preschool this year. And, the middle and high schools are NOT closed. They too used the "abundance of caution" line. I am trying to reserve judgement, but I was even thinking that was a bit excessive UNLESS the infected people actually live with preschool staff members, or MAYBE if the staff members' immediate family was determined to be a close contact of the infected person AND had symptoms. But, for a 48 hour closure, whatever. Two weeks is a whole different story.
Sorry you are dealing with this - it's a nerve wracking issue for sure.
Was this the first positive at the center? It is possible that the director will use this and lessons learned from it moving forward so that next time only those directly impacted will be told to stay home. But it is also possible that the decision was made due to additional factors that are not shared with parents.
And while it sucks to have to pay full price for half a month's care, the center needs to stay afloat and staff need to be paid.
My experience with my H's (public, elementary) school has been that the entire school closes for in-person learning until contact tracing can be completed. After that, everyone who is not quarantined can come back. Now, in the district my daughter attends, there have been a few cases at the middle and high schools, and the whole schools haven't had to close. I'm not sure what the difference is/was, but it seems like maybe they've gotten lucky and between the hybrid schedule/the onset of symptoms, the infected individuals had already not been at school for a significant amount of time before the district learns they've tested positive. As far as I know, the school just calls the DOH, and they tell them what they have to do.
Daycare director did call the DOH here, and DOH said they didn't have to close, but director decided to "out of an abundance of caution." We're closed until Mon. 10/26, which is 15 days after the positive test, with no option to return earlier for those who didn't have contact.
I mean "abundance of caution" is great when it comes to our kids but... we're paying full price for half a month of care this month, and how many times is this going to happen? This isn't sustainable for parents.
WOW, that's some bullshit. I hope the parents of the kids in the other classrooms are pushing back hard on that. There is no reason they need to close the whole school. It kills me that people think closing the schools is "no big deal" and don't think about the consequences on working parents. It's actually infuriating because it feels like there is a societal assumption that everyone has a SAHM to take care of the kids.
If the DOH didn't say they had to close, I'd be asking for a refund if my kid didn't need to be quarantined.
Sending hugs, Susie . DD1 was home last week for 2 days and it sucked (and she's not so bad, if daycare closes and the 2 year old is home I'm screwed). Cases in my town are going up and people on FB are blaming the schools and saying they should go remote which makes me so frustrated. The cases aren't in the schools. They are likely from not wearing masks like indoor dining, sports and small gatherings. People have a few family/friends visit and don't wear masks because they "trust" them. That's how it is spreading these days, especially as it gets colder.
I think one of the things that frustrates me too, is that I thought all the cohort-separating, etc., was supposed to avoid the entire daycare shutting down like this. There are 8 classrooms, 9 if they also have a school age classroom like they planned to (I am not sure). This time, the positive came from a family with 2 kids in the center. That's 2 classrooms. Excluding that family, plus all the close contacts (teachers & students in those 2 classes) makes sense, even the younger classroom before the younger sib has a test result. But is it justified to shut down the other 6 classes? It doesn't affect me either way, DS would be home regardless and I think that's correct to do here, but it is really discouraging to think we will have half a month closure every time there's a case anywhere in the entire center. That isn't how I expected it to work when we stuck with group care for this year, and it's not how our schools are doing it either.
In my area the only reason a daycare or school with separate cohorts like that would close was if they could identify cases of community spread within the building : ie, student to student or teacher to teacher, and not from within the same household. They then want to close the school for a deep cleaning and testing period because it means that the protocols in place were not working and needed strengthening.
. But it is also possible that the decision was made due to additional factors that are not shared with parents.
Ya I have a feeling this might be it. No one wants to close a whole center, but she might have to. .
My mom runs a preschool and recently had to close a classroom per DOH. She also had to talk to liscensing and liscensing told her to close a second classroom since the infected child used a bathroom that the second classroom also uses. She was frustrated since there was no direct contact with the child, and DOH said it was fine but she said you don’t argue with liscensing so she had to.
Sorry you are dealing with this - it's a nerve wracking issue for sure.
Was this the first positive at the center? It is possible that the director will use this and lessons learned from it moving forward so that next time only those directly impacted will be told to stay home. But it is also possible that the decision was made due to additional factors that are not shared with parents.
And while it sucks to have to pay full price for half a month's care, the center needs to stay afloat and staff need to be paid.
It was the first time a child tested positive. They've had a few parent positive tests, but in each case until now, the kids tested negative and the families were just excluded for a quarantine period. In the spring they closed the center for 2 weeks after the first parent positive test, and they've since relaxed that, somewhat out of necessity. It remains to be seen whether they'll relax from full closure after a child positive test.
To your final point though -- man cut me some slack! Paying full price for half "a" month's care does suck, this year I've done it a bunch of times over through spring and early summer with two kids in (well, "in") care. The only discounts we got during lockdown were covered by PPP funding, and that was the measure of what was offered -- i.e. what was covered by PPP funding. Otherwise it's been full tuition every month. You're talking about staying afloat and needing to be paid, their revenue and staff payroll have been unaffected. October is already paid in full, so the money is moot. Against that backdrop, the discretionary, very conservative calls to close, are not leaving me feeling like I need a guilt trip about being insufficiently supportive of the center and staff. It's leaving me feeling like I can't do everything that is asked of me.
Post by icedcoffee on Oct 14, 2020 12:25:26 GMT -5
Honestly, I would be a little ripshit if I was a parent of a kid in one of the classes in which this family does NOT have a child. There's no reason to close those classes at this point. And if there's more information they haven't told you as to why they feel they need to close completely then I would be pissed about the poor communication.
I get closing for 2 weeks for kid 1's class and closing until they get test results for kid 2's class, but everything else is extra and doesn't follow the recs give to us by pros.
Hopefully you find out today that kid 2 was negative and hopefully they can reopen a few classes.
I'm confused. The student who has Covid in their household is in your son's class, correct? Until the student gets a negative result back (hopefully very soon) I would assume your son has been exposed which means your household has been exposed, which means you should keep your daughter home while waiting for the results.
I'm sorry you're going through this, I also feel spread incredibly thin with childcare right now.