10 to a room and no teddy bears: Childcare in Hamilton will look different during COVID-19

Play-Doh stored in separate containers, Lego bricks in individual Ziploc bags and no teddy bears allowed are all ways childcare in Hamilton will likely look different because of COVID-19.

Premier Doug Ford has announcedchild-carecentres in Ontario can open as early as Friday, but there's still no set date for when that will happen at the 234 child care locations in Hamilton.

"We will continue working closely with both our Public Health colleagues and child care agencies to ensure a safe and supported approach to reopening child care centres in Hamilton," stated Grace Mater, director of children's services in a media release.

"Our priority remains supporting families and keeping children, child care staff and the community healthy and safe."

Part of that process involves an inspection and training for staff. The province has also outlined strict protocols for reopening that include extra cleaning, mandatory screening of staff and children, limits on visitors and updated plans to respond to the virus.

Perhaps the biggest change will be a limit of 10 people per room. That number includes both staff and children and greatly reduces the number of childcare spots in the city.

"It will be a different reality for sure," said MarniFlaherty, CEO of Today's Family, which operates centres in Hamilton, Halton and Haldimand-Norfolk.

Her team has been part of the effort to supply emergency child care for essential workers during the pandemic and took part in a Zoom call with other providers and city staff Thursday to share tips based on their experience.

"It's hard for people to think about reopening with the scariness of COVID," explained Flaherty. "Just hearing from people who have been doing it for 14 weeks and are quite positive we can get through it as long as we understand what our new rules are is positive."

The virus means treating each room in a home or child care centre as an individual space for 10 people who can't mix with those in the next room over.

Fewer spots will be a problem

It also affects things like blocks, toys and Play-Doh that children would typically share.

"Anything we think can't be cleaned on a daily basis probably needs to go into the closet until we get the green light that we're not in such a high-risk situation," said Flaherty, pointing to stuffed animalsas an example.

The CEO said child care providers taken lessons from what's happened at hospitals and care homes during the pandemic and the risks that come from bringing people together.

"Childcare is as fragile as a long-term care facility when you're thinking about people's health," she said."We have to understand what we're doing and why we're doing it. So an approach that allows everybody to feel comfortable before we open up makes really good sense."

Ontario Education Minister shares details about the reopening of child-care centres.

4 years ago

Duration 2:43

Ontario has announced that child-care centres across the province can reopen as soon as Friday, June 12.

Understanding the screening protocol, importance of hand washing and sanitizing high-touch points in a room are all crucial, she said.

There wasn't enough childcare to meet the demand even before COVID-19, according to Flaherty, and the virus is just going to make the situation even tougher.

"When you think about the volume of families that will be disappointed that they can't access the childcare they used to have because it's at its maximum it is going to be a problem."

Rising costs need government support

Another major issue will be cost.Flaherty estimates serving smaller groups of children, following the necessary protocolsmaking sure staff are properly paid will cost three times as much as it did pre-pandemic.

That burden can't be placed solely on the backs of parents, she said, so it's important the government step up.

"I don't think people will feel confident opening up the doors without knowing we have the support of our government to make sure we're sustainable."

The new reality also raises a question if good childcare is something society values, what are people willing to do to make sure it's possible?

"This is about strong neighbourhoods," said Flaherty.

"This is about families being able to leave their [children] in places they're proud of it has to be about quality for kids and we need to be able to invest in a much bigger way in childcare in order for it to actually be what I'm sure all families are wanting it to be."