Hundreds of parents were left scrambling after learning their children’s daycare has closed until early next year due to a Covid-19 outbreak.
The daycare said it made the move to keep its kids and staffers safe, however it does raise the question if we will see more closures like this going forward.
Parents of more than 250 kids, plus 50 staffers, started getting word Wednesday night that Educational Playcare’s Farmington location has shut down until Jan. 3.
The facility said after consulting with the Farmington Valley Health District, it determined it needed to close to reduce the spread of Covid-19 there.
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The health district said the 12 cases at Educational Playcare are high for a facility that size, and it kept having additional cases pop up in multiple classrooms and buildings, making closing not a necessity, but an inconvenience to hundreds of working families.
University of New Haven Senior Lecturer of Business and Analytics Brian Marks says these disruptive closings should subside as Covid-19 does.
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At the same time, it does present companies with a choice if they are getting tired of workplace disruptions due to childcare issues.
“Maybe this is an opportunity to provide an added benefit and provide childcare at the workplace,” Marks said.
At the same time, the Office of Early Childhood has funneled more than $106 million in federal Covid-19 funding to help childcare providers stay connected with their kids and families while they are home due to the virus.
OEC COO Christopher Lyddy told NBC Connecticut his agency is “…making sure that parents and teachers are communicating, more regularly, that the parents, when they are quarantined at home, have activities and the technology to support that relationship building and that continuity of care.”
A report closely followed by the state indicates Covid-19 was the leading cause of daycare closures in the 12 months ending June 30, 2021, but it only represented about a third of the reasons behind facility shutdowns.
Many others closed because of changes of ownership or profitability.
