The Early Childhood Parent/Caregiver Handbook COVID-19 Edition 2020-2021 School Year - P- 303-728-9100 F- 303-728-9801 4725 Miller St Wheat Ridge ...
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The Early Childhood
Parent/Caregiver Handbook
COVID-19 Edition
2020-2021 School Year
4725 Miller St
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033
P- 303-728-9100
F- 303-728-9801
https://www.mountainphoenix.org/Early Childhood
Parent/Caregiver Handbook
COVID-19 Edition
Introduction 3
A. Arrival and Departure Procedures 4
B. Extra Hygiene Measures and Procedures 5
C. Inclusion Policy 6
E. Fee and Payment Policy 6
F. Admission/Exclusion due to symptoms of illness 6
G. Personal Belongings 8
H. Food 8
I. Visitors/Volunteers 8
J. Field Trips/Special Events 9
K. Parties and Celebrations 9
9
Introduction
Dear Parents/Caregivers,
Our teachers and administration at Mountain Phoenix are committed to providing a
quality program that is safe, educational, child-friendly, and fun!
Mountain Phoenix Community School is committed to providing an Early Childhood
experience as close to what may feel “normal” as possible, while also fully recognizing
and embracing all of the changes in front of us. Keeping the safety of your children, your
family, and our faculty and staff at the forefront of our responsibilities, we have created
this specific COVID Handbook.
This handbook will lay out the changes as we begin in person schooling. As this situation
is unprecedented and constantly evolving, we will do our best to keep you informed of
any changes that come about. We will follow CDC (Center for Disease Control)
guidelines as well as those put forth by our Health Department and Childcare StateLicensing, striving to meet them in a realistic manner when working with young children. Please be sure to read thoroughly, sign and return/email the last page. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about the policies and procedures that are outlined in this Parent Handbook. They are in place to ensure that Mountain Phoenix is a safe and enjoyable place for your family and family’s needs. Sincerely, Administration and Staff A. Arrival and Departure Procedures Kindergarten Hours: 8:00am-1:30pm Monday- Thursday, Remote on Friday Preschool Hours: 8:30am-3:15pm Monday- Thursday 8:30-1:15pm Friday PHASE ONE: August 20th-October 15th Drop-Off Procedures Your teacher will inform you of your classroom’s daily pick up and drop off location. Your child’s teacher or a designated staff member, will be asking for your child’s pre-screening confirmation that you have done through parent square. If you have not done the pre-screening at home or forgot, your child will go through the pre-screening process. If your child passes the screening, looks healthy and has a temperature under 100, they may join us for the day. If your child exhibits symptoms of illness and/or has a temperature over 100, he or she will be required to stay/return home with you. A daily log will be filled by your child’s teacher or staff member as required by the State Health Department. The pre-screening process will also be done for every parent/caregiver who is dropping off. Each parent/caregiver will be filling out the Daily Health Screening Form with a staff member. Pre-Screening Questions The following questions will be presented at drop-off ● Does your child have a cough (new or unexplained persistent cough) ● Does your child have a sore throat ● Does your child have a headache ● Does your child look fatigue ● Does your child have a running nose or congestion ● Does your child have shortness of breath or difficulty breathing ● Does your child chills or muscle/ body aches ● Does your child have loss of taste or smell
● Does your child have a fever of 100 or over
● Has your child had contact with someone who has COVID or signs of symptoms
● Has your child had diarrhea, nausea and vomiting
Please help us protect the health and safety of our students, staff and teachers by answering
honestly to the best of your ability.
B. Extra Hygiene Measures and Procedures
1. Handwashing: As soon as students arrive to the classroom, they will wash their hands
with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Hands will be washed at frequent intervals
throughout the day. Hand sanitizer will be used for classes with ages 3 and up only when
soap and water is not available.
2. Sanitizing/Disinfecting: All hard surfaces will be wiped down throughout the day, before
and after use as well as at the end of each day. Any toys that go into a child’s mouth will
be disinfected as always. All surfaces (including cubbies) and toys will be sprayed prior to
leaving the room throughout the day. All soft toys, pillows, dress-up clothes will be put
away during this phase of opening.
3. Cloth Face Coverings, Mask, Face Shields & Personal Protection Equipment (PPE):
With Colorado shifting to level red (severe risk) and with Childcare being considered
essential, our Preschool and Kindergarten classes will be required to use face
coverings/masks during normal interior or exterior activities starting on December
7th. We want our staff and children to stay safe and healthy so we can continue to operate
during this challenging time.
If a student removes their face mask during outdoor play, this is permissible. At this
young age, however, we do find it is best for the children to keep their masks in place and
avoid discussion and negotiation around when the mask should be on or off. No mask will
be worn during nap (this pertains to Preschool Full day families).
The use of face masks/coverings in Pre-K/Kinder classrooms will be re-evaluated during
Winter Break.
When bringing a mask/face covering to school, please follow these steps:
Put their name (first and last) on the mask.
Send a small container labeled (maybe a reusable sandwich/snack bag) for your child to
place their mask in while at snack / lunch / outside.Send an extra labeled mask in their backpack or lunch box. This note is especially
important for full day students, as we may change to the extra mask after lunch.
IF a student demonstrates COVID-19 symptoms, staff will bring the child over to the
Student Medical Safe Room for parental pick up. All staff working with ECE will follow
staff guidelines. Adults who are unable to follow guidelines will not be permitted on
campus.
Mask/Face Covering Dos and Don’ts
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/about-face-coverings.html
Teachers/staff will communicate with parents if children are unable to maintain proper
use of face coverings per parent/caregiver request. At no time will a staff member require
that a student remove face covering.
Additional PPE will be provided to staff including face coverings, masks, face shields,
gloves, and sanitizer. Face masks will be provided to students if needed as a backup.
*Please note, All policies are subject to change and will be updated.
4. Social distancing: At this time, social (physical) distancing is encouraged and
recognized that we will all do the best we can for preschool and kindergarten.
However, each class is considered a “family.” Each “family” will social distance from
other “families” to assure safety. Classes will not intermix and will be with the same
teachers as much as possible.
Employees will practice 6 feet social distancing from one another. This includes during
lunch, breaks, planning periods, and in staff meetings or other professional development.
Where possible, meetings of employees will be conducted virtually. Some exceptions for
employees will exist for special responsibilities that require 6 feet distancing and in these
situations, appropriate protective equipment and hygiene/sanitation must be used.
Employees (including supervisors) who fail to adhere to these provisions to limit
employee contact will be subject to disciplinary action including dismissal.
5. No outside shoes in the classrooms: All children and Teachers will take off their shoes
and put on their slippers before entering the classroom. Children need to wear socks
everyday (as well as closed-toe-shoes).
E. Fee and Payment Policy
Mountain Phoenix enforces the following policies and procedures for tuition payments:1. Half-day and Full-Day tuition is due on the 1st of each month.
2. After the 4th of each month, a $20 daily charge will be added to your account.
3. There are different ways to paying your child’s tuition. We recommend you make
payments conveniently online through your Jeffco Connect. You can also may payments
over the phone or in the main office with Suzy.
4. There will be monthly reminders for Tuitions due date. It is every family’s responsibility to
make and pay their payments on time. For those who have fallen behind on tuition, a
personal outreach will be made. Spots will be shifted if necessary.
5. For those half-day 12:15 dismissals, if your child is not picked up by 12:20, a $10.00
charge will be added to your Jeffco Account for late pick-up. For those who are
dismissed at 1:30, if your child is not picked up by 1:35, a $10.00 charge will be added to
your Jeffco Account for late pick-up. For Preschool families who have not picked up their
child by 3:20 M-TH, they will be walked to the office with a cost of $10.00, to your Jeffco
Account.
6. All tuition is due regardless of sickness, behavioral/disciplinary removal, vacations,
weather-related closings or holidays (including Thanksgiving, Christmas, snow days, and
Spring Break), emergency-related closings mandated by the state/local
government/DenverHumanServices, like a pandemic.
7. If you need to terminate your child’s enrollment, you must provide a 30 day notice to
relinquish your child’s spot in our program. In the event that no replacement is found, the
tuition obligation remains. This is written in your Early Childhood Contract and can be
referenced if needed.
E. Admission/Exclusion due to symptoms of illness
When a child becomes ill
Children who are ill with fever, diarrhea, vomiting, green-runny nose, puss/oozing eyes, disease
or condition (i.e.- ringworm, head lice, chicken pox, measles, mumps, pink eye, fever over 100
degrees, etc.) will not be allowed at school. It is a health risk to other children and staff members
in our program. If you have any doubts about your child’s health, please check-in with our clinic
aid at 303-728-9100 to be sure they may attend. If your child appears to be sick or has any of
the symptoms above while at school, we will notify the parent or guardian immediately, it is
necessary that the child be PICKED UP within 60 minutes of notification. If no contact has
been made from the parent or anyone on the emergency contact within 15/20 minutes of the
call, CPS will be notified.
Your child will be permitted to return when his/her/temperature is normal for 24 hours without aid
of fever-reducing medication . If your child comes to school while on any fever-reducing
meds, we will call you to come pick up your child immediately. Depending on the prescribed
medications and antibiotics, your child may return to school. Please check in with our clinic aid.A doctor’s note may be needed that your child can return to school because they are no longer contagious. For a child showing COVID-19 If a child is showing COVID-19 symptoms (fever, cough, shortness of breath) at school we will remove them from the classroom. Our clinic aid or staff member will be in close contact as each case will vary. It is recommended that each child who is showing symptoms of COVID to get tested as this will help us move forward with the next measurable steps. If a family chooses not to get tested, we ask that you keep your child home for 10 days after symptoms onset, and 72 hours after their fever resolves without fever-reducing medicines. For most, this will be 14 days after the household contact with COVID-19. Any families that chooses to get tested for COVID-19 and their test comes back positive, we will notify the school families immediately. For those that are in this child’s classroom, including teachers and children everyone will be sent home to quarantine for 14 days from the first day of the child’s symptom. During these 14 days of quarantine, if a child/staff presents a fever of 100 or above or shows signs of symptom. Mountain Phoenix will follow Jeffco Health Department recommendations on possible school closure and deep cleaning. If you’ve been in close contact with a person/child testing positive for COVID- 19, we ask you to KEEP your child home. We ask that all parents and staff let us know of any potential exposure IMMEDIATELY. A potential exposure means being a household contact or having close contact or caring for within 6 feet of an individual with confirmed or suspected COVID- 19 for at least 10 minutes. The timeframe for having contact with an individual includes the period of 48 hours before the individual became symptomatic. If you or child have been exposed with someone who has tested positive, you must complete the full 14 days of quarantine regardless of test results. If there is a positive case of COVID-19 in a child or an adult who has been present in the childcare center, we will inform The Health Department and our families. All children who are showing any signs of sickness or illness, they will be removed immediately by a teacher or staff member to a safer isolated area. This will help with less exposure to the other children and teachers in the classroom. As a reminder all cases vary and we will work closely with our Health Department for appropriate next steps. *Please note, these policies are subject to change.
F. Confirmed Cases At any time a confirmed positive case of COVID-19 happens, the Jefferson County Public Health will be involved and perform their own tracing beside our own. In order to return to school safely, symptomatic students/staff members must wait 14 days from the first day of presenting symptoms and have significant improvements in symptoms AND have been fever free for 72 hours without fever reducing medication. Our district school nurse must clear the child/staff member to return to school/work. *Please note, these policies are subject to change. G. Classroom closures As you know, not only do children get sick but our teachers and staff to do. We do our best to find subs to help in replacement of those sick members. At a time with uncertainty where a sub is scarce and unavailable, some classrooms might not have school the next day or two. Your child’s teacher will stay in close contact with what is in the best interest for the class. H. Emergency Meds Permission for a child to be administered medicine in the school must be approved by the Physician and parent utilizing the Medical Health Form. Medications for maintenance will be administered throughout the day as required by your child’s teacher. These meds will be kept in your child’s classroom in the Pink Go Bag and placed only for the teachers/staff reach. All medications must be given to the Clinic Aid first as required paperwork must be filled. There will be a medication log for the teacher/staff to fill out based on the child’s meds and symptoms. Children will be given their medication according to the prescription specifications only. G. Personal Belongings At Mountain Phoenix, we ask that all personal toys/treasures and jewelry stay at home. During this COVID time, we ask that headbands stay home too. Items that do come to school, such as, slippers, water bottles, lunch boxes and nap beddings (if staying all day in preschool), need to be labeled with either your child’s name and or classroom symbol. Bedding will be sent home on the last day of each week, and it is mandatory that bedding be laundered in hot water before returning the next week. H. Food Each classroom will have a certain snack each day. Your child’s teacher will provide you with the snack rhythm. For lunch, we ask that you do not bring in lunches that need to be
heated. If your child’s lunch needs to be warm, purchase a thermos for these specific needs. No
beverages other than water are allowed and please do not send SWEETS.
Food Allergies:
If your child has food allergies, please reach out to Joy Wegs @ jwegs@jeffcoschools.us and
together with your teacher, we will create a plan for your child. More information around this is in
our Early Childhood Handbook.
I. Volunteers
We will continue to have Volunteers this school year but it might look a little different. We can no
longer have Volunteers in the classroom during school hours. There is still availability for work to
be done outside and outside school hours. Please reach out to your child’s teacher or Shannon
Fielder for more information.
J. Field Trips/Special Events/Creek Walks
There will be no field trips or special events/gatherings at this time. Please check in with your
child’s teacher regarding open house, back to school nights, parent meetings and classroom
creek walks.
K. In-class Activities:
At this time, with added safety measures, families are not allowed in the classrooms. Teachers
will be reaching out directly with their birthday celebration plans.
Mountain Phoenix Early Childhood
Parent/Caregiver COVID-19 Handbook Receipt Form
Parents or Caregivers,
Please thoroughly review the Parent Handbook”COVID-19” edition for the 2020-2021 school
year, which contains the policies and procedures for Mountain Phoenix while in the process of
reopening. After reading the handbook, please complete this form and return it to the school.
This form will be kept in your child’s file for the duration of the school year.Thank you for your cooperation. Sincerely, Administration and Early Childcare staff from Mountain Phoenix I, ___________________________________________ (print your name), the parent/caregiver of ______________________________________________ (print child’s name), hereby acknowledge receipt of Mountain Phoenix Parent Handbook COVID-19 edition. I have read and agree to adhere to all the policies and regulations set forth in this handbook. Parent/Caregiver Signature: ______________________________ Date: ________________________________________________
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