Childcare

Hunter College Children’s Learning Center (CLC) currently operates a licensed facility under the New York State Department of Health.  The facility is located on the second floor of Hunter College’s North Building and will be made available to vaccinated faculty and students, and staff as capacity permits.

CLC hours will be 8am to 4pm for children, with staff scheduled from 7:30am to 4:30pm for preparations and cleaning.

The CLC license at full capacity provides for 40 pre-school and 13 after-school children, totaling 53 children.  The facility will operate under limited capacity with no more than 15 children.

The facility will reopen at 25% capacity, with five children and two staff persons in each classroom.

Office spaces will be set up for physical distancing for the executive director and office manager.

Staff shall arrive through the building main entrance wearing an approved face covering and having completed their entry protocols, as outlined in the General Guidelines.  Staff will report to the CLC. All staff members are required to complete the COVID-19 Safety training.

Staff will provide a pair of their own work shoes to be worn in the Center to be left at the Center.  

After signing in, they will go to the shoe cubbies provided and change into Center shoes and then bag outside shoes and put them away in their cubbies.

Hair needs to be pulled back if it is long.

After washing their hands, using CDC recommended protocol, they put on a smock/t-shirt, and go to their assigned area.

If they are working the drop-off/pick-up area, they will wear a mask, face shield and gloves.

Parents will be required to show proof of vaccination to enter the campus.  If the parent and/or child are not feeling well, they should stay home.

Parents shall drop off children at the CLC entry, but will not be permitted to enter the facility, except in case of an emergency.

Both parents and children shall wear approved face coverings.  

Physical distancing markers will be located in the hallway for parents and students to cue while waiting to enter the center.  

A designated sanitizing table will be provided for parents to place items if needed.  Parents must provide two pairs of clean, safe shoes for their child to be worn inside the facility to remain at the CLC.

At check-in, a staff member will do a visual health check of the child (extreme fussiness, red cheeks, lethargy, etc) and the child’s temperature will be taken.  If the child does not pass the health check, the child will not be permitted to attend.

Children will be guided by staff to the hallway bench to help change his/her shoes and then into the center to complete CDC recommended hand-washing protocol. 

When leaving the CLC staff will put smocks and masks in the laundry bag and change from the CLC shoes to non-CLC shoes.

Before leaving the CLC staff will spray their work shoes with shoe sanitizer and leave them to dry overnight with spray provided by the Center.

Shoes must be sprayed in the office hallway away from children and placed in the designated shoe shelf.

When children are ready to be picked up to go home, the front desk staff will notify the classroom teacher via phone intercom to bring the child and their belongings to the front door.

Staff will help children take their CLC shoes off and put their non-Center shoes on to go home.

Staff and parents will be wearing masks during this transition. Staff will be wearing face shields and gloves at pick-up.

The CLC furniture has been set up in the rooms being used for pre-school to create more centers, so children can play alone. Minimal toys will be set out so cleaning and sanitation can be done between children moving from place to place. The children will also do hand washing in between each station.

Classrooms will still have morning meetings, we will again arrange the circle much larger giving children 6 feet between each other but opportunities for stories and time to talk about how they are feeling during this time.

• Staff and children will wash their hands before and after mealtimes.
• Tables will be cleaned before and after mealtimes.
• Chairs will be cleaned after lunch.
• Children will be spread out at lunchtime, allowing for more room to eat and less chance of food handling by another child.
• Employees will serve the children the snack.
• Employees will serve the children milk or water.
• Children will use a paper/plastic lunch bag or container with the child’s name clearly labeled on the outside of the lunch container. All items inside the lunch bag must also be clearly labeled with the child’s name.
• One employee will open the contents of the lunch bag and another employee will hand the contents of the lunch bag to each individual child.
• After eating all children must wash their hands. 
• Staff will sanitize the milk, water jugs before putting them back into the refrigerator/freezer.
• All service ware that was taken out of the kitchen and used for service is cleaned as usual with the soap/water/sanitizer method.
• Employees need to wash their hands when finished cleaning.

• Pillows, toys, stuffed animals, or any type of soft sleeping toy that comes from home will not be permitted in the classrooms.
• Blankets and cot sheets will be taken home to be laundered twice a week. 
• Blankets and cot sheets will be placed in a sealed plastic bag immediately if a child has a potty accident, an excess of bodily secretions contacts the sheet, or if the sheet is excessively dirty.
• Cots will be cleaned and sanitized after each use.

Physical distancing will be maintained inside the CLC to the greatest extent possible. Where physical distancing cannot practically be maintained between students, plexiglass partitions will be provided. Where physical distancing cannot practically be maintained between staff and students, staff will also wear a face shield.

The employee and children groupings are to remain as static as possible, having the same group of children stay with the same staff wherever possible. Group size shall be limited to their instructional groupings.

Different stable groups of children shall have no or minimal contact with one another. Children shall stay with their classroom group during outside playtime, which will be on staggered schedules. On days with inclement weather, groups shall remain indoors.

Non-essential visitors will be prohibited on site.

A designated area will be set aside for pick-ups and deliveries, limiting contact to the extent possible.

Limited in-person staff gatherings (e.g. breaks, meetings) to the greatest extent possible.

Employees shall maintain a distance of at least 6 feet at all times unless the safety of the core activity requires a shorter distance (e.g. jointly responding to the needs of a child).

The CLC shall adhere to hygiene, cleaning, and disinfection requirements from the CDC and DOH and maintain logs on-site that documents the date, time and scope of cleaning and disinfection.

The CLC shall provide and maintain hand hygiene stations: handwashing with soap, running warm water, and disposable paper towels; alcohol-based hand sanitizer containing 60% or more alcohol for areas where handwashing is not available/practical.

Staff and children will be required to practice hygiene in the following instances:

• Upon arrival to the first program activity
• Between all program activities
• After using the restroom
• Before eating; and
• Before departing the last program activity

Appropriate cleaning/disinfection supplies shall be provided for shared and frequently touch surfaces and encourage staff to use these supplies before/after use of these surfaces, followed by hand hygiene.

Staff shall regularly clean and disinfect equipment and toys using the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) listed products and identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as effective against COVID-19.

Staff shall limit children from using toys that can’t be cleaned/sanitized.

Parents will provide their own bedding for rest time. Sheets and blankets will be laundered twice a week or as needed. They will be stored in their cubbies in a sealed bag, in a covered plastic container.  

When caring for young children, staff shall:

• Wear an over-large button-down, long sleeves shirt or smock and put long hair up off the collar in a ponytail or other updo.
• Have multiple changes of clothes on hand for employees and children of the program.
• Place contaminated clothes in a plastic bag and send home for laundry or wash on premises.

• The top, sides, hooks, and shelves of the cubbies will be cleaned and sanitized daily.
• The contents of the cubby baskets will be removed, and the baskets will be cleaned and sanitized as needed.
• The tops, sides, and shelves of the toy storage areas will be cleaned and sanitized twice daily.
• Toys that cannot be cleaned and sanitized thoroughly will not be used.
• The trashcans will be cleaned and sanitized daily.
• The bathroom sinks, faucets, and toilets, will be cleaned and sanitized twice daily.

 3-Step Cleaning Process

Staff will use the 3-step cleaning process for anything that cannot be run through the sanitizer or laundered. The 3-step process is as follows:

• Spray the objects with soapy water and wipe off.
• Spray the objects with clean water and wipe off.
• Spray an approved EPA disinfectant on the objects to sanitize, let sit for a minimum of 2 minutes.

Isolation

During the day, if any COVID-19 symptoms appear with staff, they will follow the college’s procedures for Isolation.

Children with symptoms will be accompanied by staff (wearing face-covering and face shield) and isolated until parents arrive.

Contact Tracing and Shutdown

Should a child, visitor, or staff member be diagnosed, all college practices for contact tracing and shutdown shall be followed.