Hamilton child-care centres brace for reopening amid fear it’s a ‘huge risk’ for families

Child-care centres across Hamilton are bracing for thousands of students to return to their programs in September as advocates worry about physical-distancing measures in the facilities and an increased risk of transmitting COVID-19.

Early in March, at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds if not thousands of Hamilton parents were left without before- or after-school programs for their children when schools were closed due to the outbreak. In the months since, several of the 1,359 licensed spaces for child programs reopened in smaller capacities to care for young children while parents are working or unable to care for their child.

Now, the programs are expecting a nearly full return to child-care attendance when schools reopen in September, following Education Minister Stephen Lecce's announcement that the centres will be allowed to operate at full capacity.

We're working hard to figure out what that's going to look like," said Marni Flaherty, CEO of Today's Family, whose organization hosts 27 sites and nearly 100 in-home licensees across Hamilton, Halton and Haldimand-Norfolk.

My hope is that we can transition the children seamlessly into our programs by working closely with the school boards."

In the weeks leading up to reopenings, child-care advocates across Ontario have raised concerns about the potential for spreading COVID-19 in child-care centres. The primary concern, according to advocates, is that children will be exposed to others who are not part of their classroom cohorts when attending child-care programs.

The before- and after-school programs basically negate the whole cohorting idea," said Amy O'Neil, director of Treetop Children's Centre.

It exposes those kids to other cohorts during the day, and then they come back to us at the end of the day. It's a huge risk."

In an interview with the Star, Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist with Toronto General Hospital and the University of Toronto, said the programs could increase the vulnerability of the entire system, meaning they'll need significant safety measures in place.

The programs just increase the size of a potential outbreak," Bogoch told the Star. And it's kind of a matter of time. Even though we have low rates of community transmission now, at some point in time someone's going to go to a school, or an after-school program, with COVID-19."

Flaherty said the Today's Family program is implementing measures for contact tracing that can keep track of children's interactions.

What we're trying to do is, if a child is in a couple cohorts in a day, we will document all this to make sure ... we have the proper documentation to quickly contact anyone who's been in contact with whoever has tested positive," she said.

Late last week, the education ministry released COVID-19 operational guidance" for before- and after-school centres that include policies regarding masking, screening, cleaning of shared spaces and physical distancing.

The guidelines recommend limiting the mixing of cohorts by making best efforts to group the before- and after-school program class with the same core day class" and using large, well-ventilated spaces ... or outdoor spaces as much as possible."

The province, in partnership with the federal government, has committed to providing $234.6 million to keep children and staff safe" in child-care settings, including before- and after-school programs.

Flaherty said Today's Family is working on enhanced cleaning protocols and mask-wearing requirements.

It's too soon to say exactly how many children are returning to child care programs, Flaherty said, but noted that the programs have a lot of families coming back."

-With files from the Toronto StarJacob Lorinc's reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. The funding allows him to report on stories about education.