The Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) recognizes helping young children to be comfortable wearing face masks and to keep face masks on may be challenging. It is important to help children feel more secure wearing a face mask when around other children and adults.

The CDC COVID resource pages are recommended as the primary source of up-to-date and accurate information. As recommendations regarding the mitigation of COVID-19 continue to evolve, child care providers are urged to stay up-to-date on the most recent CDC Guidance for Operating Child Care.

Best Practices and Resources for Child Care Providers:

To protect yourself and others from COVID-19, CDC continues to recommend masking is a critical public health tool for preventing spread of COVID-19, and it is important to remember that any mask is better than no mask. Learn about the types of masks and respirators.

Overall Key Updates:

• Masks and respirators are effective at reducing transmission of the Coronavirus when worn consistently and correctly.
• Choose a well-fitting and comfortable mask or respirator that your child can wear properly. A poorly fitting or uncomfortable mask or respirator might be worn incorrectly or removed often, and that would reduce its intended benefits.
  • Choose a size that fits over the child’s nose and under the chin but does not impair vision.
• If your child has a hard time breathing, gets dizzy, or has other symptoms while you are trying to get the mask to fit better or when using an ASTM F3502 mask or a respirator, choose a regular cloth or disposable mask. They should continue to follow CDC guidance to protect themselves and others. Consult your healthcare provider if these symptoms do not resolve.
• Parents and caregivers may have questions about NIOSH-approved respirators (such as N95s) for children. Although respirators may be available in smaller sizes, they are typically designed to be used by adults in workplaces, and therefore have not been tested for broad use in children.
• Clear masks or cloth masks with a clear plastic panel are an alternative type of mask that may be helpful when interacting with certain groups of people.

Resources:

• Child-sized high quality respirator masks (KN95/N95).
• How to Find the Best KN95 Face Masks for Kids | Parents
• Amazon.com : powecom kn95 kids

• Most children are used to wearing and seeing people in masks. Predictable and consistent routines around mask wearing can help young children feel comfortable and know what to expect. Treat mask wearing as an emerging skill. Support children in learning to wear a mask consistently to be healthy and safe by showing children how to wear their mask so it fits securely over their mouth and nose. Give positive feedback to children for their efforts and keep it playful!
• Find more ideas in Helping Children Understand Emotions When Wearing Masks:
• Social stories may also be helpful. Children love to read stories that include their pictures and photos of people they know. You can even make your own social story with photos of adults and children in your program. You can also use this Wearing Masks story from the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations. Also available in Spanish.
• CDC’s Your Guide to Masks: The CDC has much more detail to their guidance regarding wearing of masks. They discuss the following about masks: How to select, How to wear, How to clean and dry, How to store.
• Resources for Masks for Children: To help support families, and the Early Intervention and early childhood education community, a list of resources to help support and teach young children about wearing a face mask.
• Face Coverings Requested and Required flyers: ​Programs who would like, can print and display these flyers at their ECE program.
  • Face Coverings Requested Flyer (English)
  • Face Coverings Requested Flyer (Spanish)
  • Face Coverings Required Flyer (English)
  • Face Coverings Required Flyer (Spanish)
• Action Learning Network: Tips for Helping Kids Wear Masks
• Face Masks in Head Start and Child Care Programs– tip sheet for answers to frequently asked questions about wearing masks in Head Start and child care settings
• Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities: A Toolkit for Helping Your Child Wear a Mask During COVID-19

Resources for Use with Children

• Sesame Street in Communities: All About Mask
• Sesame Street in Communities (videos): A New Kind of Picnic and Hooper’s Store Reopens
• Action Learning Network: How to Wear a Mask Like a Health Hero
• Greetings While Social Distancing: This colorful greeting board uses expressive photos of children to demonstrate ways to greet each other while maintaining social distancing. In English and Spanish, the examples included are air hug, elbow bump and thumbs up

The CDC COVID resource pages are recommended as the primary source of up-to-date and accurate information. As recommendations regarding the mitigation of COVID-19 continue to evolve, child care providers are urged to stay up-to-date on the most recent CDC Guidance for Operating Child Care

Best Practices for Child Care Providers:

• Improving ventilation is an important COVID-19 prevention strategy that can reduce the number of virus particles in the air. Healthy indoor air reduces the risk of spreading COVID-19. Ventilation is an extremely important because we know the Delta Variant transmits very easily indoors. Ventilation can reduce the likelihood of spreading disease in all group care settings.

• Bringing fresh outdoor air into a building or home helps keep virus particles from concentrating inside. This can be done by safely opening multiple doors and windows, using child-safe fans to increase the effectiveness of open windows, and making changes to the HVAC or air filtration systems.

• Do not use ionizers because ionization of the air aggravates respiratory conditions such as asthma.

• If your child care center or family child care home does not have an HVAC system or lacks extra filtration, consider using a portable high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) cleaner. HEPA cleaners trap particles that people exhale when breathing, talking, singing, coughing, and sneezing.

• When choosing a HEPA cleaner, select one that is the right size for the room(s). One way to do this is to select a HEPA fan system with a Clean Air Delivery that meets or exceeds the square footage of the room in which it will be used. See EPA’s Guide to Air Cleaners in the Home for more information.

• Key questions to ask about HVAC Systems and Ventilation:
  • Does our HVAC system have a filter with a Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) rating of 13 or higher to filter pollutants (e.g., pesticides, wildfire smoke) or harmful particles (e.g., COVID-19) from the air? If not, can this system accommodate such a filter?
  • Does our HVAC system meet the goal of exchanging the air in the room at least five times an hour? If not, are there ways to improve the air exchange?
  • Do we need to improve our mechanical or natural HVAC ventilation systems?
  • Do we need to change or supplement our ventilation systems with exhaust fans, portable fans, portable air cleaners, or new filters?

• Outside is a safer choice than inside. Outdoor activities should be prioritized. When possible, physically active play should be done outside. Maintain cohorts if feasible in outdoor play spaces.

Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Resources

• Tips for Working with a Ventilation Consultant
• CDC Strategies for Improving Ventilation in Facilities
• CDC Strategies for Improving Ventilation in Homes
• CDC Ventilation in Buildings and FAQs
• Outside Time and Beyond: How to Include Outdoor Learning and Play in Your Daily Classroom or Family Child Care Routine

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) COVID-19 resource pages are recommended as the primary source for up-to-date and accurate information. As recommendations regarding the mitigation of COVID-19 continue to evolve, child care providers are urged to stay up-to-date on the most recent CDC Guidance for Operating Child Care.

“Cohorting” or assigning staff and children to groups every day limits the number of close contacts they have and lowers the risk for spread of COVID-19.

• More people “mix” or interact with others from outside their own household or from a different group (cohort), the higher the risk of COVID-19 spread.
• The closer these interactions are and the longer the interaction is, the higher the risk of COVID-19 spread.
• Use of cohorts helps limits the number of people potentially exposed if there is a case or outbreak of COVID-19.
• Cohorts can reduce the number of people exposed to COVID-19 if someone tests positive, meaning fewer children and/or staff would need to be quarantined or isolated if there is a positive case. This helps keep children engaged in early learning programs and helps keep staff employed consistently.
• Because children in early learning settings are doing in-person learning with staff, it is important to limit social circles beyond these settings.

Best Practices and Strategies for Child Care Providers:

• Assign children to small groups and try to keep them the same every day, to the greatest extent possible.
• Staff should be assigned to individual groups and should not mix with other groups.
• Avoid mixing groups during daily activities, and limit combining of groups at the beginning and end of the day, to the extent possible.
• If they are mixed for supervision purposes, try to keep the groups at least six feet apart to the degree possible.
• If groups are combined, track which groups (including children’s and staff’s names) and the timeframes they are together.
• If a child attends more than one setting and participates in a cohort in each setting, contact tracing should occur through both cohorts, one in each location.
• Child care providers may choose to have smaller groups of children because of their physical space.
• Programs must adhere to staff-to-child ratios and licensing rules by provider type.
• Stagger use of communal spaces such as indoor large motor spaces, active play areas, playgrounds, gyms, halls, cafeterias, etc.
• Prioritize outdoor drop-off and pick-up, if possible, and stagger them, if possible.

Cohorting Resources

• Cohorting from CDC in the School Guidance
• AAP Guidance on Cohorting
• Head Start Forward: Health and Safety Considerations

The CDC COVID resource pages are recommended as the primary source of up-to-date and accurate information. As recommendations regarding the mitigation of COVID-19 continue to evolve, child care providers are urged to stay up-to-date on the most recent CDC Guidance for Operating Child Care.

Certification Announcements

• Compliance with Health Face Covering Order – Obsolete (as of Dec. 10, 2021)
• COVID-19 Policy Updates – Obsolete (as of Dec. 10, 2021)
• Announcement C-20-04: Suspension of Regulatory Requirements for Certified Child Care Facilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic – Obsolete (as of Sept. 20, 2021)
• Announcement C-21-06: Ending of Child Care Certification Regulations Suspensions Under the State Disaster Emergency Declaration – Obsolete (as of Oct. 18, 2021)
• Announcement C-20-05: Obsolete Certification Announcements for Certified Child Care Providers – Obsolete (as of Sept. 30, 2021)
• Frequently Asked Questions: Guidance for Tuberculin Skin Testing (TST) and COVID-19 Vaccinations – Obsolete (as of Jan. 6, 2022)
• Announcement C-20-13: Reopening of Certified Child Care Facilities Temporarily or Permanently Closed Due to COVID-19 – Obsolete (as of Sept. 30, 2021)
• Announcement C-20-11: Non-Licensed Part-Day School Age Child Care (SACC) Program or Learning Pod Notification of Operation – Obsolete (as of Aug. 31, 2021)
• Announcement C-20-09: Emergency Temporary Relocation of Facility due to the Governor Issuing a Declaration of Disaster — Specific to Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) – Obsolete (as of Sept. 30, 2021)

ELRC Announcements

• Announcement C-21 #6: Restoring Child Care Works Invoicing, Attendance, and Payment Policies – Obsolete (as of Sept. 30, 2021)
• Announcement ELRC 21 #05: Keystone STARS During the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) – Effective (as of Jun. 24, 2021)
• Announcement ELRC 20-18: Keystone STARS Designation Maintenance for Facilities Temporarily Closed Due to COVID-19 – Obsolete (as of Sept. 30, 2021)
• Announcement 20-17: Child Care Works Payment During the Proclamation of Disaster Emergency – Obsolete (as of Sept. 30, 2021)
• Announcement 20-15: Changes to Policy Regarding Parents/Caretakers Caring for Their Own Children in a Child Care Setting During the COVID-19 Pandemic – Obsolete (as of Sept. 30, 2021)
• ELRC 20-#14: Keystone STARS Designation Process for FY 2020-2021 – Effective (as of Jun. 24, 2021)
• ELRC 20-#13: Updates to the Child Care Works School-Age Blended Rate Payment Policy for the 2020-21 School Year – Obsolete (as of Jul. 1, 2021)