Child care programs may have questions or concerns about children and their families who are traveling, and the child returning to a child care or summer program.
The CDC Guidance for Child Care Programs that Remain Open does not address travel situations such as traveling across state boundaries or traveling internationally. The CDC Guidance states that child care programs must defer to state agencies, state licensing regulations, state health departments, and follow community-based local guidance when designing their program policies, procedures, and practices. For example, a Pennsylvania program must follow the Governor’s Guidance on Phases (Red, Yellow, Green).
Domestic travel outside the state by families (coming into Pennsylvania from outside the state or locality) does NOT warrant across the board exclusion from child care. Domestic travel situations should NOT trigger a child’s automatic exclusion from the child care program.
The CDC Guidance for Child Care Programs covers direct screening methods for program personnel and enrolled children, i.e. temperature-taking, health-checks, symptom-screening (but travel is not listed as a reason to exclude a child).
The Summer Program FAQ (from the Pennsylvania Department of Health) includes this information:
Q: If a summer program is planning operations in a county that is in the yellow or green phase, must they restrict enrollment to only children residing in counties with similar designations?
No, there are no restrictions limiting enrollments based on the designation of where children reside and enrollment in summer program activities.
There is also this guidance on the CDC website for an individual who travels internationally and returns to the USA – the individual should follow a 14-day quarantine period.
For additional information and supports, visit the PA Keys website.