Coronavirus - Health Alert

Please make sure you have seen our most recent health alert which we sent out Wednesday, April 8. If you did not receive this health alert in your inbox, it means you are only signed up to receive our newsletter and not our Child Care Health Alerts. To sign up, please go to www.snohd.org/notifyme.

Thank You Child Care Providers

We are grateful to our child care, early learning and school age providers for stepping up to provide an essential service for those workers who need care for their children while they keep our critical infrastructure operational. We appreciate all you are doing to keep our children safe and their parents at work. We keep you in our thoughts. Please take care.

Below are a few links to agencies that may provide some helpful services for you and your families during these changing times.

Washington State Coronavirus website business and worker information: https://coronavirus.wa.gov/business-workers
Washington State Department of Financial Institutions: https://dfi.wa.gov/coronavirus and https://dfi.wa.gov/coronavirus/financial-resources
Business Resources for Washington State: https://www.business.wa.gov/site/alias__business/1561/covid-19.aspx
Employment Security Department (including unemployment): https://esd.wa.gov/newsroom/covid-19
US Small Business Administration low-interest loans https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/disaster-assistance
Child Care Aware resources list for child care providers: https://childcareawarewa.org/2020/03/13/covid-19-what-can-child-care-providers-do/

The WA Compass Provider Portal has a new field to display available child care slots. You can find the instructions here - New Child Care Provider Portal. The Child Care Aware Family Center is also working to connect child care providers still operating with families looking for care.

New Disinfecting Labels

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their environmental cleaning and disinfecting guidance document on March 26, 2020. The general guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting can be found on the CDC website, as well as a full, detailed guidance document. The three step process that child care providers have always used to keep their programs healthy must be followed:

Clean surfaces with soap. This removes dirt and other soil, as well as physically removes many germs.
Rinse with clean water. This step is important to remove the soap which can affect the sanitizer or disinfectant’s ability to kill germs.
Apply a sanitizer (for food contact surfaces and mouthed toys) or disinfectant (for bathrooms, diaper areas, and other high touch surfaces). Make sure to allow surface to remain wet with product for the required contact time.

Always wash your hands thoroughly after cleaning and disinfecting in your child care.
For COVID-19, make sure that you are using an approved disinfectant product. According to the CDC, this should be either:

A disinfectant approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use against the virus that causes COVID-19. You can find the long list of approved products here. The University of Washington has put together a handout that includes safer products. Check with your licensor before using a new product and make sure whatever you use is fragrance free.
A bleach and water mixture that is at least 1000ppm chlorine. For 6% bleach, this would be a mixture of 4 teaspoons of plain, unscented bleach to 1 quart of cool water. A new bleach label for COVID-19 disinfection can be found here. The other labels (for soap/water, water, sanitizer} can be found on our website.

Whichever product you use, make sure to leave the product on for the minimum required contact time listed on the product label. For bleach and water, the minimum contact time according to CDC is 1 minute, although you may choose to stick with 2 minutes to remain consistent with your other solutions and not confuse staff.

Gardening with Children

During the rainy month of February, our program partnered with WSU Cooperative Extension SNAP Ed and Snohomish Co. ECEAP to create the second part of our Gardening in Child Care and Early Learning series. This class was cancelled but we want to share the materials we developed.

Gardens in child care provide opportunities for children to play, explore and create in the dirt. Gardening is a fun way to experience where foods come from; to be outdoors digging in the dirt and finding tiny creatures; to learn math and science skills; to problem solve and learn to work together. Gardening activities include deciding where to place the garden space, determining what foods to grow, learning how to care for the plants and when to harvest them and finally, eating the freshly picked fruits and vegetables as a part of a meal. Many important school readiness skills can be learned through the natural, sequential process of gardening.

Given our current need for keeping children at a distance of 3 - 6 feet, gardening is an appropriate and reasonable activity for children to do together, yet individually. In small groups of 4-6, children can be given their own digging tool (a child-sized trowel or plastic serving utensil or even a large serving spoon.) In a plot of dirt about 12’ by 4’ feet they can be instructed to dig out the weeds and grass, loosen the soil, find worms and sort out the small stones. Small seedlings or seeds can be directly planted in the plot. This is good time of year for planting spring green seeds such as red and leaf lettuce, kale, or chard in addition to radishes and snap peas.

Review how to enjoy the garden while practicing social distancing and sanitation guidelines. Gardening and Social Distancing Practices
Find out what to plant...when: WSU Cooperative Extension for the Gardening Fact Sheet about where, what and when to plant.
Order seeds and supplies from catalogs: Master Gardening Foundation of King Co. for a list of catalogs.
Get financial assistance for purchasing tools, dirt and seeds: Snohomish Co. Master Gardener Foundation

There are many garden activities to do with children that do not involve digging in the dirt: reading books about growing fruit and vegetables; planting seeds in a jar stuffed with paper towels and water or an egg carton full of dirt; watching colored water travel up a celery stalk… WSU Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners compiled a long list of gardening activities and resources currently on our website. Scroll down to the new “Gardening with Children” section.

WSU Extension Services SNAP Ed director Tori Sorenson shares some favorite children's gardening websites:

KidsGardening.org Lesson Plans - allows you to filter lessons/activities by age
Growing-Minds.org Check out the very informative and enlightening videos of teachers planting and directing garden activities with children.
Down to Earth Gardens A not-to-be-missed resource lives right here in Snohomish County - Terry Bockovish, is founder of Down to Earth Garden. She gives away free seed packets and raised beds courtesy of .... Terry and other volunteers will answer your gardening questions by phone: 425.350.2658 and Email: tmyer58@hotmail.com

For an entertaining look at children digging around in a real life garden check out our very own SHD video of children outside digging around in raised beds. Please note: This video was created in February and prior to community transmission of COVID 19 in Snohomish County and the resulting social distancing measures. In light of the current situation, the activities in the video should be done while maintaining social distancing for children of 3 – 6 feet.

Below are examples of dozens of books available for children at the SnoIsle library about gardening. Currently the library is closed; however, the online lending library is open.

Classes are available to everyone. Learning courses can be taken at no cost. If you wish to obtain a certificate or STARS credit, cost is $10 per credit hour.

Click here for instructions on how to use our online learning portal.

Image of people using online learning portal.

Click here to go to the online learning website.

About paying for our classes:

Please be aware that our health and safety online classes are free to take for the information. STARS credits and certificates cost $10.00/credit which can be paid anytime up to a year past the successful completion date of any class. This way, you can take our classes when you have the time and pay for them when you have the money or when DCYF can offer you reimbursement.

This Month's Featured Classes

Active Play Throughout the Day

Participants of this class will gain an understanding of how physical activity impacts children's growth and development and be able to incorporate the information into the classroom curriculum. Active play includes adult led, skill building activities and quick moves that can be applied to increase the minutes a child’s bo moves throughout the day.

Check out our new Safe and Sanitary Fun: Guidelines for Physical Activity following social distancing practices.

Stress Management for Child Care Providers

This class identifies stressors child care providers experience and suggests ways to manage anxiety and stress. In this course, you will learn about the impacts of personal and job stress, burnout, and secondary trauma and how to combat these stress triggers with coping skills and self-care practices. If you haven't taken this STARS training yet...now is the time.

Contact Information

Snohomish Health District, 3020 Rucker Ave., Ste. 104, Everett, WA 98201

Email: childcarehealth@snohd.org

Program Phone: 425.252.5415

Website: http://www.snohd.org/238/Child-Care-Providers

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The Child Care Health Outreach Program staff are available to consult with you on these and other health, safety, and nutrition topics by phone, by email, or at your child care.