Tender Years’ COVID-19 Response
While the COVID-19 pandemic has caused considerable confusion and disruption to our daily lives, we at Tender Years have compiled this page to help our parents stay up-to-date on our centers and programs. Please check back regularly for new and revised information. As always, if you have questions or concerns, please contact your center director.
Center Operations
Operating Hours
Due to the large amount of medical staff and other essential workers whose families we provide childcare for, OCDEL of the Central Region has issued a waiver to Tender Years, Inc. Child Development Centers. ALL centers are open during our regular operating hours of 6:30am to 6:00pm.
Safety Procedures
All Tender Years centers are following the recommendations of the PA Department of Human Services (DHS) and The Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL). On Monday, March 16, we implemented new policies in order to drastically limit the amount of people coming in and out of the center on a daily basis…
1) ALL staff coming into the center will be checked for symptoms (including fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills or repeated shaking with chills, new loss of taste or smell). Staff must report through front doors only. Staff who are unwell or who have a fever or other symptoms will not be allowed to work. All back doors will be inaccessible.
2) All children should be brought to the front door of the center for a health check before being allowed to stay for care. Front doors will remain locked and key pads or pin code pads will not allow access to parents. A designated staff person will take your child to their classroom. We ask that you please wait until a health check has been completed. Please note, it is up to the discretion of Tender Years staff to determine whether your child is healthy, based on our current policies.
3) Health checks will be administered with a shield between child and staff member, and will include a visual inspection for signs of illness and a temperature screening with a thermometer. Thermometers will be cleaned and disinfected between each use. Clean gloves will be used for each child.
4) Parents shall limit bringing items from home into the center. *Breastfeeding mothers will be asked to please sign their children out.
5) At the end of the day, please come to the front door, and a designated staff person will bring your child to the front for pick up.
6) Prior to children going to their classrooms, a designated staff person will check them for illness symptoms (including cough, shortness of breath, chills or repeated shaking with chills, new loss of taste or smell) and fever (100.4°F or higher). If a child has cold or flu symptoms or fever of 100.4°F or higher, they will not be allowed to attend childcare.
7) If you traveled recently, we ask that you please comply with the World Health Organization guidelines and NO ONE IN THE HOUSEHOLD SHOULD VISIT THE CENTER.
8) We recommend that parents designate a single person to drop off and pick up a child. We also recommend that the designated person is not a “vulnerable” person (older person such as a grandparent or a person with serious underlying medical condition) or a person at high risk of contracting COVID-19 (such as a healthcare worker exposed to ill patients).
9) We will continue intensive cleaning with Clorox Hydrogen Peroxide (a hospital grade sanitizer) and Clorox Total 360 machines. We will continue to disinfect toys that are handled or mouthed. And our professional cleaning service will continue to clean the centers as scheduled.
10) Infant and Toddler teachers will wear hair coverings and plastic face shields, in addition to face masks.
11) We will continue to practice frequent and meticulous hand washing (both staff and children).
Mask Policy
Following orders from PA Secretary of Health, Rachel Levine, Tender Years, Inc. will comply with the Worker Safety Order starting Monday, April 20th: “to protect the public from the spread of COVID-19, all customers are required to wear masks while on premises, and deny entry to individuals not wearing masks.”
This applies to all children age 3 years or older, as well to all Parents dropping off and picking up children.
Cloth face coverings will be washed daily at our centers.
Lunch Orders
If your child is enrolled and in attendance, please order lunches as always.
If you are currently paying half-price tuition to hold your child’s spot, we encourage you to order lunches for next month based on when you expect your child to return. If your child has not yet returned to enjoy the lunches you’ve purchased, a credit for those lunches will be applied to a future tuition payment.
Summer Camp & Junior Camp Programs
With the school year ending soon, and summer right around the corner, we’re busy preparing for our exciting 2020 Junior and Summer camps: Destination Decade!
All three of our centers will be open for camp, and we want to reassure you that we are following the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s “Public Health and Safety Measures for Businesses Permitted to Maintain In-Person Operations”. Our top priority is the health and wellbeing of our children, their families and our staff. Therefore, we are making several modifications to our camp programs, including…
1) We will continue our drop-off and pick-up screening policies.
2) We will continue to wear protective masks as recommended by the CDC and outlined by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
3) We will continue our intensive cleaning and handwashing procedures.
4) We will continue to maintain care groups by creating camp teams. Each team will be made up of smaller groups of campers and will be assigned a primary caregiver. Teams will rotate through activities where necessary to maintain distancing.
5) We will replace off-site field trips with fun and exciting activities at our centers. In addition to the originally planned enrichment activities listed in the parent packet, our incredibly talented staff is organizing virtual field trips, lessons, and “take out” activities that we can bring into the center. Some of these may include:
• A virtual Paint & Create class
• Make your own pizza kit for lunch
• Create and fly your own kite
• Virtual visit to an art museum
• Virtual visits from local zoos or theaters
As soon as we finalize our revised activities, we will post updated calendars on our Summer Camp page.
Finally, for families who wish to pay for summer camp in full, our payment deadline has been extended from May 1st to May 8th.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to your center director. It’s going to be an awesome summer for our campers!
Registration For Returning Students
If you have recently withdrawn your child from Tender Years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we want you to know that we will be waiving the Returning Student Registration Fee for children who return by June 8, 2020. Please take a moment to review our policy regarding Returning Student Registration…
COVID-19 Returning Student Registration Policy
As per Tender Years’ Parent Handbook, a re-enrollment fee, or Returning Student Registration Fee, will be collected to secure a child’s spot in one of our programs. However, in light of the current circumstances, Tender Years will waive the re-enrollment/registration fee for children who were recently withdrawn due to the COVID-19 pandemic and are re-enrolled by June 8, 2020.
After June 8, 2020, the normal Registration Fee policy (Parent Handbook, page 11) will apply, and a fee will be required to secure your child’s spot. Please note that Summer Camp and Kindergarten Programs require separate non-refundable registration fees. If you have already paid one or both fees, your child’s spot will remain secured in the corresponding program(s).
