COVID Mitigation Measures in Local Preschools: What To Expect

With the COVID-19 pandemic upending normal life, the last two years have been turbulent and chaotic for children in school, especially young children in preschool. Despite a drop in severe cases and hospital admission rates, COVID remains prevalent in the community as young children head back to school for a new year.

Pasadena Now reached out to local preschool educators and asked them to share their thoughts and predictions about what to expect in terms of COVID-19 protective measures in the classroom next year.

“This time last year, we were masking indoors and out; this year, only indoors,” Dr. Judy Krause, Executive Director at Pacific Oaks Children’s School, said. “We are now able to use communal spaces; for Pacific Oaks, that means we can once again take turns working in the Art Studio, planting, and harvesting in our community garden and riding our bikes on ‘Shady Lane.’”

Local health authorities have also loosened some of the quarantine protocols since April, which means close contacts of COVID-19 patients – even preschoolers – will no longer be required to quarantine at home, if the exposure was at school.

“We can quarantine at school – masking indoors and out for 10 days,” Krause said. “I believe we will still take temperatures and ask COVID symptom questions at drop off, continue to spend the majority of our time outside, provide extra ventilation in the classrooms, frequently clean and disinfect, mask indoors and most importantly, wash our hands.”

For those who were exposed in the child or teacher’s household, Pacific Oaks Children’s School will require the close contact to quarantine at home, returning on Day 6 providing they tested negative on Day 5 and are symptom-free, Krause said.

At the Children’s School at Caltech, the institute’s preschool program, Lisa Cain-Chan, Director of Children’s Programs, said the school’s safety guidance remains to be more conservative compared to schools outside of Los Angeles County, but she sees this as gradually changing.

“I think what we see happening is a continual reduction in the more conservative guidance both for the general public, as well as for educational or care institutions. So that’s the trend that we see happening, even amidst different variants coming along or surges in cases,” she said. “Because vaccines for children under the age of five are still relatively new, many parents jumped on it immediately. We have children receiving their sort of second doses now. Some parents have been kind of taking a slower wait-and-see approach, but how guidance will change for young children who are vaccinated, that remains to be seen.”

Asked whether Caltech preschool would implement a different approach for safety when schools open, Cain-Chan said they are more inclined to follow guidance from the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the LA County Department of Health.

“We really make ourselves aware of what they’re publishing, what their guidelines are. But our default is LA County Department of Public Health. One, because they are a regulator for us, but the other is that they have been in many cases very clear about ‘here are the regulations and why,’ ‘here’s the adjustments we’ve made, here are the reasons why we made this.’

Jocelyn Robertson, Director of Cottage Co-Op Nursery School, a play-based, parent-participation cooperative preschool at 169 Arlington Drive, said the school will also follow LA County Department of Public Health guidelines and recommendations.

“We have adopted that as our policy, as opposed to creating an elaborate one of our own, because at this point it has become abundantly clear that none of us are public health experts,” Robertson said. “There is widespread agreement at the preschools I talk to that it’s best we just adhere to public health guidelines on everything from quarantine times to vaccinations and masks.”

Robertson also shared that the school community has been extremely cautious and respectful about the risk of spreading germs.

“We have not found it difficult to get people to quarantine when needed, nor is it difficult for kids to come back after time at home,” Robertson added. “On the contrary, playing outside with other children is the thing they are most excited to do usually.”

For Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) preschoolers, PUSD Public Information Officer Hilda Ramirez Horvath said the district’s Early Childhood Education (ECE) program aligns with guidance from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the Pasadena Department of Public Health for early childhood programs.

“PUSD meets with Pasadena Public Health weekly to monitor any changes in COVID guidelines,” she said. “We will implement guidance from Pasadena Public Health and LA County Public Health as it changes.”

PUSD continues to provide vaccines at the PUSD summer clinic at this time, Ramirez Horvath added.