Early Learning Newsletter December 14th

Early Learning Update Week of December 14th

Each week I will send out an Early Learning Update email.  These are meant to be quick updates on any relevant items for the week including resources, Professional Development, new health department info and more.


Items Covered:

  • All: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
  • All: Updated DOH Covid-19 Guidelines for Child Care, Youth Development and Day Camps (changes focus on small quarantine length updates dated December 3rd)
  • All: New Trainings and Early Learning Articles Posted
  • Licensed ONLY: Updated Risk Levels for Monitoring Visits
  • Licensed ONLY: Monitoring Visit Updates

Please see this week’s professional development opportunities and news and bookmark the Early Learning Portal Page: https://mycatholicschool.org/for-catholic-schools/catholic-identity/early-learning/


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I want to wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! What you have done over the last nine months of the pandemic to serve our families is incredible and it has been a pleasure to work alongside you since Mid-August. I hope that you are able to find time to rest, reflect and enjoy time with your families during this Christmas Season. Thank you for your amazing leadership!

 

Updated DOH Covid-19 Guidelines for Child Care, Youth Development and Day Camps

Starting in March 2020 the Washington State Department of Health created a set of Covid-19 operating guidelines for Child Care, Youth Development and Day Camps. Since that time they have continued to update the guidelines as new recommendations have been established. These guidelines were used to help safely reopen our programs this fall. The most recent update was made on December 3rd and it highlights the changes to the quarantine lengths that were recommended by the CDC a week ago. As I read the rest of the document everything else seems to have stayed the same except for some formatting changes. I wanted to get the link back in front of you so you had for easy reference and refresh. Please let me know if you have any questions.

https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/1600/coronavirus/DOH-OSPI-DYCF-SchoolsChildCareGuidance.pdf

 

New Trainings and Early Learning Articles Posted
I have posted new trainings on the Professional Development page as they are starting to be released for January and February (for those Licensed Programs that are looking for an EQEL training there is one posted starting in February). I have also posted some new articles including Child Care Aware’s Transforming Child Care/Early Learning Paper that was released on Thursday.

https://mycatholicschool.org/early-learning-professional-development-2/

 https://mycatholicschool.org/early-learning-resources-and-news/

 

Licensed Only: Updated Risk Levels for Monitoring Visits
Earlier this week DCYF made a change to the risk levels associated with the Washington Administrative Codes (WAC’s). Previously if you did not meet a standard in a licensing monitoring visit the standard would have been placed in one of three different categories (Immediate, Short Term or Long Term Concern). The distinction between the three categories indicated the length of time you had to correct the standard violation. After analysis DCYF has added a fourth category that is named Serious Concern. The benefit of this is that it moved many of the Immediate Concern level standards to Serious, leaving only 11 Standards in Immediate Concern. The new standards and length of time for corrections are listed below:

IMMEDIATE CONCERN (I)
Rules of immediate concern are requirements developed by DCYF to protect the health and safety of children against substantial risk of injury, illness or death. The provider must correct any violation of rules of immediate concern as soon as possible, but in no case later than the next business day. These will be on every checklist if observable.

SERIOUS CONCERN (S)
Rules of serious concern are requirements developed by DCYF to protect the health and safety of children against risk of injury or illness. The provider must correct any violation of rules of serious concern as soon as possible. The provider must demonstrate compliance to DCYF within five business days from the date of non-compliance. These will be on every checklist if observable.

SHORT TERM CONCERN (Sh)
Rules of short term concern are requirements developed by DCYF to protect the health and safety of children against the risk of injury or illness that is likely to occur if a provider fails to comply over a short period of time. The provider must correct any violation of rules of short term concern as soon as possible. The provider must demonstrate compliance to DCYF within 10 business days from the date of non-compliance.

LONG TERM CONCERN (L)
Rules of long term concern are requirements developed by DCYF to protect the health and safety of children against the potential risk of injury or illness that is likely to occur if a provider fails to comply over an extended period of time. The provider must agree to correct any violation of rules of long term concern as soon as possible. The provider must demonstrate compliance to DCYF within 20 business days from the date of non-compliance.

 

Licensed Only: Monitoring Visit Update

I know that some of you have already had your annual monitoring visit and others are still being scheduled. Here is a note that Lisa Korth, from All Saints received from her licensor this week – at this point the virtual visits will continue to be the way these are conducted.

“DCYF’s initial plan for this year was for providers to have a virtual monitor visit, then followed up with a brief, onsite visit within 30 days. Please note, that at this time, we are not conducting those onsite visits for already licensed providers. My best guess is that it will be Spring or Summer before the visits occur, but this is all dependent on the pandemic numbers.  If/when I get an update about this, I will let you know.”

 

Thank you and have a wonderful Holiday Break!