Little Learners Center in Valley West, Arcata
With Humboldt County in the midst of an increase in COVID-19 cases, four people from Little Learners’ child care centers in Arcata tested positive for the virus earlier this month, owner Shannon Hall confirmed with the Advanced at the end of last week.
Little Learners is one of the largest child care providers in Humboldt, operates three sites in Arcata and one in Eureka, serves more than 80 children in 10 different classrooms, and provides child care for many health workers, people in the first COVID-19 pandemic line. So Hall was not too surprised when he learned that someone from Little Learners had been exposed to the virus.
“We have been open throughout this process and we have many high-risk workers, doctors and nurses,” Hall told the Advanced. “I definitely said to my staff, ‘It’s not a question of if,’ it was a question of when we were going to get COVID in our place.”
All four tests were positive in Arcata, with three from the center in the Valley West neighborhood and one from the 10th Street site. Hall could not elaborate on who tested positive, but said it was “a mix” of children and staff. .
It was Friday, July 1, when Public Health informed Hall that someone in the children’s room at the Valley West site had been exposed to COVID-19, he said. This meant that 12 people in the children’s classroom had been potentially exposed: seven babies, ages 6 weeks to 18 months, and five employees.
The little apprentices quickly took action, closed the classroom and contacted all the families to inform them that there had been an exposure. Testing began for the children and staff members on Thursday, July 2, and two tests tested positive the next day, Hall said.
The following Tuesday, July 7, another test came back positive. This caused even more distress, Hall said. One baby tested positive, and that boy has a brother who attends the preschool room at 10th Street Little Learners. The brother had attended preschool on Monday, potentially exposing an additional 12 people: another 10 children and two staff members.
The preschool room also had to be closed and additional tests had to be done. The preschool-age sibling was the fourth person to test positive for COVID-19, although fortunately no one else from that site tested positive.
Hall provided this information to the Advanced Because he wants people to understand the risk of exposure that can occur when siblings attend different classrooms and the importance of isolating all family members who are potentially exposed to the virus.
“That was a great lesson learned for public health and for me and for everyone else,” Hall told the Advanced.
After being closed for the required 14 days, the baby room reopened last week and the preschool room is scheduled to reopen this Wednesday. Although Hall feels that Little Learners has taken all necessary precautions, the incident has prompted the center to implement stricter guidelines for families, asking them to sign a policy agreement to comply with the county guidelines.
Hall shared the updated Little Learners COVID-19 Policies:
If a child or adult in the home has been exposed to COVID-19 and has a sibling in any other LL classroom, they should both be isolated for 14 days.
All families will obey county guidelines.
If a family is traveling out of the county, they must wear masks, social distance, and not be in groups larger than 10. If they do not, they will be asked to keep their children out of school for 14 days after returning.
If a family chooses to mingle with more than 10 people in addition to their quarantine bubble, they must follow social distancing and wear masks.
If a family is made up of more than a group of 10 people, they must keep their child at home for 14 days after the last date of contact with the group.
If families cannot be understanding or flexible during this pandemic, they should keep their child out of LL care.
Families are at risk of caring for their children as we are open.
Refunds cannot be made due to classroom closings due to exposure to COVID-19.
Care will be suspended if families do not follow the policies.
Families will inform LL of any possible exposure to COVID-19 as soon as possible. Keep children home if they show any symptoms.
With this ongoing pandemic, LL may have to close classrooms due to exposure to COVID-19, creating a lack of staff. We will do our best to avoid this, but we also need limited master crossover exposure, so we can’t have subs like we usually do to keep the opening.
LL will notify families of any known exposure to COVID-19 and the specific information is confidential. Please do not ask specific questions of staff or myself as we will provide the amount of information necessary to inform families of contact or tracking and still maintain confidentiality.
Hall also believes this incident could have been much worse and is confident that the spread was mitigated because the center follows the county’s guidelines for childcare: keep classroom sizes up to 12 or less, don’t mix children from different classrooms, practice social distancing when possible, disinfect regularly and wear masks.
Of the 25 people who were exposed, only four tested positive and three of them were in the children’s room, where the children are too young to wear masks.
“I want to emphasize the importance of child care centers, both caregivers and children, wearing masks,” said Hall. “We kept the numbers extremely low due to the use of masks. I definitely think so. ”
The Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment on this incident due to privacy concerns.
