Several Columbia day cares say they plan to stay open

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising day cares to plan for COVID-19 appearing in their communities.

Meanwhile, many Columbia day cares said Monday that they plan to stay open until they are mandated to shut down. 

“In order to have nurses at the hospital, doctors at the hospitals, police officers on the streets, people working at the grocery store, workers at the gas station they have to have reliable, safe child care," Tiger Tots owner Paul Prevo said.

Nikki Reynolds, owner of End of the Rainbow, said she tried to get in touch with a state representative but has not heard back.

"We will only close down if we are mandated to," Reynolds said. "Because some people have to work. Try and treat it like a snow day. If snow comes down we have parents that just stay home because they choose to and we have our other parents that have to go to work and have to have child care."

Reynolds said End of the Rainbow is treating the situation on a day-by-day basis.

"We have a plan for social distancing," Reynolds said. "If they choose to keep their kids home we understand that. Basically we are just trying to plan two weeks out and if we are mandated to close down then that’s what we’ll have to do."

Central Missouri Community Action's Head Start program leaders say they understand that many of the children at Head Start get the most nutritious food from the day care and that many parents don't get sick leave.

"We’re working with families over the phone to make sure their basic needs are met," said Darin Preis, executive director of Central Missouri Community Action. "If they are running into a crisis we want to work through to make sure that their needs are still getting met as we go through this together."

Head Start is trying to minimize face-to-face contact, following guidelines issued by health authorities.

"We aren’t having any extra meetings," Preis said. "We’re minimizing even parent meetings that we would regularly have every month and are canceling those this month."

Tiger Tots said it is expanding its availability to families who have siblings that are now not in school.

"We want to ensure that all of our teachers and we have that we are making sure they are getting paid and we want to make sure we have hours for them because we have to provide for their families as well," Prevo said.

Head Start is putting together activity packs and with a curriculum that has ideas that parents can use at home. Preis said reading is also a major component to continue children's development 

The CDC posts all of its guidance relating to COVID-19 on its website.