Child care providers want to be grouped with school staff in the state’s plan to hold streamlined vaccination clinics.
Under the state’s new age-based vaccine approach announced last week, the state will offer dedicated clinics to more quickly vaccinate school staff and teachers in Pre-K through grade 12, within their respective age categories. But the Family Child Care Association, the YMCA Alliance of Maine and others are calling on state officials to include child care providers in those clinics, as well.
Tara Williams, the executive director of the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children, says vaccinating staff would help to keep day cares open at a time when many are already struggling financially.
“A lot of our programs are smaller. They may have 20, 40, 50 children. And not have a substitute pool to help cover those absences. Or the needs for teachers to go and get tested if there’s been an exposure,” she says.
Williams says early childhood educators are just as exposed and frequently can’t distance while caring for children.
“The fact that this has been putting this whole workforce — the ones working in child cares and schools — at risk for many months, they really should be going together in the vaccination process,” she says.
In a letter to state officials, Williams and other advocates say that child care staff often don’t have guaranteed wages or paid time off, meaning a facility closure because of COVID-19 could be particularly difficult for them.
In an email, administration spokesperson Lindsay Crete said that with continued limited supply of the vaccine, the governor’s most immediate goals “are to save lives and get shots into arms quickly and efficiently.”
Crete also noted that the administration has provided multiple rounds of funding to child care providers during the pandemic, and recently announced plans to distribute rapid tests.
“According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 93% of child care providers are open statewide, up from a low of just over 50% at the start of the pandemic. Providers have worked to keep children and families safe, resulting in fewer than 10% of all providers having a single positive COVID-19 test within their facility since the start of the pandemic,” Crete said.
