Ohio daycares preparing to reopen with reduced capacities

CLINTON, Ohio (WCMH) — The Balanced Family Academy in Clinton had been open less than three months when the state ordered all daycare facilities to close.

Owner Courtney Lewis says she committed to keeping her employees on the payroll through the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.

Gov. Mike DeWine announced this week that daycares will be allowed to reopen on May 31 but will have to operate with reduced class sizes.

“In March, we were at 124 students and 67 kids on our wait list,” Lewis said. “If we kept our classrooms the exact same right now, we’d be able to service 75.”

Under the state’s new rules, the limit for infants and toddlers will be six per room. The limit on preschoolers will be nine per room.

Lewis is hoping to find some creative ways to make room for more children.

“What that looks like is maybe taking a room that we used to use as a gym and make that into a classroom or taking our large classrooms that used to have 24 or 28 kids and dividing that into two classrooms,” Lewis said. “My goal is that we can get creative and have enough space for the families that need it. We have some families that are teachers and some families that maybe don’t need care during the summer. But the problem is we don’t know how long this will go.”

Lewis says children will be dropped off at the front door and escorted in by a staff member. Everyone will get a daily temperature check. She said the children will stay within their small group throughout the day. The children will be able to use the outdoor playground equipment, one group at a time, with staff members disinfecting all of the equipment before the next group is allowed out.

Lewis says it will be a very different experience for the children, the parents and the staff.

“Part of our brand is that community feeling and the parents coming in and seeing the classroom, seeing the artwork, seeing what’s going on, knowing the teachers,” Lewis said. “Right now, that’s not going to be a part of it.”