BOSTON (SHNS) – Officers with the Division of Early Schooling and Care launched revised Minimum Requirements for Health and Safety on Friday, outlining up to date expectations for little one care facilities which might be extra in keeping with steering issued by the Division of Elementary and Secondary Schooling.
The brand new tips, which take impact Sept. 1, return classroom group sizes to pre-pandemic limits, enable home-based little one care suppliers better flexibility of their most group measurement whereas their very own kids are engaged in distant studying at house, and permit restricted on-site providers for youngsters with particular must happen in little one care services.
Earlier than little one care facilities had been ordered closed by the governor in March, Massachusetts had about 8,200 licensed little one care applications. Up to now, greater than 5,300 little one care applications have reopened and one other 1,000 are within the technique of finishing their well being and security plans to be authorised to reopen, the state stated.
“Whereas all of us should stay vigilant in opposition to the transmission of COVID-19, the updates to our necessities will guarantee kids and households can stay wholesome and secure when counting on little one care to go to work,” Commissioner Samantha Aigner-Treworgy stated. “We’re assured in our suppliers’ capacity to proceed safely assembly the wants of kids and households of their communities whereas supporting kids’s studying and growth.”