The ethics of paying for daycare while it is shut down due to Covid-19 (1 Viewer)

[huthut]

Sorry to the folks going through this. What’s the plan for childcare while the daycare is closed?

I have stuff I need to go into the office for, while my wife can work entirely from home (but not work and watch the kids simultaneously). Then plan is for me to do things I need to do at the office when it fits timing (for example the plan is to go in next week from 5am-10am), and then we both work from home and sort of rotate throughout the day between watching the kids and getting work done. I am guessing that we will be doing lots of work late once the kids go to bed. I am also guessing the kids will be watching a lot more tv than usual.

We still have grandparents begging to watch them during this time, but we do not feel that is safe due to the way the virus affects older people, while the kids might have it with essentially no symptoms. Maybe if we are quarantined until April and it does not look like anyone is sick we can use that, but it might still be unnecessary risk towards the grandparents. 

I don't think you should pay $0 (I don't think you do either)

I don't think you should pay $4500.

I would hope a discussion could be had for a "reasonable" amount in the middle so that they aren't losing money. But they shouldn't be making money either (getting paid while not providing any service).

I guess I don't know how profitable it is for the owners, but I think if it was even 80-90%% cost it would not feel as scummy as 100%, because as you mentioned they are making money for nothing. They would have a profit incentive to stay closed as long as possible in fact.

I hope you are both pulling in $100k each, otherwise one of you should stay home.  I am sure legally you could sue them and win.  But if you want to keep your jobs, you probably just need to pay it.  

We definitely know people who had the lowest paid spouse quit work due to the cost, but we each make enough over the cost to make it somewhat worthwhile. Also a 5 year resume gap to take care of kids would probably put you at a disadvantage interviewing for jobs when you want to go back to work, as unfair is that is. My main concern is that the return date is tentative, and what happens if it is shut down longer? Eating a $3000 loss and juggling a bunch of work stuff for a 3 week shutdown is obviously not ideal, but it is already budgeted for since we were already paying for daycare and it is not THAT far away. What happens if they decide to keep extending the shutdown? If what was originally was an early April return date becomes June 1st, suddenly we are spending ~$13000 on nothing and scrambling around work for months which seems much less tolerable.

Hopefully there’s compromises met where nobody is totally screwed. Spread the loss out slowly to owners, employees and parents. 

I would be ok with the teachers getting paid in full, since between the cost of living in the area and what I presume is relatively low pay, they probably need it the most. I would not be surprised if the state rolls out some sort of program for small businesses so many of them do not go out of business. Restaurants are almost empty and it is not like they have people trapped into paying for the waiters wages, so I imagine they are getting nothing. If for example the teachers can get unemployment while it is closed, or the owners get something from the state, that should be subtracted from our costs.

 

[Brunell4MVP]

I'm assuming the OP does pretty well.   It's San Fran.  Entry level workers make $150K+.  My son was a summer college intern there and made $35/hour.  And the costs of day care, food, and mortgage are reflective of that.  It's insane.  There's a reason so many are homeless.

What I'm really hoping is that businesses like this daycare that are still charging their clients have the morals not to apply for the small business relief that is going to come.  Cause if they do they are 1) not losing money and even potentially making even more since they don't have food and other costs, and 2) essentially stealing money from all taxpayers from any 'relief' they get 

 

[ghostguy123]

It is not some exotic private school or anything, just a regular daycare. Every daycare here has massive wait-lists, so I am assuming this one does as well. We have no leverage, since if we do leave they will not lose any money since they will just grab the next family on the wait-list. I am pretty sure the owners are well aware of this fact, seeing as how they nickle and dime on everything and raise prices every 6 months or so. It is a fairly big daycare, the owners have 3 locations and I would guess 150 or so kids between the 3. 

The contract mentions stuff about paying when you go on vacation and such, it does not specifically mention the daycare closing for large blocks of time due to a virus.

Threaten lawsuit

 

[Long Ball Larry]

Holy ####### ####

HFS!!

honda

 

[DallasDMac]

What I'm really hoping is that businesses like this daycare that are still charging their clients have the morals not to apply for the small business relief that is going to come.  Cause if they do they are 1) not losing money and even potentially making even more since they don't have food and other costs, and 2) essentially stealing money from all taxpayers from any 'relief' they get 

I imagine there will be a requirement to prove lost income.

 

[ghostguy123]

What's the penalty?

They might not open for another 3 months

 

[mr roboto]

I had no idea.   That's pretty cool.   How many is several?  Sounds like a lot.

2. We were opening a 3rd but hit the pause on that. 

 

[huthut]

Fortunately we are still getting our full income, but there must be parents who are both paying for daycare that is not happening, and losing money due to being paid hourly or running their own business and then being unable to work due to daycare being closed. Seems like that could snowball pretty quickly. 

 

[fruity pebbles]

Like you said, what’s the incentive to open back up as soon as possible? 

 

[ghostguy123]

Fortunately we are still getting our full income, but there must be parents who are both paying for daycare that is not happening, and losing money due to being paid hourly or running their own business and then being unable to work due to daycare being closed. Seems like that could snowball pretty quickly. 

Right.  Seems like those wait lists will go bye bye also because people cant spend as much.

Cancel

 

[Ilov80s]

Like you said, what’s the incentive to open back up as soon as possible? 

Parents stop paying. 

 

[bigmarc27]

Taking care of 150 kids for 12 hours or less a day ...at that monthly rate is just over $4M/yr gross.  

We're all in the wrong business.  

I don’t want to take care of any kids, let alone 150 kids from other people. 

 

[Craig_MiamiFL]

Definitely wouldn't be paying full amount. If they don't want to work out an amicable solution, then cancel.

Going to be a big issue with daycares/colleges.

 

[RUSF18]

Any updates from people on how their daycare is handling this?

 

[gianmarco]

Ours is getting refunded.

 

[Don Quixote]

Any updates from people on how their daycare is handling this?

Still getting charged for it, and tuition still getting processed.  They said that they are still paying their teachers, so at least feel better that money is going for that.  Sending me a daily activity plan that I'd make more use of, if my wife and I were not still working our usual schedules.

 

[wilked]

Have us a $75/week discount (25% or so) 

 

[Big League Chew]

Presumably they are paying for facilities and staffing, though I have no idea how much the teachers make. I hope they make a decent amount and the owners are not pocketing everything they can, but this is America...

Most of the daycares here charge to get put on the wait-list, including this one. Seems like the most profitable daycare would just be setting up a wait-list and never taking anyone. 

We have not challenged the charge, assuming that will get us kicked out but who knows. They said they need the money to keep paying teachers, and completely ignored the part having no problem paying partial.

they charge you to be waitlisted? wtf

 

[RUSF18]

Just got an email that they won't be charging us tuition until this is resolved and the staff is being encouraged to file for unemployment. Not refunding anyone for March (been closed since the 12th) which I understand and will be giving 5% discounts for a few months upon opening which is better than nothing. 

All things considered I'm good with how it worked out. 

 

[Fat Nick]

So without reading the full thread - 

Our daycare closed 1 week ago.  They basically said they would charge full tuition for March, then reevaluate in April.  I told my wife I was fine with March, but if they try and charge for April and we're out for all of April, I wouldn't pay.  I can see a situation where they open Mid-April and just don't charge us for April.  I imagine split-month billing may be challenging on their resources...as long as they make us "whole" somehow, I'm fine with it.  I'm also considerate of the workers for them as well - I heard they basically temporarily laid everyone off so they can get unemployment during the quarantine - more reason why I won't pay a full month tuition without the place being open - if they aren't paying their employees, why should I pay them?

 

[thecatch]

Our daycare is part of a pretty big national company.  The stopped charging when they closed the center last week, and are applying the balance of our March tuition to April or whatever month they reopen.  No complaints from me at all.  They haven't made any representations about how the teachers are being paid, but given the company's size, I assume/hope they are being taken care of.

 

[Binky The Doormat]

So it looks like daycare is charging us full price for 3+ weeks minimum of no class. Seems like it is a paid service not being provided. We cannot leave without penalty due to requiring 30 days notice (and even if we wanted to, everything has massive wait-lists here so we would not be able to find anything assuming they can go back mid April). I would have no problem paying something so the teachers have money to live off of, but paying full price feels wrong, like the owner would be making more profit for them to be shut down since they are not going through consumables and using utilities and such. I feel like there should be some shared sacrifice between the ownership and parents, and not solely the parents paying for a service they are not receiving so the owner can continue to pull in profits. Am I being unreasonable here? What happens if the shutdown is longer than 3 weeks? It is fairly expensive so it is a real amount of money we are spending on nothing.

@huthut and others - updates?  Wondering how this all progressed for you all.  

 

[FBG26]

We're paying 50% even though the kids aren't there. Our daycare is actually open (daycares are exempt from the stay at home order in MN) so I'm actually fine paying if it keeps the teachers employed. 

ETA: I would be unhappy paying if our daycare had actually closed, but since we voluntarily pulled them out, I'm okay paying 50% to keep our spot when we go back and to keep people employed. 

 

[huthut]

@huthut and others - updates?  Wondering how this all progressed for you all.  

They had us pay through April (pay at the end of March for the entirety of April), and then laid off all the teachers so they can collect unemployment. They mentioned that the April payment would be applied to a future month when we go back. They did not collect any payment for May. Heard from some coworkers their daycares are projecting to open between mid May and June 1st, have not heard anything from ours yet. 

 

[Binky The Doormat]

@huthut wow ...knowing you haven't heard from your daycare ...would you feel comfortable sending your kids into close quarters like that in a couple of weeks?

 

[huthut]

@huthut wow ...knowing you haven't heard from your daycare ...would you feel comfortable sending your kids into close quarters like that in a couple of weeks?

We have been discussing that. I think it might depend on what precautions they are taking. The kids are too young to follow any social distancing or even keep a mask on reliably and it would add a lot of exposure risk to us, but at the same time it does feel like we are doing a disservice to them due to having to work most of the day, we are not really teaching them much and our 4 year old was crying this morning because she has no one to play with and is obviously super bored. Plus they are driving us nuts, I swear if I hear "I want something" one more time...

 

[Binky The Doormat]

We have been discussing that. I think it might depend on what precautions they are taking. The kids are too young to follow any social distancing or even keep a mask on reliably and it would add a lot of exposure risk to us, but at the same time it does feel like we are doing a disservice to them due to having to work most of the day, we are not really teaching them much and our 4 year old was crying this morning because she has no one to play with and is obviously super bored. Plus they are driving us nuts, I swear if I hear "I want something" one more time...

you must answer ...every time

 

[Redwes25]

A little unrelated but we are paying are nanny full amount even though we haven't used her in 6 weeks.  Felt like since both Wife and I have our jobs getting our full pay we can afford to pay her and she has a family to support.  We didn't want the added risk of her bringing it into our home, which was the right decision since she ended up catching it.  Luckily a mild case and she is fully recovered.  We could probably bring her back at this point if we wanted but haven't done so yet.

 

[Zow]

Good God that cost is just insane. The math is staggering when you figure how much you have to make before taxes just to cover it. 

When we got our second child my wife and I did the math and it may complete financial sense for her to stop working. Basically, her 90% of her income cover daycare. When you factor in the benefit of her then being home to raise them it was a no-brainer. 

But, the above situation is why I should have to pay her alimony/spousal maintenance should we ever split. 

 

[TLEF316]

When we got our second child my wife and I did the math and it may complete financial sense for her to stop working. Basically, her 90% of her income cover daycare. When you factor in the benefit of her then being home to raise them it was a no-brainer. 

But, the above situation is why I should have to pay her alimony/spousal maintenance should we ever split. 

Personally, I think guys get straight screwed in nearly all divorce proceedings (obviously not a revolutionary point of view) but yeah....in that case..... absolutely.  

 

[Gawain]

What are people thinking about next September. My wife is a SAHM. Our daughter turned 4 in April and we have a spot (not our preferred) for M/W/F Pre-K 9-12 in a mixed 3&4 YO class starting in September. I wanted a 4 YO only class, but was filled up by higher priority families.

We're thinking about pulling her out because we know that she won't socially distance, there's an anticipated second wave coming this winter and it's 3K or so we'd save.

Her brother will be 3 in November, so while it's nowhere close to the socialization of pre-K, she isn't a complete loner.

 

[bostonfred]

you must answer ...every time

I clicked the link and immediately regretted it. Made it through 4 moms. There's zero point zero percent chance I'd watch that whole thing.  Does it turn funny at all or is it just more of that. 

 

[Binky The Doormat]

I clicked the link and immediately regretted it. Made it through 4 moms. There's zero point zero percent chance I'd watch that whole thing.  Does it turn funny at all or is it just more of that. 

no, it's more horribly annoying than I ever intended ...sounds like the appropriate viewing time.

I just couldn't find a more suitable example of a kid saying mom or mommy repeatedly - there out there, I just didn't keep looking

 

[Dezbelief]

no, it's more horribly annoying than I ever intended ...sounds like the appropriate viewing time.

I just couldn't find a more suitable example of a kid saying mom or mommy repeatedly - there out there, I just didn't keep looking

https://youtu.be/arbgB6REBmU

 

[Binky The Doormat]

https://youtu.be/arbgB6REBmU

yeah, I saw that

 

[huthut]

Well, daycare announced they will open next week with a limited class size and a little more leg work for the parents. Unfortunately, right now they are only opening for the older ages so we would still have one at home if we choose to go back. I feel like we have been managing for the last two months where we could go on longer with them at home, but now my concern is more we might not be providing enough enrichment at home because of working, and our oldest has been crying about not having friends to play with. Pretty stuck on deciding whether to commit, since class sizes are small if we don't do it now who knows when more space will open up, or if they will even be at capacity now.

Pros to going back:

• Can get much more work done with one less kid around, will be much more peaceful and less stressful. 
  
• There will be better learning and socialization opportunities for kid at school, more chances to play with other children etc.
  
• Save $$
  

Cons to going back:

• Significant increase in COVID exposure risk. We have been pretty diligent about staying isolated, with pretty much one person going to the store every now and then and going on walks and such as a family not near anyone else in our neighborhood, while this would be very close exposure to many other people.
  
• Limited space in the daycare might fill up, meaning until more kids are allowed back you might not be able to go back even if you wanted to.
  
• Still have one kid at home.
  
• Costs $$
  

Bolded the more important things IMO. In my mind, the primary reason to go back would just be increased educational activities and playing with other kids, since I think they really miss that and are super bored at home. The main drawback is the obvious Covid risk. It feels like it is somewhat of a worst of both worlds where we get the Covid risk, but still have a kid at home so we cannot go full bore working, at least right now. We need to decide by tomorrow. Since the classes are smaller than usual, if they fill up now we might not be able to go back until they are at full size whenever that is. Then again, the special circumstances have allowed us to work from home for the extended period of time when that would not typically be available, so it is not like we NEED daycare like we would in a Covid free world. 

I am curious if anyone else has had to make this decision already and which way they went/would go. 

 

[Don Quixote]

Well, daycare announced they will open next week with a limited class size and a little more leg work for the parents. Unfortunately, right now they are only opening for the older ages so we would still have one at home if we choose to go back. I feel like we have been managing for the last two months where we could go on longer with them at home, but now my concern is more we might not be providing enough enrichment at home because of working, and our oldest has been crying about not having friends to play with. Pretty stuck on deciding whether to commit, since class sizes are small if we don't do it now who knows when more space will open up, or if they will even be at capacity now.

Pros to going back:

• Can get much more work done with one less kid around, will be much more peaceful and less stressful. 
  
• There will be better learning and socialization opportunities for kid at school, more chances to play with other children etc.
  
• Save $$
  

Cons to going back:

• Significant increase in COVID exposure risk. We have been pretty diligent about staying isolated, with pretty much one person going to the store every now and then and going on walks and such as a family not near anyone else in our neighborhood, while this would be very close exposure to many other people.
  
• Limited space in the daycare might fill up, meaning until more kids are allowed back you might not be able to go back even if you wanted to.
  
• Still have one kid at home.
  
• Costs $$
  

Bolded the more important things IMO. In my mind, the primary reason to go back would just be increased educational activities and playing with other kids, since I think they really miss that and are super bored at home. The main drawback is the obvious Covid risk. It feels like it is somewhat of a worst of both worlds where we get the Covid risk, but still have a kid at home so we cannot go full bore working, at least right now. We need to decide by tomorrow. Since the classes are smaller than usual, if they fill up now we might not be able to go back until they are at full size whenever that is. Then again, the special circumstances have allowed us to work from home for the extended period of time when that would not typically be available, so it is not like we NEED daycare like we would in a Covid free world. 

I am curious if anyone else has had to make this decision already and which way they went/would go. 

My day care said they were opening up June 1. They gave us the option of going back, or paying 50% of usual monthly to reserve our spot. We opted for 50% with hope of a July 1 return. We kind of want to see how the next month goes before sending back.

 

[huthut]

My day care said they were opening up June 1. They gave us the option of going back, or paying 50% of usual monthly to reserve our spot. We opted for 50% with hope of a July 1 return. We kind of want to see how the next month goes before sending back.

We have not heard anything about paying to reserve a spot, but the owner mentioned we would get an update on the things like that. We decided not to go back right away since there really isn't much of a point unless they can take all of our kids, and two as you mentioned kind of wanting to see what happens first.

 

[FBG26]

Well, daycare announced they will open next week with a limited class size and a little more leg work for the parents. Unfortunately, right now they are only opening for the older ages so we would still have one at home if we choose to go back. I feel like we have been managing for the last two months where we could go on longer with them at home, but now my concern is more we might not be providing enough enrichment at home because of working, and our oldest has been crying about not having friends to play with. Pretty stuck on deciding whether to commit, since class sizes are small if we don't do it now who knows when more space will open up, or if they will even be at capacity now.

Pros to going back:

• Can get much more work done with one less kid around, will be much more peaceful and less stressful. 
  
• There will be better learning and socialization opportunities for kid at school, more chances to play with other children etc.
  
• Save $$
  

Cons to going back:

• Significant increase in COVID exposure risk. We have been pretty diligent about staying isolated, with pretty much one person going to the store every now and then and going on walks and such as a family not near anyone else in our neighborhood, while this would be very close exposure to many other people.
  
• Limited space in the daycare might fill up, meaning until more kids are allowed back you might not be able to go back even if you wanted to.
  
• Still have one kid at home.
  
• Costs $$
  

Bolded the more important things IMO. In my mind, the primary reason to go back would just be increased educational activities and playing with other kids, since I think they really miss that and are super bored at home. The main drawback is the obvious Covid risk. It feels like it is somewhat of a worst of both worlds where we get the Covid risk, but still have a kid at home so we cannot go full bore working, at least right now. We need to decide by tomorrow. Since the classes are smaller than usual, if they fill up now we might not be able to go back until they are at full size whenever that is. Then again, the special circumstances have allowed us to work from home for the extended period of time when that would not typically be available, so it is not like we NEED daycare like we would in a Covid free world. 

I am curious if anyone else has had to make this decision already and which way they went/would go. 

We're sending the kids back June 1 though we will both continue to work from home. They'll have more socialization, and more outlets for activity, creativity, and learning. The decision is made somewhat easier because our daycare is taking lots of precautions (checking temps as kids arrive, cleaning like crazy). 

We have to send the kids back at some point, and thought this was as good as time as any. I'm kind of assuming that our family will get the disease eventually, whether that's tomorrow or a year from now (since the disease isn't going anywhere). So the question sort of becomes can those that need medical care get care if needed. At the moment, there are still enough ICU beds in MN that I believe people who need care can get care. If hospitals in MN start getting overrun then we'd probably pull them out. So we'll send the kids back to daycare for now knowing that this increases the risk of us catching COVID, while still taking precautions that we can control (e.g., minimizing interactions with other people outside of daycare, lots of handwashing, etc) and hoping that we'll be able to get care if needed. 

 

[huthut]

We're sending the kids back June 1 though we will both continue to work from home. They'll have more socialization, and more outlets for activity, creativity, and learning. The decision is made somewhat easier because our daycare is taking lots of precautions (checking temps as kids arrive, cleaning like crazy). 

We have to send the kids back at some point, and thought this was as good as time as any. I'm kind of assuming that our family will get the disease eventually, whether that's tomorrow or a year from now (since the disease isn't going anywhere). So the question sort of becomes can those that need medical care get care if needed. At the moment, there are still enough ICU beds in MN that I believe people who need care can get care. If hospitals in MN start getting overrun then we'd probably pull them out. So we'll send the kids back to daycare for now knowing that this increases the risk of us catching COVID, while still taking precautions that we can control (e.g., minimizing interactions with other people outside of daycare, lots of handwashing, etc) and hoping that we'll be able to get care if needed. 

If they were taking both of our kids we would have sent them back, but for just one kid right now it did not feel worthwhile. 

 

[TwinTurbo]

For $4500 a month, you could hire Mary Poppins at this point. 

 

[culdeus]

Seriously. Hire a nanny.  Unemployment is at all time highs.  

 

[huthut]

I want my kids to be able to socialize with other kids, and a nanny would be more expensive. 

 

[Biff84]

Kind of off-topic but what precautions are your daycares/preschools taking? Are they using masks at all? I know having the kids do it is unrealistic but what about the teachers and other staff? Just trying to gage if our place didn’t care or that's typical.

We decided early that we didn’t want our two girls (4 and 2) going since my wife works from home and saw a lot of her workload (small businesses) slow down. After a couple weeks of paying full price we asked if they were doing anything for the kids who weren’t going. We got a heartless response from the franchise owner essentially saying that we needed to keep paying full price while on our ‘vacation’ or lose our spot. After a heated email response, we took our youngest out and lowered our 4 year old down to part time knowing that we are losing our spot.

Fast forward to May and our oldest is starting to really miss her friends. We consider letting her go and see her friends but put the breaks on when a couple cases pop up in businesses nearby. Then towards the end of the month they had a pre-K graduation. Except they didn’t even tell us about it despite continuing to pay tuition. We couldn’t even tell her about it or show her pictures because it would have made her even more sad. That’s when we decided we were done with them. We put in our two week notice but decided that we would let her go see her friends and teacher one more time. That was last Friday.

About an hour ago we get an email stating that one parent has tested positive and they have two kids. The last time the parent who tested positive was there was Thursday but the kids (and their spouse) were there on Friday. Luckily neither of the kids are in our daughter’s classroom, but as the day goes they consolidate the classes and when I picked her up, she was in classroom of one of the kids and likely was when the parent picked them up. Of course we don’t know who it is and we probably won’t find out.

We drop her off one day out of 75 and potentially got expose. Awesome luck we’ve got...

 

[FBG26]

Kind of off-topic but what precautions are your daycares/preschools taking? Are they using masks at all? I know having the kids do it is unrealistic but what about the teachers and other staff?

Our daycare is taking kids at the door and walking them to the room. No parents allowed in the building. They take everybody's temperature at the door. Some teachers are wearing masks, but it's not mandated. They do lots of extra cleaning too. 

 

[Moe.]

Ours is taking temperatures at the door, "deep cleaning" every day, but that's it as far as I know. We stayed home the second half of March, all of April, and a couple weeks in May and then went back. They never closed and allowed us to keep our spot and we didn't have to pay for April. I'm not sure how they are handing people who haven't gone back yet. I still agonize over the decision but it was just too much at home. Son is 16 months so we had to alternate in terms of who was working and who was watching him, I felt like I was doing a bad job at both. So far no issues, but I wouldn't be surprised if we have to keep him home again at some point. 

 

[huthut]

My day care said they were opening up June 1. They gave us the option of going back, or paying 50% of usual monthly to reserve our spot. We opted for 50% with hope of a July 1 return. We kind of want to see how the next month goes before sending back.

We did the exact same thing since both kids would not be going back in June anyway, they charged 50% for the one that could have gone back. Both kids started 7/1.

Our daycare is taking kids at the door and walking them to the room. No parents allowed in the building. They take everybody's temperature at the door. Some teachers are wearing masks, but it's not mandated. They do lots of extra cleaning too. 

This is exactly what ours is doing as well, though masks are mandatory. I think enrollment has dropped a lot, not sure if it is due to space for safety or just parents getting nannies instead. The section for kids < 2 years old went from about 30 kids to 5. A few families on our street that were going to the same daycare completely dropped out and went with a nanny (they each have more than 2 kids so it might have actually been cheaper to get a nanny).

 

[-OZ-]

Our daycare is taking kids at the door and walking them to the room. No parents allowed in the building. They take everybody's temperature at the door. Some teachers are wearing masks, but it's not mandated. They do lots of extra cleaning too. 

That's the only difference with ours. Every teacher has to wear a mask.

My wife will probably be working 2 days a week there, partly so she's able to be in the building a couple days each week while our daughter attends kindergarten at the preschool / private kindergarten.

 

[gump]

Similar here (Tampa)...100% masks on staff/teachers/parents...temp taken at entry...no entry other than kids.

 

[RUSF18]

My 3.5 yo daughter's "camp" started this week. She's one of only six in her group plus two teachers, and they all wear masks. The pics are so sad and cute. 

Like above, we're not allowed in the building and  they get scanned for their temperature when dropping them with the person at the door, who takes them back. All their activities that normally would be led by someone brought into the building (music, yoga, etc) are done over Zoom and put on a big TV they set up in the gym, to keep it to just kids and teachers in the building. 

All in all very happy with how they're handling it.