Keeping everyone safe and healthy is the tag for the school year of 2020-2021. With COVID-19 cases continuing to rise in the U.S., how can you, as educators, provide a healthy environment to welcome students back to school?

Consider that many of the recommendations made here have been made before for other reasons. Maybe now is a good time to implement some educational best practices while keeping students and teachers well.

According to the report Parents 2020: COVID-19 Closures — a Redefining Moment for Students, Parents, and Schools, children spend an average of 4.2 hours per day on remote learning. Parents spend about 2.5 hours per day to support their children’s education.

The move to virtual learning has opened the eyes of many parents about what their children need to learn and how well they learn it. However, 92% report their children are at or above grade level in reading and math, while the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows the real average to be closer to 37%.

Before welcoming students back to school, educators must take time to review, plan, and implement policies to account for the “new normal.” Pay particular attention to local health and government resources and guidelines and be prepared for rapid change.

In fact, make the potential for change part of every policy moving forward. Here are a few policy considerations.

In these days of touchless everything, childcare management software helps you maintain social distancing while continuing to offer quality education and run a successful business.

EZChildTrack provides a comprehensive solution for storing data, monitoring progress, communicating with staff and parents, and keeping up with billing, all in one place.

EZChildTrack is a cloud-based childcare and afterschool management software solution you can use wherever you are with whichever device you want, at any time.

As states begin to open up after the prolonged shutdown from the COVID-19 pandemic, people are slowly coming out of their homes to go back to work. For working parents, the newest worry is how to feel safe putting their children back into care while the coronavirus is still out there.

As a businessperson, you want to open up to begin earning revenue again, but as a childcare provider, you are all too aware of the stress parents are feeling. Even if you were able to stay open as an essential business, you and your staff are still adapting to life in the post-COVID world.

Here are some tips to help families feel safe placing their children in your care.

As the states slowly open up from the COVID-19 lockdown, there are many questions about how businesses, particularly summer camps, can open safely.

There is no doubt about the potential risk of an outbreak anytime people gather together. On the other hand, the country cannot remain in limbo. The CDC helpfully released guidance to help owners and operators of daycares, preschools, and camps reopen for the season.

The presence and use of technology by children is an ongoing topic of concern. On one side is the insistence that any exposure to screens is inherently bad for children. On the other is the expectation of advanced education at a young age.

Technology is a tool. It is neither good nor bad; it's all in how you use it. Computers, smartphones, tablets, and TV have received their share of criticism, but there is no turning back the clock to a technology-free childhood.

Technology carries benefits and advantages. It can also be detrimental. Balance is the key.

Though quarantine lock-downs are expiring, many schools are still online, and some childcare facilities are reopening or attempting to get back to a regular schedule.

In the meantime, parents are home with their children for more hours a day than before. To help them keep the little ones busy and learning, offer them some ideas for fun family activities to do at home. You can help their children stay focused on learning while giving everyone a break.

Here are some ideas you can pass along to parents or build on to provide a customized list for your clientele.

As the states begin to allow businesses to open from lockdown, shelter in place, and quarantine, childcare facilities face particular challenges. Not only must you guard against the little ones' propensity to touch everything and put it in their mouths, you now have a new germ to kill: Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, is taking over life as we know it for the time being. Childcare services are being hit from all sides, from parents taking their children out for home care as they shelter in place to essential workers looking for places to put their kids while they work.