COMSTOCK PARK, Mich. — Michigan daycare and childcare operators have new guidelines to follow when it comes to quarantine and isolation.
The update from the state came weeks after 13 On Your Side investigated the mixed messages that prompted a Kent County preschool owner to close.
Trisha Dart was busy getting back into the swing of things Tuesday.
Monday saw Dart reopening her Comstock Park preschool to waiting parents after 15 long days.
The owner of Little Ones Learning on Evan Drive reached out to 13 On Your Side earlier this month after a COVID diagnosis in the family prompted her to shut down and undertake the pain-staking process of coming up with answers, which involved cold-calling a veritable alphabet soup of state agencies.
“We used to have guidance upon guidance,” Dart related during an early January Zoom interview the day after she closed her doors. “There's now a whole lot of anything when it comes to the early childhood profession.”
Despite recent guidance updates for everyone else – reduced quarantines and policy tweaks advanced by the CDC and mirrored by state agencies, including MDHHS – Dart was surprised to find the latest guidance for her under-five clientele was a five-month-old document comprising a series of loose guidelines put out by LARA.
“I mean, we have the kids that are not able to be vaccinated yet,” Dart said, explaining her concern.
In a policy fix this week, state licensing officials advanced a slate of new recommendations tailored to early childhood education settings and intended to clear mounting confusion.
“It's like we are unified again with expectations,” Dart said, reacting to the news during a Tuesday phone conversation.
While the update came too late to clarify Dart’s dilemma, she said she was hopeful the new rules would help remedy future misunderstandings.
Dart also made the case for a higher level of coordination between the agencies calling the shots.
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