OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — As mask mandate discussions continue for school districts around West Michigan, another population of parents is concerned that they have no guidance.
Preschoolers and kids in daycare are still too young to be vaccinated so how will mask rules be handled?
For Holland mother, Cierra Pfotenhauer, she said she won't be sending her 3-year-old son to preschool if she can't find a place that's requiring masks.
"I don't want my children to contract the virus, and I believe that the CDC guidelines are the best way that we have right now to prevent that from happening until they are able to get vaccinated," Pfotenhauer said.
She said her family works in healthcare and they've seen first-hand how the pandemic has moved through the community, even with young children.
"There are children that are immunocompromised, and there are people who live in the house with those school-aged children who could potentially be of high risk," she said, "and even though the kids may not get severe illness, they can still carry and spread the virus."
Pfotenhaur also said there hasn't been much guidance for parents of preschool-aged kids.
"I feel as though a formal mandate or guidance from our county would really be helpful," she said.
And that's a sentiment shared by Zeeland Community Preschool Director, Jennifer Winkler.
"We really were waiting for more regulations to come out for schools and what they're doing," Winkler said.
"I think a lot of childcare centers and preschools kind of feel like they're making a lot of the decisions on their own," she added.
Cierra Pfotenhauer agrees, saying, "they're putting those schools in a terrible position to have to weigh people who are having really differing opinions."
But for Zeeland Community Preschool, a locally-owned daycare, they made their decision on mask-wearing this year based on parent feedback.
"We'll look at what public schools do as far as mask wearing," said Jennifer Winkler, "but right now we're not planning on wearing masks."
But she said that could change if needed and they are reserving the right to implement mask wearing again like they did last year.
"We're just hoping that people move beyond themselves and go and get vaccinated so that kids can live more of a normal life like they should," said Winkler.
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