Time. Thank you for asking me to join you. I want to ask you, where are we now with Day Care Centers and child care . Because they have been running, first, just for essential workers. They were closed for a while and then just for essential workers and in june for everyone. But i know not every center, public or private, is open. Kind of give us a quick snapshot in the percentages. Sure. So i just want to say one thing which is that california officially closed its child care centers. There were 15 states that did close them, only for emergency workers. California did not do that, although it prioritized services for essential workers, so it was sort of a flashing yellow light on child care that was operating from before june. We just did a study in the field, the second half of june and back of july 2nd with about a thousand programs in the state, and we found that 82 of the Family Child Care programs were open in our sample and about 65 of the centers were open, and that maps on pretty well to the data in the state about how many, a good portion of the programs are open now. Given that they are open, what kind of data have we been able to gather, because early on, we heard covid transmissions were not happening in significant numbers at all in day cares and preschools, that children are not really factors for covid but what are you finding now . At that point, there were about 1,054 cases with positive cases that had been reported in child care license Centers Across the whole state, and now, this is almost three weeks later. The last date i have in front of me, about 1500 cases, so in the last two plus week, weve seen the cases grow by about 30 , but what i want to say about that thats important for your listeners is that, this just tells you across the whole state how many positives have been reported, and so it doesnt provide information for you about whether or not theres a cluster of Program Within a particular program. We just know that, and it would make sense, is that the cases are going up in the state, youre seeing a rise in cases in open child care facilities. The majority of the cases are the adults are being affected, but the number of child cases in both Family Child Care and in centerbased is low. A little over a hundred in both cases. Parents are considering all the data and trying to find whether to send kids to day care, whether at a home or a public facility. You know, should they feel safe . I mean, overall, would you say, look, that carries no more danger than anything else . I think people look at whats been happening, like last week, there was the georgia ymca summer camp where you had 260 test positive, 168 of them kids and young kids, what does that say . I mean, what is your suggestion to parents . Is it safe to send kids to day care . Well, i think that we have to sort of step back and go, under what circumstances is it safe . And i think whats interesting in california is were setting very different criteria f younger children in child care than we have in schools. The governor gave counties the green light to open schools and then said, no, were not going to until we make sure we can test the teachers. We have ppe in place and we can make sure the facilities are well ventilated. None of those same criteria are applied to child care. I know from our research with a lot of programs, theyre doing everything they possibly can to follow Public Health guidelines and keep the program safe. So i think we dont know for sure and the information and the science about childrens risks is evolving, so i think, you know, i think people want to know, oh, its just fine and we cant necessarily, i dont think anyone can assure them. It doesnt seem at the moment that child care is not like, youre not seeing clusters of a lot of cases, but also, most of the facilities at this point are operating with, you know, fewer children than normal. So zuzu appella paettles has question. What is being done to financially support private preschools . We are required to have fewer kids and more staff which results in a reduction in revenue and increase in expense, very true. Right, and yes, to your listener, thats exactly right, and youre not getting enough help. We know that most of the programs of people we spoke to said they had some loss of income from families. 99 of the centers said that they were operating with fewer children and 78 of the Family Child Care homes said that, and close to about half of what they had before and as i know your listener knows, under the best of circumstances fully enrolled, its almost impossible to keep child care programs open and, you know, generate enough income to cover costs. So i think that this is really escalating the crisis because programs have fewer kids. Theyre getting less resources, and they have more expenses in terms of changes they have to make to their facilities and buy cleaning materials and weve heard from people that, you know, people are forgoing their earnings for a month and Family Child Care, people have talked about not being able to pay their mortgage or using credit cards. So it is a crisis and the government has done some, but not anywhere near the level of need. Theres a bill pending in congress right now for a 15 billion bailout, or relief bill. I dont want to call it a bailout, for child care programs for private as well as public programs, but we dont know if thats going to pass. Marcy, i sense some support for the bill and additional for the government. Thats all the time we have for now but keep this conversation going. I do appreciate it. Thank you. When we come back on air, well have a bay area principal talking to us about what theyre doing as school approaches for San Francisco. Plus, a conversation about plus, a conversation about todwell many people have such a misunderstanding as to how a reverse mortgage works. People think that the bank takes your home, but that is not true. Thats absolutely 100 wrong. The home is ours. We can sell it if we want to at any time. I like the flexibility of not having a payment, but i can make the payment if i want to. Youre responsible for keeping up your property taxes and yorepo iuran o property. For us, it was a security blanket. The value of our house, was to fund our longterm health care. These are just a few uses of reverse mortgages. Or go online to request your free information kit. Without a doubt, one of the best financial tools ive learned about. Everybody should be taking a look at it. If theyre over 62, they should at least investigate it. For years, reverse Mortgage Funding has been helping customers like these use the equity from their homes to finance their lives. They know the importance of having financial security. Weve got great peace of mind. Whatever comes up. Were ready. I advise you to call them. Make an appointment so they can tell you how it works. Its a good thing. Reverse Mortgage Funding. Access your equity. Stay in your home. Have peace of mind. First five is anofit child advocyti. S cu to educate role ty in their childrens first five years. Please welcome erin dupuis. She is education administrator for first five operating here in california. Throughout california counties, we have Great Centers here in the bay area and for all of them, i know as you said, education standards, what do you tell parents right now with kids who are ages 0 to 5 . Thats a great question. We are in really uncertain, unprecedented times and i think first and foremost, its really important to support childrens social emotional needs. The world around them right now feels a little scary and confusing. They may be missing friends and family and theyve probably gotten out of some of the structure and routine that they were used to before covid, so its just really important to support their emotional needs, show them love, care, a lot of patience, and just know that they may be a little bit more clingy during this time and thats to be expected, but a ondot lf kisses throughout the day can really help and just sitting down and reading books together. Its a great way to bring calm and peace to your day, bond with your child or c if youre a chi provider and build brains at the same time. You started to get into that but i wanted to explore more from the parents perspective. I remember when my kids were young, i took them to mommy and me, baby swim or dance classes, now of course, you cannot do that. I took them to Library Story time, of course, you cannot do that now. Give us some great substitutes for those activities that enriches them in the same way. Absolutely. So i think one of the things parents can do is sort of look at what they have around the house and think about doing things like rotating toys. So putting some things away and bringing out things on a daily basis. It might be a couple of things a day. Legos and a ball to play outside. When a familiar toy goes away and then comes out, it feels a little bit new, so that can really help, and then if you dont have a lot of toys and books around the house, thats okay too. You can do things like sort laundry together, you can have children help to make meals, and you can think about just doing some time singing songs, story telling, or doing Something Like building a fort, which also provides kind of a quiet alone spot if your kiddo just wants a little quiet time. So theres a lot of Different Things you can do and actually, we have some great tips on our web site. Firstfivecalifornia. Com, for parents to go, they can even download books there, so thats a really helpful resource. I saw that resource, which is what brought us to calling you up and saying, can you share them with us on air here . I think i saw something relating to a virtual zoom experience for like, 2 years old, where i think the suggestion was you can have like a little toy train and then on the other end, you can have another 2yearold friend with a toy train and then you guys can create scenarios together. That is not something i would have thought of. Absolutely. Kids these days are pretty used to technology, its a great way to help them connect with a friend or connect with a Family Member that they may not be seeing, like a grandparent. So they can engage in those kinds of virtual opportunities to have sort of those virtual play dates. Read books together, play together. I know my children are a little bit older but theyve done that with their friends as well and it gives them a little bit of normalcy and a little bit of variety in their day that helps keep them from being bored. But there is, in the end though, its really hard to replicate that playground experience, right . Where you just pick up another kids shovel and, you know, is there anything that we can kind of try to do to replicate that in a safe way . Yeah, i mean, i think there are for parents who are working. They can have their children in a child Care Experience right now. It is really challenging for our providers who are doing so much right now, but there are opportunities for sort of social distancing, but i think the other thing is sort of doing the online story times or getting out in your yard. Playgrounds arent necessarily considered the safest place right now. Just because of potential germs, but definitely getting outside with your kids, its really important to think about different types of activities that build different skills. So getting outside or doing even, you know, a dance session inside with your child, just to get their gross motor skills progressing, and then you can alternate that with something that is more focused on thinking skills or fine motor skills. Even just handing a pencil and some paper and just being able to sit down and practice writing or do some pretend play. All of those are really great things for parents to do with kids throughout the day. For parents who are looking for the right child care option for their kids, do you think at this point, it is safer to look at, lets say, a smaller inhome day care versus a larger facility with lots of kids . Just because of the numbers. Yeah, there are a few different options. Family child care homes generally have smaller groups of children children. You can go either way and then the other option is family friend and neighbor care, and we do have an initiative in california called Quality Counts and we have a great web site thats qualityca. Net and that has a lot of information for parents about choosing care and what types of care are available as well as information for providers who might be seeking some resources and now is a great time if providers arent working to really get in and get some training done, do some online Distance Learning, connect with others in the field and so those options are there as well. Erin dupuis from first five, certainly given us some great ideas today. Really appreciate it. Thanks so much. Thank you for having me. Take care. Were going to take a short break. Well have a San Francisco principal talking to us about what their fall semester is and were back. Governor newsom said schools cannot operate in person at this point until they are off the states monitoring list for 14 straight days. Now, San Francisco county is on that list. So with that being said, lets bring on our next guest to talk about education, focusing on younger students. We have the principal at Mission Delores academy and author of the book, the overly honest teacher, due out on october 13th. Marilyn esalot, thank you for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. I want to add what i said about schools. They cant do in person unless theyre off the watch list. I think Elementary Schools can apply for the waiver and the county grants that waiver. They can do inperson. Having said that, meredith, i know your school is starting with Distance Learning and you had tried all summer to plan for kind of a hybrid model. So youre adjusting as you go but i wanted to start by asking you this. When we say Distance Learning, a lot of parents get all sorts of negative vibes because they remember what happened in the spring. Is Distance Learning this fall going to be the same or very different from Distance Learning that we saw this past spring . You know, i think its going to be an evolution. I think that the spring was a great time for us to warm up, to figure out what works and what didnt and really begin to refine our plans, our schedules, our approaches with the diversity of learners that we all have in our academic communities, and i think it gave us the chance to really weed out te things that were unsuccessful so we could know exactly how we wanted to start back this fall. What are the things that were unsuccessful that youre not going to do anymore and what are the key things you are going to start doing . You know, i think that things we really want to tap into is making sure we are offering a really individualized platform for each of our students. So making sure that we are having zoom meetings for the whole class together, for that sense of community and to present different concepts, make sure we use Small Group Instruction to target the individual needs of learners in our classrooms, and then also, to give students time for one on one meetings with us or to work independently on learning platforms adapted to their needs. I think that all of those things together are going to create a really successful plan as we move to Remote Learning yet again. Right. Yet again. You do talk about maintaining routines and traditions. Can you give us some examples of what that means and how youll implement that . Absolutely. You know, in the spring, theres so many fun things at the end of the school year. We had a chance to run our talent show via youtube, to do our Graduation Ceremony via zoom and streaming it online, but into the fall, one of the hallmarks of the community in particular is our school creed that wed say every morning together. Kindergarten through eighth graders and well stream that online and so students can start the day with that, really as a punctuation of this is where my learning begins. And then moving into the fall, well have a virtual trot and digital Scholastic Book fair, be connected to those things that make coming back to school so special. How would you keep track of whether the kids actually join . When youre in person and the activities are happening around you, youre just naturally a part of it. This, you have to overcome the hurdle of getting them to actually log in and then you know how kids can do these things. What can you do there, meredith . I had teachers use nearpod, and it asks realtime questions throughout the course of a lesson or a lecture, and students have to read and respond to those questions in realtime based on what the teacher had been discussing. And its a great way for us to keep a pulse on our students that are really listening to us and not necessarily watching youtube on another tab on their computer. Beyond that, our teachers really do, we take attendance at the beginning and end of each class to make sure our students, even if theyve gone into breakout rooms, theyre still with us and still on task. How long do you think kids in kindergarten, maybe ages 5 and 6, how long can they really stay focused that way, virtually . You know, we are looking at a schedule which is in very short blocks of time throughout the course of the day. And i think during the summertime, its a great chance for parents to start do exercise those focus muscles with your students. Giving them short duration zoom calls, meeting with the grandparent or a friend or two. And starting shorter increments, 5 to 10 minutes and build up. Same thing can go with online applications and programs if a student could log into khan academy for kids, for example, and incremental time where ideally, youd get to 15 to 20 minutes at a time. Its not cardiovascular fitness. Youve got to build it up, right . So what are the keys for success for our kindergarten, what do you need to provide as a school and teachers, and what did the parents need to provide . Different than a prek program. Setting up a work space for them, getting them excited about, this is your desk. We still can capitalize on that whimsy and enthusiasm that our youngest students have, and making sure that you present their work around that corner in your home, make it their classroom environment. And show work theyre proud of, highlight work youre really proud of theyve accomplished. Build into the schedule, time for brain breaks. We do it at school all the time, gonoodle is a great web site online where they can get up and take a body break and get the wiggles out. I think the more parents can do a little bit of practice now between now and when school starts, its going to make the onset of school much easier and setting a parents schedule and work from home as close to what their students schedule is going to be, at least in anticipating when theyre going to be online with their teacher and when theyre going to be working on their own is going to really help parents as well feel less stress. All right. I want to touch on the Emotional Health of the students, and how you as a parent can really monitor the Emotional Health and social health of your very youngest kids, the ones who are kindergarten and younger. That leads me to your book, i see behind you on the shelf there, the overly honest and i know thats what the book is about. Give us a brief look at what your key points are that could help us. Absolutely. You know, one of the things that resonates in my book is the idea of communication, and building communication very transparent, honest, most of the time, vulnerable communication with your children and your students. Letting them know that you are sharing in the same emotions that they are going through. Working from home. Us being at home during the day is making me feel very anxious. I miss my friends from work. How are you feeling about not seeing your friends at school and then building opportunities where students can formulate connections. I recommend if you can set up a time for your student to meet their teacher, either at a distanced location ahead of school or on a zoom call before school starts, just to reduce some of the anxiety, make it seem a little bit more familiar, i think that youre going to get off to a great start. All right. Meredith esalot, thank you so much. Thank you so much for having all right, thank you so much for joining us today on this interactive show, gett he ever 3 00 on air and online, streaming your questions or answering your questions. This week, join me tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. The Tropical Storm about to slam into the east. Could it become a hurricane . Millions from the carolinas to boston and new york city. Wind gusts 60 to 70 miles an hour. And the coronavirus tonight. The hospitals in the path of this storm. Already filled with patients. That tropical tomorrow expected to make landfall in the coming hours. In the carolinas, possibly as a category 1 hurricane. Already deadly in the caribbean. Dangerous winds, heavy rain andr vel major cities along the i95 corridor, all the way to new england. Watches and warnings in effect right now. And those doctors and nurses bracing. Icus already filled with covid patients. And the shelters bracing for the