Dear Oregon Department of Early Learning Division, Please Help Working Families.
Working parents have had a tough time juggling it all during COVID. Help us help you by updating your guidance.
I’m a working mom raising three young kids, twins who are 4 and a six-year-old, with my husband, who also works full time. We’re tired. We’re ready for some stability. We’re ready for some consistency. Let me first make a few things clear to avoid any likely questions among readers:
I’m pro-vaccine…you may have read my piece last year: “How can we make the greatest impact in this global pandemic.” I am also against extreme mandates and bad policy, especially when they are not consistent with science and federal guidance. I have been an outspoken cheerleader for vaccines, and testing, supportive of masking (when effective), and isolating, if any household members have COVID-19 symptoms. That’s why as soon as our six-year-old was eligible, we encouraged him to be vaccinated, and also why I stayed home with a child who had a cough on Christmas weekend while my husband and two other children traveled to visit my in-laws. That was just the latest episode in a two-year span that has tested parents everywhere.
With that background covered, we need to face the reality that this status quo – random policy shifts and school and child care shutdowns – cannot last much long for working families. COVID-19 is devastating working families in particular and not because of the virus itself. For almost two years now working families with school age kids or children in child care have dealt with remote learning, extended or permanent facility closures, extra sick days, over and over. We Zoom from our bedrooms, make calls from the laundry room, attempt to precisely schedule calls during nap times, work late, and work early.
The price of COVID for most working parents I know is a feeling of falling behind in all areas of life, missing many opportunities, and losing income. This sustained stress worsens anxiety, threatens personal and professional relationships, and harms productivity. And I certainly had to deal with those high costs, and that was before getting hit with another forced quarantine after a family member had an exposure.
This whole situation would have been easier if CDC and public health administrations at the state and local level had been consistent in their logic and policies. At the beginning of the pandemic the CDC guidance for isolation and quarantine period for a person who contracted COVID-19, or had been exposed, was 14 days, then reduced to 10 days. Then, on December 27, 2021, the CDC shortened the recommended time for isolation for the public and K-12 schools to five days saying, “The change is motivated by science demonstrating that the majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of illness, generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after.”
On December 29, 2021, the Oregon Health Authority guidance was updated to reflect CDC’s new isolation changes for five days.
On January 4, 2022, the Oregon Department of Education sent a letter to K-12 superintendents, charter school leaders, private school Leaders, principals, school nurses, and reopening advisors, it read, “At their discretion, Local Public Health Authorities may direct school districts to adopt the 5-day general population recommendation or to continue using existing isolation and quarantine school guidance until further notice.”
Yesterday, January 29, 2022, the CDC calculation for quarantine and isolation is generally five days at home with precautions until day 10 and delineates by vaccination status.
So, I beg the question, why is the Oregon Department of Early Learning Division lagging in updating their rules for child care settings? I write this piece while our family is home from preschool for 20 days.
The timeline: our 4-year-old twins are on a 20-day quarantine (10 days allotted for the COVID-19 positive person in our home, then their 10-day quarantine begins. This timeline extends if any one additional person contracts COVID and resets the clock). This timeline is regardless of the 4-year-olds testing positive or negative, even if they have symptoms or they are asymptomatic.
One month ago, the CDC announced their guidance, and less than one-week later OHA and ODE had updated their guidance aligning their recommendation to the federal one to reduce isolation and quarantine periods to five days at home and five days taking precautions.
Oregon Department of Early Learning Division, please update your guidance to be consistent. Until we’re out of COVID-19, this virus will continue to be extremely disruptive, but with the reduction of the quarantine timeline it will be less devastating to working families while still prudent enough to slow the spread.
We’ll willing to follow your guidance. We’re just asking for a little consistency and a lot less back and forth.
Oregon born, raised, and educated. Loved Austin, TX, then moved back home to raise our three boys. Political nerd, MBA, and passionate about helping people.
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