The gradual scale up of activities towards pre-COVID-19 operating practices at childcare programs is crucial to helping parents and guardians return to work. Many states have closed schools for the academic year and, with summer quickly approaching, an increasing number of working parents may need to rely on these programs. CDC’s Interim Guidance for Administrators of US K-12 Schools and Childcare Programs and supplemental Guidance for Childcare Programs that Remain Open provide recommendations for operating childcare programs in low, moderate, and significant mitigation communities. In communities that are deemed significant mitigation areas by state and local authorities, childcare programs should be closed. However, childcare programs can choose to remain open to serve children of essential workersexternal icon, such as healthcare workers. All decisions about following these recommendations should be made locally, in collaboration with local health officials who can help determine levels of COVID-19 community transmission and the capacities of the local public health system and healthcare systems. CDC is releasing this interim guidance, laid out in a series of three steps, to inform a gradual scale up of operations. The scope and nature of community mitigation suggested decreases from Step 1 to Step 3. Some amount of community mitigation is necessary across all steps until a vaccine or therapeutic drug becomes widely available.

Source: https://tools.cdc.gov/api/embed/downloader/download.asp?m=403372&c=407652