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Chattanooga area child cares face new rules, uncertainty as they begin to reopen amid coronavirus

Contributed Photo/Times Free Press. Child-sized face masks are just some one of the supplies that local child care providers are trying to find as they begin to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many manufacturers have started making adult-sized reusable cloth masks, but masks that will fit little faces are harder to find and The Chambliss Center for Children is looking for hundreds. These masks were made and donated to the center by Judy Giles. Photo courtesy of the Chambliss Center.
Contributed Photo/Times Free Press. Child-sized face masks are just some one of the supplies that local child care providers are trying to find as they begin to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many manufacturers have started making adult-sized reusable cloth masks, but masks that will fit little faces are harder to find and The Chambliss Center for Children is looking for hundreds. These masks were made and donated to the center by Judy Giles. Photo courtesy of the Chambliss Center. Contributed Photo/Times Free Press. Child-sized face masks are just some one of the supplies that local child care providers are trying to find as they begin to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many manufacturers have started making adult-sized reusable cloth masks, but masks that will fit little faces are harder to find and The Chambliss Center for Children is looking for hundreds. These masks were made and donated to the center by Judy Giles. Photo courtesy of the Chambliss Center.

By Meghan Mangrum 7 min read

The Chambliss Center for Children is looking for child-sized face masks – hundreds of them.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that staff and some children at child care facilities wear face masks as much as possible to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, but then there are meal and nap times when a child wouldn’t be wearing a mask.

And what does the child wear on Tuesday when the mask they wore on Monday is being washed? How do staff members even wash the masks to ensure they remain sterile and sanitized?

These questions are just a glimpse of what child care providers are grappling with as day care and preschool facilities begin to reopen and expand enrollment as Chattanooga and the state reopen amid a global pandemic.

“It’s going to be a challenge for us, and we’re definitely going to do everything that we ought to do to keep children safe,” said Katie Harbison, president of the Chambliss Center for Children. “The problem is the CDC makes regulations, but they’ve never run a child care program and children don’t necessarily operate that way.”