Posted on October 8, 2020 at 3:29 PM by Legislative Staff
On Monday, October 5, Governor Murphy announced that locations providing remote-learning supervision services during the school day must be licensed as child care centers. These include, for example, dance studios, martial arts studios, and churches. Emergency regulations from the Department of Children and Families (DCF) allow these centers to undergo an expedited licensure process.
Childcare centers, and by extension, locations providing remote-learning supervision services must follow all safety guidelines detailed by the Department of Children and Families including:
- Screening staff and children for fever and other COVID-19 symptoms prior to entry to the program facility each day;
- Minimizing group sizes to 10 children and limiting movement between groups;
- Ensuring that the spacing of groups allows for ten feet of separation between groups at all times;
- Taking steps to preclude crowding at pick up and drop off times;
- Strictly limiting the sharing of supplies, food, toys, and other items;
- Prohibiting field trips and other off-site activities, with the exception of activities within walking distance of the facility;
- Strictly limiting and discouraging close person to person contact (hugging, wrestling, games involving touching or tagging);
- Requiring staff to wear cloth masks, unless doing so would inhibit the individual's health, when feasible, children over age two should wear face coverings within the facility;
- Restricting all visitors - except for emergency/law enforcement personnel in their official capacity and Department of Children Families personnel for child protection or child care licensing purposes – to after operating hours; and
- Completing DCF Office of Licensing daily log.
Contact: Paul Penna, Legislative Analyst, Ppenna@njlm.org, 609-695-3481 x 110.