What is Your COVID Vaccination Policy?

Can you require that parents must be vaccinated before they can bring their child to your program?

Can you require that parents must quarantine for two weeks if a member of their family has COVID?

The COVID pandemic has created new challenges for family child care providers trying to keep the children in their care safe, as well as their own families. The best advice is to follow the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and your own state health department.

In addition to following these guidelines, you are free to set higher safety standards. You can require parents to wear masks while in your home and use disinfectant upon arrival and exit. You can take any reasonable step you want to keep children safe.

What about a vaccination policy?

You can establish a policy that says that parents must be vaccinated before they can bring children to your program. This is not illegal discrimination. All adults are now eligible to become vaccinated, so there is no excuse for a parent not to be vaccinated. In my opinion, it is wise to have such a policy. If a parent refuses to be vaccinated, you can terminate your contract.

You can also establish a policy that requires parents to quarantine if a member of their family has COVID, or has traveled out of state, or has attended a large gathering of people and so on. It’s your business and you can set whatever policies you want to keep children and your family safe.

If you are going to adopt vaccination/COVID policies, give parents some notice so they have an opportunity to get vaccinated and plan their future activities.

What about vaccinations for children? Health officials are currently testing vaccines on younger children. It is expected that they may become available this fall or by next year. When they do become widely available, you may require vaccinations of children in your program at that time.

What about employees?

Can you require employees to be vaccinated? Yes. Again, it's not illegal discrimination. You can add this to your employee handbook/policies.

State laws

This issue of vaccinations is a new an evolving one. It's possible that some states may decide to pass laws making it illegal to discriminate against parents or employees regarding vaccinations. Contact your licensor to see if they are aware of any state laws about this.

Before the pandemic

Before the pandemic, providers were allowed to deny care to children whose parents refused to vaccinate them against a variety of childhood illnesses (measles, diphtheria, polio, etc.). Federal and state laws do allow some parents to refuse to vaccinate their children. But, that does not mean you must care for these children. Again, this is not illegal discrimination.

A final word

There is no federal or state law requiring anyone to get vaccinated. Parents may have their own reasons not to get vaccinated. Providers are free, however, to set their own rules about whether to require vaccinations. Your job is to keep children safe.

Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com

Image credit: https://aldianews.com/articles/educacion/sponsored-content/wearing-mask/58752