My boss wants me to return to work now. So, what should I do with my child?
There’s a huge question mark surrounding the child-care industry as South Florida begins to reopen.
Many summer camps have been canceled. Several day-care centers aren’t open. No one even knows what the 2020-21 school year will look like.
But when parents get the call to return to the office, they’ll have a difficult decision to make: What to do with their kids.
Some camps have gone virtual, but a computer won’t watch your 5-year-old.
That raises the question whether camps that are open are safe and, if not, what about babysitters or even grandparents?
With the help of an epidemiologist and employment lawyer, the Miami Herald is outlining some of your options.
Should I hire a babysitter?
Hiring a babysitter is all about weighing the cost versus the benefit, says Florida International University epidemiologist Dr. Mary Jo Trepka.
“We have to understand that there’s no way to get 100% safety now because we don’t have a vaccine,” Trepka advised.
That said, Trepka recommended vetting babysitters if you’ve exhausted all other options. Ask how strictly they’ve followed social distancing measures. Ask if they’ve had contact with anyone who has been diagnosed with the coronavirus. Even do temperature checks if you have to.
“People need to ask their babysitters those questions and have to feel comfortable that the babysitter will tell them the truth,” Trepka said.
Should I let their grandparents watch them?
Again Trepka pushed for evaluating the pros and the cons. In this instance, the biggest threat will be to the grandparent as people 65 and older are considered to be in the high risk group for contracting COVID-19.
But as long as a grandparent and the child’s family have been social distancing, it could be a bit safer. If either side has been loose with their self-isolating, letting someone in that high risk group watch a child might not be the best course of action.
“If the child is out and about or the family members, maybe the parents, are working in a situation where they have a lot of contact with other people then the risk is greater,” Trepka said.
Should I take my child to camp or day care?
This might be the least safe option depending on the setting, Trepka says. If faced with this situation, the key would be finding a smaller camp or day care that spends most of their time doing outside activities.
“The most risky thing is for a large number of people or children together in an interior space,” Trepka said, adding that parents contemplating whether to send kids to camp should review the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines for child-care providers.
For parents, some of those recommendations include practicing good prevention tactics and keeping their child home if sick.
Just remember these types of child-care services are expensive. Parents should be sure to weigh the risk versus the actual cost of sending their children to camp or day care.
Am I allowed to continue staying home if I don’t have any child-care options?
The short answer is yes. But it depends whether your reasoning falls under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.
Passed in March, the FFCRA offers employees a way to stay home with their child under certain circumstances. To qualify, they have to first be able to prove that they’re unable to find child care, says employment lawyer Benjamin Briggs.
“The employee has to be able to show that the child being at home is preventing the employee from going in to work,” said Briggs, a partner at Cotney Construction Law. He said that the act runs until Dec. 31. “If the child is, for example, a 15-year-old, that’s a little harder for the employee to prove. Or if the employee already has a stay at home spouse ... [the] employer can rightfully point out that there’s already an adult at home.”
What qualifies as a “child-care provider” under the FFCRA is rather broad. It can be a school, day care, summer camp, even a grandmother.
“The idea behind it is normally I work for my company in reliance on my child being watched by ‘x,’ ” Briggs said, “whether ‘x’ is this day care, whether ‘x’ is grandma but grandma can’t do it because she’s at risk, quarantined or whatever it might be.”
As the Miami Herald has reported, the FFCRA gives eligible employees two weeks (or up to 80 hours) of paid sick leave at two-thirds their regular rate of pay if they’re unable to work due to caring for someone who is quarantined or if their normal “child-care provider is closed or unavailable for reasons related to COVID-19,” according to the Department of Labor.
If their child-care provider continues to be unavailable for COVID-19-related reasons after the two weeks are up, employees who’ve worked for at least 30 calendar days are also eligible for an additional 10 weeks of paid expanded family and medical leave at two-thirds their regular rate of pay.
Some businesses, specifically those that are small and have fewer than 50 employees, may be exempt. The employer just has to prove providing leave due to a lack of child-care services would be detrimental to their bottom line.
“Basically, we’re reasonably likely to not stay in business if we granted this job protected paid leave,” Briggs said of what small businesses must prove to be exempt.
With the act being so new, lawyers, employees and businesses are still trying to wrap their heads around it. That’s why Briggs recommended that employees talk this out with their bosses to ensure that both sides play their part in reaching the best possible solution.
“It’s best when employers and employees have conversations about things rather than [employees] just saying I’m not going to be at work today because of this,” Briggs said. “Talk about it ahead of time if you can foresee the issue.”
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 2:25 PM.
