Pandemic preschool: How to navigate sending your kid into an unfamiliar building with masked strangers

To keep kids, families and staff safe, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that child care programs implement an array of new safety measures amid the pandemic, such as reducing class sizes, intensifying cleaning protocols, taking children’s temperatures each morning, requiring kids and staff to wear face masks, staggering drop-off and pick-up times, spreading nap mats out six feet apart, ending family-style mealtimes and more. Many states and counties have additional guidance. 'For so many of the parents I talk to, it’s a scary time. The uncertainty is stressful,' said Dr. Erica Lee, a psychiatrist at Boston Children’s Hospital. 'Kids are really resilient, and they follow their parents' and teachers' cues. The more calm and predictability we can create for them at home and at school, the better kids will do.'