NAEYC Accredited Year Round Quality Preschool

Autumn Creek Learning Center

Emergency Plan

Emergency Preparedness Plan for Parents

Disaster Preparedness Efforts

To prepare for the possibility of a natural disaster, Autumn Creek has taken the following steps to make our school and staff more disaster ready:

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Full staff has completed First Aid and CPR courses and renew every 2 years.
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Full staff and children participate in monthly Fire drills and quarterly Earthquake drills with evacuations and an annual lockdown situation.

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Full Staff is being trained on and will review quarterly, Emergency Plans and Procedures.

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Equipped each classroom with an Emergency backpack for teachers containing basic emergency supplies.

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Prepared detailed maps in each classroom of evacuation routes and utility locations.

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Emergency storage shed filled with supplies such as Water Barrels (55 gallons each) with enough water for each child/teacher for 3 days, Emergency food bars enough for each child/teacher for 7 days, emergency blankets, flash lights & batteries, first aid & medical kits, search and rescue kits & equipment, portable toilets, AM/FM radios, gas stoves, and more!

Communications During a Disaster

After a major disaster, you may not be able to get home right away due to blocked roads or other hazards. Local phone service or cell towers may be down. Here are tips for creating an effective communications plan:

 

  1. Find an out-of-state contact that is more than 100 miles away. Long distance phone service is more likely to be available first, so establish an out-of-state contact that your family members and friends can call to relay your condition and get information on other family members.
  2. Ask three or four people who are usually within 10 minutes of our school during the day to be responsible for picking your child up from school if you will not be able to get home immediately. These people should be listed on your child’s Emergency Card.
  3. Develop a system of notifying your designees if you need someone to pick up your child. For example, ask them to call your out-of-state contact to find out if you have reported in yet and if they need to pick up the child.
  4. Make certain that your designees know about the school’s evacuation and student release procedures (see below). Remind them that they will need to show a photo ID in order for the child to be released.

    Evacuation Procedures

    In case of a major earthquake or other disaster, students may be evacuated from their classrooms. Depending on the magnitude of the incident, the school may be closed until further notice. Students will evacuate to the large playground area and wait to be released to a parent or authorized designee.

    Your cooperation is necessary during a disaster.

    1. Please DO NOT call the school. Telephone lines may be needed for emergency medical communication.
    2. Please listen to the following radio stations as we will notify them to include a message for you to pick up your child. AM 1610, AM 740, AM 810, AM 680, FM 92.1, FM 101.7.
    3. If cell lines are still available, Autumn Creek has multiple cell phones for you to call to hear updated messages about the current status. You may call Asmita Bhargava at (925) 482-5605. These messages will include pick up information and any other information as necessary.
    4. Parents and designees MAY NOT pick up children until ALL students and staff are accounted for and the director approves the release of students. NO EXCEPTIONS. See Student Release Procedures below for more info.
    5. Should the property at Autumn Creek become unsafe for us to stay here, children and teachers will evacuate to Sycamore Valley Elementary/Park at the corner of Camino Tassajara and Holbrook.

     

    Student Release Procedures

    1. Parents should remain in their car. Please enter the school parking lot through the main entrance, unless otherwise directed due to road conditions, and wait for our “Student Release Supervisor” to talk with you.
    2. When you pull up the Student Release Supervisor will check your ID against your child’s Emergency Card and, if you are listed, will alert our “Student Release Runners” that you are here to pick up your child. The Supervisor will put a paper with your child’s name on your dashboard.
    3. Please remain in your car until Student Release Runner brings your child to your car. At that time we ask that you buckle your child into their car seat then exit the driveway. Members of the Student Release team will not be responsible for securing your child in their car seat.

    * Students WILL NOT be released to an individual not listed on their Emergency Card. Phone authorizations will not be allowed during Emergencies. NO EXCEPTIONS.

    * Students WILL NOT be released without a photo ID.

    * If there are 4 or less children in our care and we are unable to contact any person on your child’s emergency card, our next step will be to contact law enforcement/child protective services to care for your child until you can reach them.

    Family Preparedness

    The key to surviving disasters is good planning. Knowing what to do will reduce stress and eliminate confusion.

    1. Create a family communication plan. Keep important phone numbers by the phone. Create a list of important numbers and make copies for you and your family to keep in their wallets.
    2. Designate Emergency Contacts for your children. Designate people who are usually within 10 minutes of your children’s schools to be responsible for picking up your children in case of an emergency. Create a communications plan within them so they know if you are unable to pick up your child in an emergency they are responsible.
    3. Have escape routes planned. Everyone should know of two ways to get out of a room in case of a fire.
    4. Know where the utility shutoffs are. Locate your gas, electrical and water shutoffs and learn how to operate them. Paint them white or a reflective color so they are highly visible.
    5. Make your house easy to find. Make your house number large and well lit so that emergency personnel can find your home quickly.
    6. Prepare an Emergency Kit. Purchase or create an emergency kit and store outside of your house in case of emergency. Include a first aid kit, flashlight, batteries, emergency blankets, emergency food and water.

     

    Covid-19 Preparedness

    We wanted to give you an update on how we are making our center a safe, clean and germ-free environment for the children, staff, our families and for the community as a whole.

    First and foremost, we hired a company called Cintas which is the leader in professional cleaning/ disinfecting businesses. When a business needs to be disinfected because there has been exposure of particular illness, they call Cintas.

    Cintas will do the following for us:

    1. Every week, they will disinfect the whole center once the children are gone, including all the rooms, bathrooms, play structures, door knobs and all the frequently touched surfaces with their disinfecting chemicals which will kill the germs. They bring out a Kyvac machine which is a heavy duty cleaning machine that thoroughly disinfects and cleans the surfaces including floors and all surfaces like tables, chairs and play structures.
    2. They will provide us with 4 different kinds of EPA certified and child safe Sanitizers to sanitize the classrooms. The teachers will be provided with training on how to use each sanitizer on what surface. The teachers will clean the frequently touched surfaces every half hour, toys and mats everyday.
    3. Teachers will be provided with microfibers towels which clean better and absorb dirt better, which will be stored in the janitor’s closet and picked up by Cintas to be laundered weekly. They will provide us with fresh ones every week.
    4. The kitchen area will have a sanitizing chemical that is safe to be used on surfaces where food is handled.
    5. Cintas will also provide our janitors( who will continue to come every night) professional germ absorbing mops which will also be laundered weekly.
    6. The heavy duty mats at all the entrances – front, back, LB classroom playground entrance mat and Big yard entrance mats will be laundered weekly to ensure that if there are any germs brought in, they will be washed away weekly.
    7. They will provide us with paper products that we need for daily running as Costco does not deliver those anymore, ever since this outbreak of COVID-19 started in California.
    8. The office will have a hand sanitizer dispenser attached to the wall for teachers which will be refilled by Cintas weekly/ daily depending upon the demand. But mostly lot of hand washing will happen.
    9. All bathrooms- children’s as well as adult ones will have new paper towel dispensers and air fresheners.
    10. They will also provide masks for the teachers.

    This is the comprehensive package we have installed through Cintas to keep everyone in the center safe. We will continue to monitor everything as we move forward as we want parents to feel safe in sending their children back to school.

    For this very reason, we are planning to put in place the following changes and we hope to have your full co-operation:
     

    1. If you feel that you child is sick and has a fever, cold, cough, we would kindly request you to keep them home for a few days to monitor what is going and ask the doctor’s advice to bring them back. This will be not only better for your child, the other children but also good for the community of which each child is a part of.
    2. When we open, the parents will be asked to hand over their child to the staff member outside and the sign in/out binders will be placed outside on 2 tables. We request that you bring on your own pen so that the germs are not spread by the use of the same pen.
    3. Children’s hands will be washed by the teachers for 20 seconds with warm soapy water and a lot of hand washing will be encouraged.
    4. The same procedure will be followed for afternoon and evening pick up’s. We will wash your child’s hands with soap and water and bring them to your car.
    5. We also request that you wear masks when you bring your children to the center and also at pick up time, even though you will be in the car.
    For Staff, the following procedures are going to be put in place:

    1. Before clocking in, their temperature will be checked with the no contact thermometer, which have been purchased already.
    2. Staff who is sick will be asked to stay home and if they fall sick at school, they will be sent home and allowed back with a doctor’s note.
    3. The teachers and office staff will wear masks which they will launder every day.
    4. Hand washing will be done upon entering and many times throughout the day.
    5. Teachers will disinfect all toys, tables, mats everyday.
    6. Hand sanitizer will be provided to staff in the office.
    7. Teachers will be asked to take their breaks and lunch breaks in their cars, parked outside, until this tides over.
    The classrooms will be kept as single functioning units without interacting with other classrooms. Each classroom unit will be doing activities in their classrooms and dividing the groups into smaller sizes within the classrooms. When they go outside they will go out as a single unit when no other classrooms are present. Therefore, each room will be allotted a time frame that they will go out in, which will be approx. 50 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. After a classroom is done using the play structures, the teachers will disinfect and clean the play structures for the next group coming out.

    The Little bear room will also be divided into 2 groups which will remain the same everyday with the same teachers every day. When one group is done playing outside the teachers will disinfect and clean the play structures for the next group coming out.

    We are taking the safety of our community very seriously and hence trying to provide a germ free environment. The single unit classrooms will help in controlling the spread of germs so that parents can go back to work without worrying about their most precious children. When one does well, the whole community does well. We also welcome more suggestions from our parents as we want you to feel that we are protecting your children and keeping them safe. The Contra Costa numbers look pretty good and we hope that we continue to have less and less ill people.

    Our families are our strongest allies in this situation and we believe that there is a partnership between the center and families. Let us help each other through this so that we can make the community healthy and strong.

    Please keep an eye out for updates regarding opening the center as we hope to hear from all divisions of our Govt. on what our next step will be. We will keep in mind the county’s order for shelter in place as we move forward. Our hope is to open with all these safe measures in place.
    Update: All teachers got tested negative for COVID.

    If there is a case of COVID-19 in our facility, we will identify the group that was exposed and parents and staff will be informed. The exposed group will be isolated and asked to seek medical help. They will be quarantined and not allowed back in the center for the next 14 days. They can return to the center with a doctor’s note stating that their attendance is safe. Licensing agency will be informed in the form of an unusual incident report. Cintas or a disinfecting Agency will be required to disinfect the center to deem it safe for return and the center will be closed for 3 days for the cleaning and disinfecting.

    Disinfecting Agency for Cleaning: Bay Area Covid-19 clean.com

    471 Perrymont Ave,
    San Jose, CA 95215

    Office: 650-861-8800

    Cell: 408-590-6049

    Email: [email protected]

    Staff  responsible for Co-ordinating Preparedness Planning and integrating all agencies protocols including CDC and CCLD Guidance:

    1. Asmita Bhargava
    2. Jillian Hackett

    All parents will be emailed and all flyers will be posted on the front door. Any communication regarding COVID-19 will be immediately dispersed to all staff and families via email and front door/ bulletin board postings. The community will be informed via flyers on the front door as well as via CCLD. We will notify the Local Health Department or the CDPH if participants or staff develop symptoms of COVID or have exposures to COVID.

    In Case of Exposure:

    1. If a child is sick, we will isolate them immediately in the office away from other children and they will be using the first adult bathroom, where we will put up the sign which says, “Quarantine” or “Isolation” until that bathroom has been thoroughly disinfected and no longer used by the sick child.
    2. The parent of the sick child will be called immediately so that they can pick up the child right away from isolation and asked to be taken to the doctor to be checked for COVID-19. If the child tests negative they may return to school with a doctor’s note and after they are symptom-free for 24 hours and not contagious.
    3. If the child tests positive for COVID-19, we will quarantine the small group of 10 children and staff that were exposed to this sick child and they remain in isolation for the next 14 days until they are deemed safe to return. The child who tested positive for COVID- 19 will remain in quarantine until the doctor’s note confirms that they can return to the program. In this case, ACLC will inform the whole school (Parents and staff), Community Care Licensing Division and the Contra Costa Local Health Department of the case of COVID-19 that was positive. That classroom will be cleaned and disinfected by the Disinfecting Agency for Cleaning from San Jose and closed for the next 3 days.
    4. The exposed staff will also test for COVID-19 and can return to work with a doctor’s note stating that they tested negative for COVID-19.
    5. We would recommend that the exposed group of 10 children get tested for COVID-19 as a precaution and return with a doctor’s note stating that they tested negative. 

    Staff Vacations Amid COVID-19

    The teachers will get tested for COVID if they go out of state and if they go out of the country. If you go out of state, upon your return, you will be required to stay at home and quarantine for a week until you get your negative test results. If you go out of the country, you will be required to stay at home and quarantine for 2 weeks with return upon current negative COVID test results. You may choose to  use your PTO to cover this period of time. We understand that it is an inconvenience but we are looking out for the safety of the children and other staff and therefore, the safety of the community. We would not like to jeopardize the well-being of the school population.

    As many of you have come in with concerns regarding vacations and return from vacation, here are the steps for your return from vacation. 

    1. If you take a week’s vacation, you will have to take a current COVID test upon your return and we will accept a negative test result for you to return to work for your file and for the peace of mind of your co-workers. 
    2. We would also like you to take a week off to quarantine after the vacation and wait till the test results come in negative.
    3. You may choose to use your PTO or not, to cover your vacation and the quarantine week.
    4. If you go overseas, you take a current COVID test and quarantine for 2 weeks and may return with a negative test result. You can choose to use or not use your PTO to cover this vacation and quarantine. 

    We are taking this very seriously so everyone’s safety and well-being stay intact. 

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    We look forward to hearing from you soon!
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