Safety Protocol at Yoga Peace School™ in Response to COVID-19:

Thank you for your support as we navigate this new world that we are living in. We know the thought of your child starting or returning to school may bring up feelings of relief, anxiety and fear. We want you to all know that the safety of the children, our staff, and our greater community is our top priority and we have put protective measures in place to keep everyone as safe as possible. During this time, we are focusing on what we can control. Specifically, we have put into place a protocol for YPS™ that offers the childcare you need and the social setting that the children need, in the safest, most mindful way possible. We have recently required that all current & new staff members at YPS™ be vaccinated. We currently have 97% vaccination within our YPS community! GO TEAM!!

Below is our COVID-19 protocol at YPS™. It is a lot of important information so please read to the end.

1. Parent Drop-Off and Pick-Up Protocol

Drop-offs must be between 8:00-9:00, no exceptions. Teachers are available during that time for health screenings before the children enter the building.

As soon as children enter the building, they will wash their hands with soap and water for 20 seconds. Peacekeepers will also be helping the children to practice hand-washing throughout the day.

2. Health Screenings and Healthy Hygiene Behavior

Before entering the building, you check your child in using your Brightwheel parent app and the QR code provided at the front gate, you will be asked to complete a short health screening prior to your child joining us for the day. If your child has a temperature of 99.6 or higher, they will not be able to come to school. If any of the questions on the health screening alert us, we may ask that you keep your child home to monitor their symptoms. If your child is experiencing cough, shortness of breath, runny nose, congestion, fever, diarrhea, loss of taste or smell or has an undiagnosed rash, we will ask that you provide a negative covid test prior to returning to school.

If your child shows symptoms while at school, we will contact you immediately for pick up and clean and disinfect all areas used by the child. If your child has allergies, please provide a doctor's note.

If you, your child, or someone in your immediate family tests positive for COVID-19, you will need to contact us immediately so that we can take the necessary precautionary measures which include informing the YPS community, child care licensing and the Austin Health Department. We may decide on a short-term closure based on what is best for the staff, families, and community. Your child must be tested immediately if showing symptoms or within 72-hrs if asymptomatic. If they test negative, they must stay home from school for 10 days from the family members positive test. We do ask that you retest them 24 hours prior to returning to school. We will do everything we can to avoid a school closure and consider each exposure on a case by case basis.

3. Social Distancing Strategies

While 6 feet distancing may not be possible in a school setting for preschoolers, we will do our best to provide a clean, safe environment for socialization. Each group has a designated schedule for inside activities and nap time. The CDC encourages children to spend as much time outside as possible so we revised our schedule to reflect more outdoor time. We have elevated our outdoor play space with a new mountain play structure & imagination playground blocks. We also created a separate play space for the Mindful Mini group as well as an outdoor lunch room.

4. Meal Time and Water Bottles

We will be washing hands before and after every mealtime. Water bottles will be carried individually by each student from inside to outside play and vice versa. Water bottles will be stored on high shelves and out of reach for the littlest yogis. We will not be transporting water bottles together in a bag. Water bottles will be taken home every day to be washed. Snack & Lunch will be eaten in our outdoor covered porch.

5. Cleaning and Disinfecting

We will be cleaning with extra vigilance throughout the day with a deep clean at the end of the day and will be removing excess toys from the rooms, including plush, soft and porous materials (i.e. stuffed animals). Each child will get to choose a beanie baby for the week and it will be stored in a Ziploc bag for each child to use solely. They will all be washed at the end of the week. We are currently changing our nap mat procedures and will be asking each family to either purchase a nap mat from us that we will clean daily here at school or to take the current nap mat your child home to be washed daily.

5. Air Purification

We have two state of the art air purifiers for each building with purifying technology backed by NASA. These will run 24hrs a day to help kill any mold, bacteria & viruses.

Our new protocol measures were put in place with direction from Texas Health and Human Services , The Center for Disease Control and with the support of Sera Bonds, our public health specialist.

With all of that in mind, we want to also stress the importance of continuing to wash hands frequently and make safe and responsible choices while socializing. While we do not require it, we do recommend that any person in your home that is eligible for the vaccine to please consider getting it at this time. We are not only responsible for our small family unit at this time, but we are now all responsible for each other's safety.

Please feel free to reach out to us with questions or concerns. Thank you for your patience and understanding.