LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jenna Badgley, director of Maple Grove Baptist Child Care and Preschool in Okolona, said she's had to shut down three times since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The most recent instance was sparked by four staff members contracting the virus along with three children. The day care has 35 kids enrolled and will reopen Monday.
"It affected three out of seven of my classrooms, and with how small we are, I didn't want to risk the few people we had coming back to spread it," Badgley said.
Eric Friedlander, secretary for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said this recent COVID-19 surge that started last month has affected day cares statewide.
"We had several facilities that had to close," he said. "We had facilities that had to close specific classrooms."
The state said about 84 child care centers reported at least one case of COVID-19 last month and 22 day cares had to close for cases and quarantine.
This month, the state said three day cares reported COVID-19 cases but will continue to operate with room closures. Two facilities reported a temporary center-wide closure due to the virus.
Badgley said her facility is one of them. She said when the day care opens on Monday parents "can expect that my staff has been tested and they're negative. We're all symptomatic free, as well as any kids that come back. They have to be symptom free."
Friedlander said the state has provided "additional federal funding to child care operators and to make sure they get funding to do that extra cleaning."
Badgley said that state funding has definitely helped her center with the costs of cleaning and even paying her staff while the center remained closed. She said parents also didn't have to pay for day care during the closure.
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