Some daycares stay open, NC health department issues safety guidelines

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Although public school are closed for now, a lot of day cares in the Cape Fear are still open, but parents are torn about whether to bring their children or make alternative arrangements.

It’s a tough decision for both parents and day care providers. One mom made the decision to keep her son home at a cost.

“But the risk, you know,” Alexandria Seabrook, who is keeping her son home from day care, said. “But what about the parents who don’t know they have it, or are passing it onto their kids?”

Seabrook was left with the tough decision to drop her son off at daycare in Wilmington or keep him home, amidst the Coronavirus pandemic.

As a full-time student with a busy almost two-year-old, Seabrook has her hands full, but she says it’s just not worth that risk.

KinderStop in Leland is keeping its doors open for those parents who don’t have another option.

“For us, the biggest concern was for the health care providers who don’t have child care options,” Co-owner Liz Long said. “So after much debate, we decided it was best to remain open.”

Long says it’s uncharted territory, and they wrestled with the decision. In order to stay open, she says they’re making some big changes.

“So beginning next week, we’re dropping the drop-in aspect of our business,” Long said. “Then we also lowered the price for people, just because everybody’s in a bind financially.”

KinderStop is also cutting it’s capacity nearly in half to only a max of 26 kids. Long says they’re also cleaning at every possible moment.

“We are flying through our cleaning products constantly,” Long said. “We were already fastidious about all the cleaning and now we’ve just amped that up times 10.”

For Seabrook, keeping her son home is going to cost her because she still has to pay tuition.

“Part of me wants to un-enroll him and just save that money, but we risk losing our spot,” Seabrook said.

On the other hand, Long says she also can’t afford to lose child care.

“If day care gets taken away, that’s going to be hard,” Seabrook said.

The State Department of Health and Human Services is giving child care centers the option to stay open.

At KinderStop, Long says they will stay open as long as they possibly can. She says their staff can make the decision to stay home if they don’t feel comfortable coming into work.