Catholic Charities of Boston (CCAB) operates five center-based child care sites and close to 90 subcontracted family child care locations that serve over 1,100 infants, toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, and school-aged children each year. I'm honored and grateful to have worked for Catholic Charities for over 23 years and directed this program for four years.

Since COVID-19 hit in March and the state mandated the closure of child care centers, our child care team has been working to support our families through a truly unprecedented time.

I'm proud that the child care directors, teachers, staff, and families in our program have all been flexible, understanding, and positive throughout the last few months. After closing, our team quickly turned to Zoom to connect with our children and their families during the stay-at-home order. Each day, program directors worked alongside teaching staff to bring the classroom into children's homes, where they were able to connect with their classmates online as teachers directed art lessons, led sing-a-longs, and read stories as a group.

Teachers assembled activity bags for each student, with craft supplies and books, and delivered basic necessities that some families lacked, such as diapers and wipes. During the closure, our staff enrolled in numerous online trainings offered by local and national organizations to prepare for reopening, while still running online activities each day to stay connected to our children and families.

On June 29, we began reopening under strict health and safety guidelines mandated by The Department of Early Education and Care. We are so happy to be back supporting parents who must work during the day. We currently have about half of our families back with us, as there are restrictions on the number of children allowed during the initial reopening. We prioritized those with the greatest need, such as our front line and essential workers, many of whom continued working through the mandated closure. With many public schools not returning to the classroom full-time in the fall, we are also working to find solutions to help fill the gap as parents return to the workplace.

Our team continues to take every precaution to ensure that families feel safe sending their children back. We rearranged rooms to allow for social distancing, designed screening protocols to keep staff and families safe, and enhanced cleaning and disinfecting measures, which have always aligned with best practices, making program space even safer in the face of the ongoing pandemic.

While everyone was cautious about returning, each staff member received intensive training on reopening procedures and communicated the details of these procedures with families by sharing videos of new classroom layouts and detailed notices to ease any anxieties felt by children or families.

Staff have been quickly adapting to a new style of teaching, inspired by renewed creativity, and are learning that socially distancing does not mean isolating from one another. They have all come together in support of the families we serve, and I am immensely proud of the hard work that they do, because it does not come without risk, yet they all start each day with a smile. Staff have commented that during the time that child care was closed, they grew closer to families because they were able to connect with parents for more extended periods of time via Zoom than they did in the typical hustle and bustle of drop-offs and pickups.

The greatest challenge we face is keeping our families and staff as safe as possible as we navigate this "new normal." COVID-19 has changed our world, but we continue to help our families feel connected to a broader community. We work with many at-risk and low-income families that depend on us for the education and care of their children, and getting kids back to our programs remains a priority. We hope that the virus slows, and the state allows us to bring more children back to care soon. In the meantime, I'm thankful for the staff and families who call CCAB child care their home away from home, and the incredible support that everyone has shown each other during this uncertain time.

JANET MACDOUGALL IS THE DIRECTOR OF CATHOLIC CHARITIES CHILD CARE PROGRAMS. MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CCAB'S CHILD CARE DIVISION IS AVAILABLE AT WWW.CCAB.ORG/CHILDCARE.