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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Vaccine Rollout is a Grand Mystery
Pestle 07:59 AM 01-07-2021
The Tennessee vaccination rollout plan got reshuffled a few weeks ago (I think maybe somebody noticed that they had children scheduled to go ahead of some populations, and there is no vaccine for children 
) and the update says "child care teachers and staff" are in group 1b but doesn't break it down further. Group 1b is, of course, the third group, because we're operating like Chico's sizing and we want to make everybody feel good by assigning everybody a low number, I guess.
One newspaper said "daycare centers" but I'm hoping that was just a journalist who doesn't understand that daycare has multiple types. The state's "find out what group you're in" tool doesn't have anything to select for childcare--they have a DCS and a K-12 option, but nothing for childcare, which is under DHS. I'm trying to find out whether I can go with group 1b or if that's reserved only for center employees. Looks like we have the extra-spready UK mutation here in town now, so that's . . . great.
I reached out to my family daycare licensing agent. She has no idea whether family daycare falls under that group or not and told me to call the health department. I reached out to the county health department. They said it was a very good question and that they will not have that information from the state until we actually get to phase 1b.
So I called the state COVID-19 hotline at 10:40am, waited through several minutes of "if you want this thing, press this button," got to "for all other calls, stay on the line," and now I get a recording that says "Please call back during our operating hours of 10am to 8pm," so not sure if our state health department is ignoring their hotline or if they just don't understand how time zones work. I'll try again in five minutes when it's 10am everywhere in the state, but I bet the answer is going to be "that's a good question and we don't know," and I would like to scream please.
I'm probably going to have to just show up and find out, aren't I? Family providers, what's your most-professional-and-official proof of employment? I got the runaround from the state when dealing with something earlier this year; they rejected my application because, even though family daycare providers were included in the group this service was for, they were asking for types of proof of employment that we don't have, and I finally typed up a sort-of-sarcastic letter listing all the different things I'd provided and asking what exactly they WOULD accept, at which point they accepted my original attachments.
) and the update says "child care teachers and staff" are in group 1b but doesn't break it down further. Group 1b is, of course, the third group, because we're operating like Chico's sizing and we want to make everybody feel good by assigning everybody a low number, I guess.One newspaper said "daycare centers" but I'm hoping that was just a journalist who doesn't understand that daycare has multiple types. The state's "find out what group you're in" tool doesn't have anything to select for childcare--they have a DCS and a K-12 option, but nothing for childcare, which is under DHS. I'm trying to find out whether I can go with group 1b or if that's reserved only for center employees. Looks like we have the extra-spready UK mutation here in town now, so that's . . . great.
I reached out to my family daycare licensing agent. She has no idea whether family daycare falls under that group or not and told me to call the health department. I reached out to the county health department. They said it was a very good question and that they will not have that information from the state until we actually get to phase 1b.
So I called the state COVID-19 hotline at 10:40am, waited through several minutes of "if you want this thing, press this button," got to "for all other calls, stay on the line," and now I get a recording that says "Please call back during our operating hours of 10am to 8pm," so not sure if our state health department is ignoring their hotline or if they just don't understand how time zones work. I'll try again in five minutes when it's 10am everywhere in the state, but I bet the answer is going to be "that's a good question and we don't know," and I would like to scream please.
I'm probably going to have to just show up and find out, aren't I? Family providers, what's your most-professional-and-official proof of employment? I got the runaround from the state when dealing with something earlier this year; they rejected my application because, even though family daycare providers were included in the group this service was for, they were asking for types of proof of employment that we don't have, and I finally typed up a sort-of-sarcastic letter listing all the different things I'd provided and asking what exactly they WOULD accept, at which point they accepted my original attachments.