This message is being sent as a courtesy to Yale Child Study Center.
Hi Friend,

We would like your assistance in spreading the word for participation in a critical study of the likely spread of COVID-19 in child care programs. This study is being conducted by the Yale School of Medicine and titled  “ COVID-19 Infection Rates and Mitigation in U.S. Child Care Programs: A Natural Experiment of Critical Implications for Reopening Child Care and Public Schools (PDF Download) ” (Yale IRB # 2000028232).  

The survey will be conducted as a confidential survey (12-20 minutes) of child care providers across the nation using a secured online survey platform asking a series of questions about COVID-19 exposure potential and symptoms, as well as different methods of reducing the spread of COVID-19 that providers may or may not have used. Data will be combined geocoded data estimating the amount of viral spread in different communities. The project will allow us to estimate the amount of COVID-19 spread that may happen when child care programs are reopened. We will do this by comparing the amount of exposure and symptoms that child care providers in open programs report, compared to providers in programs that closed near the beginning of the pandemic. We will also explore which strategies employed by child care programs (frequent disinfecting, frequent handwashing, mask wearing, symptom screening, etc.) were most related to reducing viral spread.  

This is one of the largest workforce epidemiological studies ever attempted. The only way that we can reach the massive number of child care respondents necessary to answer these critical questions is through your help.  (Click here for more information and a link to the survey.)

Please know that the data will be collected on a secured platform and maintained in a de-identified state to ensure confidentiality.
  
We want to keep safe and healthy our wonderful child care providers, their families and the children and families they serve. And we will need this very quickly, before most child care programs reopen, making it impossible to compere providers in the open programs to those in the closed ones. 

We hope that you will help connect this work to your child care providers before the window of opportunity closes to collect these data and generate useful policy recommendations. 
Please let us know whether we may provide any additional information. Thank you for all you do. Your work has always been of incredible value in supporting child care across America. The stakes have always been high. Today, they are higher still. 

Sincerely,

Walter S. Gilliam, PhD 
Elizabeth Mears & House Jameson Professor of Child Psychiatry & Psychology
Director, Edward Zigler Center in Child Development & Social Policy 
Yale Child Study Center 
Yale School of Medicine 
Child Care Aware of America, President of the Board of Directors  
Walter S. Gilliam PhD. is the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Child Psychiatry and Psychology at the Yale University Child Study Center, as well as the Director of The Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy. He is President of the Board for Child Care Aware of America; a member of the board of directors for ZERO TO THREE, the Irving Harris Foundation, All Our Kin, and First Children's Finance; a research fellow of the National Institute for Early Education Research; and former Senior Advisor to the National Association for the Education of Young Children. 
Offering Live Chat Extended Hours
Child Care Aware of NH will be having extended Live Chat hours until 8:00 pm Tuesday through Friday next week to support the field with questions on reopening. The Live Chat will be manned by Training and Technical Assistance Specialist along with members of the Child Care Aware of NH Leadership Team. This new feature is normally provided from 8:30-4:30 Monday through Friday. Extended hours are being offered during this pandemic to help meet anticipated needs at peak times.
Go to nh.childcareaware.org to start chatting!
Child Care Aware of NH is a statewide Child Care Resource and Referral Program powered by Southern New Hampshire Services. The preparation of this email was financed under a Contract with the State of New Hampshire, Department of Health and Human Services, Division for Economic Housing Stability, Bureau of Child Development and Head Start Collaboration with funds provided in part by the State of New Hampshire and the US Department of Health and Human Services.