Safety in Education: KinderCare Achieves the WELL Health-Safety Rating Nationwide
KinderCare Learning Centers recently achieved the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management for its system of child care and early childhood education facilities. Achieving the rating is one way KinderCare is showing their dedication to the health and safety of their students, teachers and staff.
We spoke with Sarah Redgrave, VP of Operations at KinderCare about the decision to pursue and ultimately achieve the WELL Health-Safety Rating, and what it means for their educational facilities:
Q: What made you decide to pursue the WELL Health-Safety Rating for your centers?
At KinderCare, nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of the children, teachers and families in our programs. When the pandemic began, we partnered with the CDC and medical experts to create enhanced health and safety protocols. As additional information about COVID-19 became available, we updated those protocols accordingly. We also worked with local health officials to ensure we reopened our programs safely as states and cities lifted their COVID restrictions. As we head out of the pandemic, we want to reassure our families and employees that we will continue to prioritize high standards of health and safety. We want the families we serve to feel confident that their children have a safe environment to learn and develop in and we want our employees to feel reassured that we continue to prioritize their health and safety as well. We also want to ensure that our health and safety standards continue to evolve and remain relevant as we move into a post-pandemic world. We felt the best way to do this was to seek third-party validation through the WELL Health-Safety Rating.
Q: Why did you choose to implement these best practices as part of your facility operations?
We chose to implement the WELL Health-Safety Rating because we want to ensure we continue to provide the best experience for our families and our employees as we move out of this pandemic. Nearly all of our programs are nationally certified through third-party organizations. Those certifications not only validate the quality of our programs, but also emphasize our commitment to our families and teachers that we hold ourselves to the highest standard every single day. We pursued the WELL Health-Safety Rating because we wanted a similar validation of our commitment to high-quality health and safety practices. As one of the nation’s largest providers of early childhood education and care, we know we set an example for our industry. We believe all child care providers should remain as committed to health and safety in a post pandemic world as we all were in 2020.
Q: Do you think the rating system will help your facilities navigate challenges with COVID-19 specifically?
We absolutely believe the WELL Health-Safety Rating will help our programs navigate challenges, particularly those associated with COVID-19. Reviewing the requirements for the WELL Health-Safety Rating gave us the opportunity to think thoroughly about our operational practices and the extra steps we could take to create early learning environments that would help our program communities prevent COVID-19 transmission. We believe these safety standards will also help us reduce the transmission of other illnesses we typically see in our programs, such as influenza, hand foot and mouth disease and norovirus.
Q: Do you anticipate a shift in the well-being of your children/students and staff once you implement the WELL Health-Safety Rating across your facilities?
We believe that our continued commitment to and focus on the well-being of our children, teachers and families will lead to improved physical, social and emotional health.
Q: Why is this important for childcare facilities to implement and how does it help ensure the long-term health and safety of students and staff?
It is important for child care facilities to implement the WELL Health-Safety Rating because we serve children when they are at a vulnerable age: where physical, social and emotional well-being will have a direct impact on a child’s development and growth. We want every child in our programs to have a safe and healthy place to learn and grow, so that they can develop the skills they need to build confidence for life. We also believe that by holding ourselves to these high standards of health and safety we will create a safer environment for our staff, which will in turn allow them to focus on what they do best, making a positive impact on the life of each child in their care.
Q: Why is in-person childcare/education so critical to their development and well-being?
An in-person early childhood education program gives young children the opportunity to learn and grow with their peers in a safe environment. After all we’ve been through this past years, one thing we know many children and families want is a chance to safely interact with others.
