Daycares have had to readjust their operations significantly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Crystal Kober-McCubbing of the Northwest Child Development Centre has had to make some big changes in her space, right after their grand opening.

She said they’re mandated to only have eight children in the classroom, which puts their enrollment down to a quarter of what they would normally off. She said they've had to close half of their area off to the remaining daycare children.

“We have to do so much more cleaning and (decontaminating) now, so it just makes more sense to not have all the space we currently use when we have a quarter of the kids,” she said.

It’s been a struggle to get things from cleaning supplies to milk with many places they would buy from unable to sell in the quantities they would need.   

“We have to do a survey when parents come in. The survey says, 'Have you had a fever?, Have you been out of the country?'. So that’s another thing we’ve had to change. We’re just kind of like everyone else, going day by day.

Only a short time after their grand opening, Kober-McCubbing has also seen her daycare have to make some tough choices. 

“We’ve had to let some of our grant guys go, just because all of the children that we have with special needs are not used to being confined to one room, (but) that’s what we have to do now,” she said. “And then from staffing, we went from 20 to five. I have the world’s best staff, so that killed me to do that.”

She said she’s hoping once things go back to normal, their staff and child count will get back to what it was.

“What we have done right now, is for the month of April… we’ve said anyone who stays home, I will keep their daycare spot and they don’t have to pay fees,” Kober-McCubbing said. “That’s what we have done for April, but that’s only going to go so far. We can’t have months and months and months of people not paying fees or we won’t be able to keep our doors open.”

She said her expectation is that once all of the restrictions lift, people will go back to their jobs and their daycare will be full again.