Coronavirus #72 – opening of nurseries and kindergartens
Robert Duchowski
As announced earlier, preparations for re-opening public nurseries and kindergartens in Szczecin are underway. The institutions will open gradually. The first of them re-start in mid-May.
First, on the 12th of May 2020 (Tuesday) two public nurseries will resume operations - Nursery No. 2 (ul. Kostki Napierskiego 6c) and Nursery No. 8 (ul. Niedziałkowskiego 49). Then, every next Wednesday, information regarding which nurseries or kindergartens open from the coming week will be published. According to the adopted schedule, the first public kindergartens will resume their activities on the 18th of May (Monday). Then - according to the scheme described above - further public nurseries will also start operating.
The opening of such facilities requires proper preparation and implementation of the highest precautions so as to ensure maximum safety not only of the youngest residents of Szczecin, but also their families and employees of the institutions. At the moment, special procedures are being developed for the admission of children to nurseries and kindergartens, also, food-related rules and the limitation of the number of toys available are under consideration. In addition, the institutions are successively equipped with the necessary personal protective kits and appropriate devices to control the health of people staying there (contactless thermometers).
It is also necessary to reorganize the work of individual institutions. The facilities are to be available only to children of working parents who have no other option to provide childcare and do not receive care allowance. According to ministerial recommendations, children of health care system employees, uniformed services, persons performing tasks related to preventing and combating coronavirus, as well as trade and production employees will have priority of admission. Government guidelines also precisely determine the size of individual groups. A maximum of 12 children will be allowed in each of them. Unfortunately, this means that in the first stage of opening the facilities, the provided number of care for children may not be sufficient. It all depends on how many parents will apply. That is why we recommend to apply for the children’s care in the institutions only if it is really needed.
Parents interested in sending their child to a nursery or kindergarten will have to submit by completing the appropriate application, which will be available on the websites of individual institutions. Nursery documents will be available today on the City Nursery Complex website (http://zespolzlobkow.szczecin.pl/), and those regarding kindergartens will be posted on the websites of individual institutions tomorrow. After verification of the application, which should be sent to the facilities by e-mail, the employees of the given institution will contact the applying parents within a few days and provide them with information on the availability of places in the facility. If the child is not admitted to the institution, e.g. due to the lack of sufficient places, the parent will receive a certificate that will enable them to receive care allowance.
The latest information on the actions taken by the City on the coronavirus is available on a special website: koronawirus.szczecin.eu
