TLC: The Learning Center remains open as essential service

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

With plenty of precautions, TLC: The Learning Center in Charles City is still open for business as usual.

With several places shut down due to concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus, the local day care and early childhood education institution is deemed “essential” by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

TLC is conducting regular operations under the day-to-day supervision of the Department of Human Services, Floyd County Emergency Management and Floyd County Public Health.

“We take lots of precautions. There is a lot of extra cleaning on top of our normal daily regimen,” said TLC’s Sue McDonald. “We stop every hour, on the hour, and all the kids wash their hands, all the staff washes their hands and all the support staff cleans all the busy areas, places such as door handles, counters and computers.”

On Thursday, 46 kids were at TLC. McDonald said that, as of that day, 23 families have temporarily withdrawn. TLC serves children from 6 weeks old through 5th grade, although its core group is children age 5 and under.

“It’s day-to-day, and some days it’s literally minute-by-minute,” McDonald said. “We are all in uncharted territory, and the kids have been doing great. The staff has been wonderful, the community has been supportive and everybody’s working together.”

TLC is also part of an effort to provide free child care to families working on the front line of COVID-19. The organization was asked to be a partner in the program along with the Charles City School District, Floyd County Emergency Management, Floyd County Public Health and the DHS.

The primary facility for the program will be at Washington Elementary, and the secondary facility will be TLC. The program starts on Monday. The hours of operation will be similar to that of a traditional school day and determined based on the need of the parent/guardian hours.

Those eligible as “essential workforce” include all hospital staff, health care providers in private practice and all direct care staff, all long-term health care providers, staff who provide critical government infrastructure such as social services, child protection services, other public safety, and help other public health officials, emergency responders and food-service workers, including grocery store staff, according to the DHS.