COVID-19-Related Protocols:
Please note that the following reflects our Summer 2020 protocols. As circumstances evolve, we will reassess these safety protocols for Summer 2021.
We’ve linked the State Guidelines for you to refer to as you wish, and ask that you please read the major takeaways/site-specific protocols/implications for our program below:
1. Screening
Once camp begins, we will continue to require parents/guardians to screen their camper(s) for symptoms and take their camper’s temperatures each morning before camp. Campers and staff will also have their temperatures taken by our staff each morning (before entering campus, or boarding camp buses) to further screen for fever.
Parents/guardians must also continue to monitor themselves and the other members of their household for symptoms throughout the summer.
2. Group size and ratios
3. Face Coverings
Any time that employees are less than 6 ft. from each other or interacting with children/campers, they will be required to wear a face covering.
4. Indoor/Outdoor Time
5. Cohorting and Pods
We will be making numerous adjustments to our operations to ensure that we are following the protocol on cohorting and avoiding intermingling. For example, we will be forgoing Hobby (camp-wide camper choice period) and Before and After Care for this summer, as both of these are predicated on mixing campers from different cohorts. We are determining the feasibility of Morning Share, with a model that would ensure pods are at least 10 feet from one another. You will find other adjustments outlined below in areas such as arrival and dismissal procedures and swim.
6. Transportation
7. Ventilation and Traffic
High traffic times such as arrival and dismissal will be staggered to facilitate social distancing, decrease congestion, and ensure campers from different groups are not coming in direct contact.
8. Cleaning and Sanitization
Hands of all campers and staff will be washed before and after each activity. If not possible at a given location, and for other times during the day, every staff member will also carry hand sanitizer for camper and staff use.
9. Contact Tracing/Quarantine Measures
In the case of a Camper/Staff Member:
If a child is exhibiting any COVID-19 symptoms, they must stay home from camp, and if symptoms present at camp, the child will be isolated and picked up by their parent/guardian immediately. In either scenario, the parent/guardian must then contact their child’s physician. The physician will need to determine whether the child’s symptoms warrant testing. If the physician determines that the child doesn’t need to get tested, they must issue documented clearance so the child may return to camp. If testing is indicated, the child cannot come back unless they test negatively twice. These same measures will apply to staff members as well.
If a case of COVID-19 is suspected or identified in a camper or staff member, The Nature Place will alert the Rockland County Health Department. The health department will then trace all contacts and “the State and local health departments may, under their legal authority, implement monitoring and movement restrictions of infected or exposed persons including home isolation or quarantine.”
If a camper/staff member tests positive, they must enter home quarantine, and the Department of Health will determine the quarantine’s length.
If a camper/staff member tests positive, all members of their pod must enter home quarantine as directed by the health department, who will communicate guidelines for when they can return to camp.
With all of this, we ask that families and staff err on the side of caution.
In the case of a Parent/Guardian or Household Member:
Please read the following from the State Guidelines, regarding protocols that would be followed if a parent/guardian of a camper exhibits symptoms or tests positive for COVID-19:
“In the event that a parent/guardian of a camper must be isolated because they have tested positive for, or exhibited symptoms of, COVID-19, the parent/ guardian must be advised that they cannot enter the site for any reason, including picking up their child.
If the parent/guardian – who is a member of the same household as the child/camper – is exhibiting signs of COVID-19 or has been tested and is positive for the virus, utilize an emergency contact authorized by the parent to come pick up the child. As a “close contact,” the child/camper must not return to the child care or day camp for the duration of the quarantine.
If the parent/guardian– who is a member of the same household as the child/camper – is being quarantined as a precautionary measure, without symptoms or a positive test, staff should walk out or deliver the child/camper to the parent/guardian at the boundary of, or outside, the premises. As a “contact of a contact” the child/camper may return to the child care or day camp during the duration of the quarantine.
If a child/camper or their household member becomes symptomatic for COVID-19 and/or tests positive, the child must quarantine and may not return or attend the child care or day camp program until after quarantine is complete.
Please note that due to the extraordinary nature of this summer, we will not issue refunds or credits for any camp time missed. This includes camp missed due to illness, any precautionary quarantine, or due to any partial or full closure of camp.
10. Swim
11. Food
12. Overnights and Day Hikes
13. Visitors, Venders, and You
In an extenuating circumstance where a visitor absolutely must come on site, temperature checks and screenings will be conducted.