COVID-19 Health & Safety Policies

Kids STEM Lab follows the Ontario Ministry of Health & Safety Guidelines including:

• Screening

  All individuals, including staff, participants, parents/caregivers, visitors/spectators, and customers will be screened daily – including filling out a COVID Screening Questionnaire and Waiver, and submitting to a contactless temperature check. Any one registering an elevated temperature of 37.8c or greater will not be admitted to the facility or permitted to take part in activities. If you or your child screens positive, you will not be permitted to enter the facility and/or continue with the program until cleared by either Public Health or a family doctor.

• Staff Screening

  All of our staff at Kids STEM Lab are required to submit to a self-screening questionnaire complete with temperature details, 30 minutes to 1 hour prior to EVERY shift. All staff who have returned from travel outside of the province and/or all staff who have travelled anywhere by air in the last 14-days shall self- isolate for 14-days or until negative test results before return to work. If your instructor cancels due to illness, we will do our best to replace them on short notice, but during this pandemic, it may not be possible. By nature of our business, our staff members are required to work in multiple environments and with multiple families. In our efforts to limit exposure, Kids STEM Lab will make our very best effort to limit the amount of families and environments each staff member is booked with and will strive to maintain ONE INSTRUCTOR throughout the session.

• Calling in Sick

  All symptoms must be ruled out and documented by a healthcare professional not to be COVID-19 related symptoms and/or family or child has received a negative test. All individuals shall be symptom free for a period of 24-hours prior to admittance to the facility and/or participating in activities. As per the Ministry Guidelines, a runny nose DOES NOT warrant a COVID-19 test; however, you MUST be symptom free for a period of 24-hours prior to returning to regularly scheduled programming.

• Mask Policy

  Given community spread of COVID-19 within Ontario and evidence that transmission may occur from those who have few or no symptoms, a Ministry of Health approved face covering must be worn by all individuals over the age of 2 years AT ALL TIMES while in the common areas of the facility, while spectating and now, according to the newest restrictions released by the Ontario Government on October 10th, 2020, by all participants for the duration of their class activities. In order to maintain the safety of our masked participants during physical activity, until further notice, all gymnastic, ninja, and fitness classes will be limited to skill progressions and low impact lessons - NOT high energy, cardiopulmonary intensive activity. In the case of drama and other education-based classes, face shields will be accepted. Adequate hand hygiene (washing hands for at least 20 seconds and/or sanitization) should be maintained AT ALL TIMES

• Disinfecting Protocols

  Kids STEM Lab has worked tirelessly and diligently to bring you a new facility that has been renovated and built with COVID-19 health and safety precautions in mind. We have a cleaning team that works around the clock to ensure that all high touch surfaces and equipment are cleaned and disinfected regularly between classes and throughout the day. We use only those cleaning products and disinfecting products that have a Drug Identification Number (DIN) and are rated for children’s safety.

  There will be hand sanitizing stations (with 60% alcohol-based sanitizer) throughout the facility. We encourage the use of them at the start and completion of each activity and/or as you enter and exit each room of the building. All staff will be promoting and prompting proper hand hygiene (including assisting children when needed), and encouraging physical distancing of at least 2m whenever possible. At all of the hand sanitizing stations, we will be providing signs to educate best practice protocols and visual cues (signs, posters, floor markings, etc.) for social distancing and one-way flow traffic will be utilized.

• Class Sizes & Capacity

  All classes will be capped at a MAXIMUM of 5 participants. We will be limiting each floor of the facility to a MAXIMUM of 10 participants. No more than 20 participants will be allowed in the facility at a time – we will strive to maintain 10-15 participants as the average. Unless absolutely necessary, please limit the number of parent/caregiver/spectators to ONE per family. Due to physical distancing limitations and our best efforts to reduce exposure, there may not be adequate seating for all visitors.

  Please note that the policies and procedures may be amended with the rapidly changing Government Regulations on the spread of COVID-19.

• Due to increasing school closures, daycare limitations, and general lack of childcare, services are in high demand. Kids STEM Lab is committed to doing our very best to help as many families as possible. We ask that you bear with us as we navigate delivering our services during this period of extreme uncertainty.

  Read the full COVID-19 Guidelines from the Ontario Ministry of Health here. For more details about Kids STEM Lab’s COVID-19 Policy, please contact us.