Updated...... 3/24/20

Dear Families,

As you probably have heard, Governor Pritzker has closed all Illinois K-12 schools. We do not know how quickly the corona virus will spread, due to delays in testing. We must take this warning very seriously.

Our centers are quite popular and large with 300 children at our Chicago Ridge center and 200 children at our Oak Lawn Center. This number does not include the hundreds of family members who drop off and pick up or the large number of staff.

As reported in today’s press conference, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Ngozi Ezike, who said studies showed closing schools can help slow the spread of viruses. While she acknowledged children haven’t been struck as severely by COVID-19, they can still contribute to its spread.

“We have seen evidence from influenza outbreaks that community mitigation strategies, such a school closures, have an effect on decreasing the severity of the outbreak,” Ezike said. “By taking these actions now, we hope to slow and limit widespread transmission of this virus, which is essential to ensuring our health care system is not overwhelmed as the disease progresses through our state. School closures will help slow the progression of the virus and we are asking for everyone’s help in reducing the spread.”

We have and will always keep the safety of our children, their families and our staff a top priority. So, it is with deep frustration and regret that we must close our schools until April 7. We will be following Governor Pritzker and the State of Illinois’ recommendations for K-12 school closures.

To prevent any confusion about tuition by opening for one day, we will not be offering care on Monday, March 16th, but we will have a staff member present from 6am to 9am to collect any belongings families would like before the school is closed.  Tuition will be waived during the closure period. As soon as we have any additional information we will reach out to families via email and Facebook. If you must reach us while closed, please contact us at help@pennylaneschools.com.

 

Thank you

Penny Lane Schools