Hearts and Minds health and safety
The Hearts and Minds Learning Community operates under a community care model. Many of our participants have medical conditions that put them at higher-risk for severe disease or negative outcomes from infectious diseases. Just as classes shave their heads in solidarity with classmates undergoing medical treatments, the learners at HMLC wear masks indoors to care for and support each other, regardless of medical necessity.
MASKS: We believe superheroes wear masks!
* Masks are required for all indoors time at HMLC.
* Currently, masks are optional for children while outdoors. We ask adults to continue to wear masks outdoors when around the learners. There is NO MASK SHAMING at HMLC, only normalizing masks and mask positivity.
Much of our time is spent learning and playing outdoors.
At HMLC, safety is EXTREMELY important to us.
VACCINES: Due to the confirmed participation of several children and adults with higher risk conditions, this program will require all children and participating adult volunteers/educator guides be fully up to date on ALL vaccinations and boosters (including COVID), as vaccines are available (unless there is a medical exemption). This is not a political statement, a judgment or an invitation to debate, it’s simply our commitment to protecting the most vulnerable members of our little education community.
AIR QUALITY: When indoor learning happens, we monitor air quality, utilize air filtration systems while in the class space and in the bathrooms and have windows open.
Our aim is to make HMLC a safer place for the members of our learning community who need it most. These mitigations not only help protect our learners and their families against COVID, they help protect against the flu, RSV, measles and other infectious diseases.
Indoor masking allows our learners to remain healthy and stay in school. That allows families to continue to work with far fewer interruptions from illness! Our health and safety policies support safer, healthier, more productive families!
"For children, trying to stay safe should not be a defining factor of their childhood, but instead their first exposure to the power of cooperation."
- Danielle Bissonette, early childhood wellness advocate