COVID-19 UPDATE: 6/22/2020

• Our COVID-19 Response Team continues to hold weekly conference calls and Zoom meetings to assess the needs of our entire organization and pays very close attention the "NY Forward" regulations and how they guide our plans for reopening each service area of our organization.

• Our facilities team continues to work non-stop to clean, scrub, and sanitize every inch of our school building, 2039 Day Habilitation Services location, as well as continue best practices for cleaning at our Diversified Labor Solutions (DLS) location at Tri-Main Center.

• The team members at DLS have continued to work hard every day as many of our customers were deemed essential since the day we were placed on "NY Pause." We recently welcomed back even more laborers as the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) has allowed us to resume our Employment Services in-person following the "NY Forward" Phase 2 guidelines for manufacturing.

• The regularly scheduled school year for our School Age and Preschool services ended on Friday, June 19, 2020. We are awaiting additional guidelines on in-person services from the New York State Education Department (NYSED) to determine if/when we can comply. Please stay tuned for further communication. The entire administrative team has been working non-stop to prepare for student's eventual return. 

• In-person Group Day Habilitation Services are still temporarily suspended by OPWDD. Our staff have been very busy supporting the people we serve and ensuring basic needs are being met, activities are being offered via Zoom, and more. We continue to prepare for the day that these services can safely be offered in-person.

• Daycare Services will be reopening in "Waves" with "Wave 1" to include children of Cantalician Center staff members beginning on July 6, 2020 and "Wave 2" to include children from the community to return on a date yet to be determined. We appreciate your patience as we work to make the arrangements necessary to keep our littlest participants safe. We will notify everyone when those services can resume entirely.

• Our Safety Committee is working very hard to create re-entry plans to ensure we are complying with all Center for Disease Control (CDC), New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), Erie County Department of Health (ECDOH), NYSED, and OPWDD guidance. Policies and procedure have been put into practice to ensure we are doing everything possible to "stop the spread." We adopted many new policies such as all staff and visitors must wear a mask at all times and everyone must receive a health screening before entering our locations. We are also working with our partners at the ECDOH and our vendors to acquire the sought after protective equipment (PPE) that we need as we look toward reopening.