Since we opened in 1949, DPCC has not missed a step or taken a year off. Even in the fall of 2020, we remained open when everyone in Decatur kept their doors shut. One of the main reasons we were poised to do this is our focus — which we’ve kept fixed on what’s best for kids, 75 years and still going strong. From teaching children how to be cool with one another as they play as much as possible, it was no stretch putting safety at the fore when we faced a public health crisis.  By carefully and thoughtfully realizing the evolution of reliable data, we put a plan and policy in place that followed science. Measures included and still include:  

— Parents agree to and sign a contract to be careful, transparent, and communicative about their family’s state of health and potential exposure in a symptom-forward/test-based approach

— Symptom-forward preventative caution: parents keep students with respiratory symptoms at home and refrain rom sending them to school with anything contagious or infectious

— Test-to-leave/test-to-stay: when symptoms occur, tests are necessary to secure community safety and assure continued attendance; when a case of COVID occurs, students in class are required to test daily and be symptom-free to continue

Also from the very start, DPCC teachers have helped parents parent better — and that’s gotten ever more important. Pandemic years often made it hard to know where children should be in their development, much less keep up with it — and we continue to feel that ripple through school. Alongside a wealth of classroom and personal experience, DPCC teachers rely on both parental transparency and knowledge of developmental milestones to gauge how students are growing; should any behavior indicate that a student may need help at home or from other resources, the close contact developed with parents by teachers is an irreplaceable strength of our community. 

SECURITY: Keeping children and teachers as safe as possible is essential. DPCC hires a security guard during the regular school year, every day from 8 until 2. The cost of security is offset at the start of the year with a one-time payment. Combined with an annual charge to offset classroom supply expense (formerly “class fee”), the total amount is $250 per child, due in August at the start of the year.