COVID-19 Pandemic

JTC Response to COVID-19 Global Pandemic. During the ongoing uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, JTC pivoted quickly to provide services with minimal disruption. All of JTC’s education services transitioned to remote learning within 48 hours in March 2020 and for the rest of our fiscal 2020 year ending in August 2020.

As we entered into September 2020, there continued to be a number of challenges and uncertainties for our teachers and preschoolers due to the uncertainties of the pandemic. Preschoolers attended virtually from March to October 2020, hybrid in-person and virtual from October until Thanksgiving, virtually from Thanksgiving through January 2021, and in person from February through the end of the school year in June 2021. School-age DHH itinerant support services were provided remotely by our DHH teachers in the 2020-21 school year. Families that receive parent-infant services, LSL-AVT and/or SLP were able to meet with their therapist through weekly remote teletherapy sessions.

Due to the prolonged pandemic, we began to see elevated mental health needs for children and families, so we acted quickly and throughout 2020-2021 we helped decrease families’ feelings of isolation by continuing support groups and Friday Family School online so that families could interact and support each other. Families in virtual Friday Family School last year bonded successfully and kept in touch with each other over the summer. Despite our pivot to telehealth services for many programs and therapies, we were able to serve a comparable number of families, demonstrating how much families need our services. Also, we quickly learned how to deliver high-quality services via telehealth that produce equally good learning outcomes for children.

JTC continued to provide critical diagnostic Audiology services for children with, or at risk of, hearing loss. Our Audiology services are crucial to identifying hearing loss as early as possible and to reducing educational and developmental delays. JTC closed its in-person audiology services from March to May in 2020, to comply with public health directives, and again for two weeks in January 2021 due to a COVID-19 surge.

Thanks to the support of our community, hard working staff and committed families and supporters, JTC is now back providing ALL audiology and educational services on campus. Our international Summer session will stay virtual again this summer 2022.

COVID-19 Update (as of February 2022)

John Tracy Center is currently allowing families and their children on campus with safety protocols in place.

John Tracy Center’s aim is to consider the latest information regarding COVID-19, with thoughtfulness and care, and to anticipate challenges while protecting the health and well-being of our staff, the families, the children we serve and our community. We appreciate your continued dedication to our community by working hard and staying safe.

Since March 16th, 2020, we have adapted to new working environments, adjusted our practices and protocols, while also providing services to the families in our care. We have pivoted (multiple times) to ensure our services can continue in the safest way possible. We continue to be mindful that our community may be experiencing this pandemic in varying degrees of severity. We will continue to adjust and pivot our protocols and procedures as this pandemic is everchanging.

JTC will continue to follow the guidelines of the CDC, California Department of Health and County of Los Angles Public Health as closely as possible. We encourage all employees to also follow these guidelines surrounding the COVID pandemic.

All JTC staff and volunteers are vaccinated, follow CDC guidelines of wearing a mask while indoors, stay at least 6 feet from others, and wash hands on a regular basis. While risk of COVID infection during indoor activities is lower for fully vaccinated people precautions should still be taken as transmission risk in these settings is higher and likely increases with the number of unvaccinated people present. Thus, fully vaccinated people in JTC’s indoor settings should continue to wear a well-fitted mask.

• Masks are now required in all indoor public places in Los Angeles County.
• For masks to work properly, they need to completely cover your nose and mouth and fit snugly against the sides of your face and around your nose. Your mask should be made with two or more layers of tightly woven, breathable material.

According to state guidance, those exempt from wearing a mask, even if they’re not vaccinated:

• Infants and children under 2 years of age should not wear a mask.
• Children ages 2 to 8 should wear a mask only when under adult supervision
• People with medical or mental health conditions, or disabilities that prevent them from wearing a mask.
• Those who are deaf or hard of hearing or communicating with a person who is deaf or hard of hearing.
• People who can’t wear a mask because it would create a risk to them during their work. But that’s determined by local, state, or federal regulators or workplace safety guidelines.