Daycare availability

Smart Start Preschool is lending a hand to other facilities who've shutdown due to the coronavirus outbreak.

What's considered an essential job -- you may be wondering how you're going to take care of your kids who are stuck at home.

Action news now's brandon benitez is live in butte county with more.

That's right haley, i'm here just outside smart start preschool here in chico... this school is used to having between 60 to 80 kids under their care... but thanks to the coronavirus, that number's been cut in half... ann nelson is the school's administrator and says they're staying open despite the drop in numbers.

We mentioned at four that smart start has opened their doors to take in kids from other schools temporarily.

I spoke to doctor james logan who says preschools tend to be a place where germs spread easily.

Luckily nelson and her staff are on top of teaching cleanliness... the fortunate thing about this virus is it seems to effect kids very mildly.

But they are vectors to spreading the disease to the population that's at risk...i think because sanitation and cleaning is always been a high priority regardkess because we are aware that kids touch everything and things go in their mouths and they're touching their faces so our teachers are cleaning all day long anyway plus we have cleaners who come in every single night who re-celan and sanitize the school just today i saw smart start demonstarting proper hygiene and this experiment you see on the screen taught the kids today about washing you8r hands... nelson told me today she's been in contact with pre schools who had to shutdown.

They have a big enough facility to take in kids who need childcare... she says they're more than happy to help out the communtiy any way they possibly can... in chico, i'm brandon benitez action news now coverage you can count on... we have a list of businesses that are officially shut down - on our action news now homepage, just click on closures.# we're checking in