To all our StudioUs Families,
Welcome Back!
We are taking extra precautions as we continue or classes to ensure the safety of our teachers, students, and their families. In keeping with guidelines from the CDC and the Illinois Department of Health, we will be taking the following steps as we continue through this situation:
Masks: We will be requiring all students, staff, and visitors to wear a double-layered, non-vented mask while on the premises. Students enrolled in day-off workshops and summer workshops will be required to wear masks while they're here (masks can be removed during snack or lunch breaks while eating, but students must remain in their seats and socially distanced). Students in the afternoon 1 and 1.5 hour classes must wear masks for the entire duration of their class. We have cloth masks available for students to use if you need one! June 2021 update: Following state and city regulations for schools and child care centers, we will continue to require masks for all students, staff, and parents/visitors to the studio as usual.
Health Screenings: As we progress into Phase 5 of the Illinois/Chicago reopening plan, we ask that all families please complete a health assessment of their student or themselves before entering the studio. StudioUs will no longer be completing temperature checks at the start of every class, but continue to ask that any students with a fever over 100.4 or other signs of illness remain home. We will continue to permit makeup classes for any classes missed due to illness, regardless of the time of cancellation.
Social Distancing: We have rearranged the studio to ensure that all students can maintain proper social distancing of at least 6 feet during class. Teachers will work as much as possible maintain distancing from students, and will wear masks for the duration of class to ensure proper protection when distancing is not possible.
Class Size: All of our afternoon classes will continue to be limited to a maximum of 6 students per class. We only ever host one class at a time, and will maintain our between-class cleaning procedures. In order to avoid class-group mixing, please try to attend your scheduled class as regularly as possible. Makeups will still be permitted, but we strongly encourage our students to remain in their regularly scheduled classes as much as possible. Workshop's will have the same group attending throughout the duration of the class (daily, for mini-workshops, or weekly for our summer workshops). As with our afternoon classes, we only ever host one workshop class at a time.
Pick-up & Drop-off: Whenever possible, we ask that parents avoid entering the studio for drop-off and pick-up. You're of course welcome to come in if you need to discuss something with us, but we're happy to send your student out to you at the end of class if you wait by the door. This will help us avoid parents gathering inside the studio, and allow for more social distancing between parents and kids during the more active drop-off and pick-up times. Upon drop off, all students are required to thoroughly wash their hands with soap and water before finding their spot for class.
Cleaning: Our teachers are taking extra care to ensure all of our materials are clean and safe for our students to use. Desks and shared materials are cleaned and sanitized after each class, and high-touch materials like pencils and pens are pulled from circulation after students use them so they can be thoroughly sanitized. Our teachers frequently use hand sanitizer throughout the duration of classes, and thoroughly wash their hands whenever possible and between classes.
Art Shows: Our end-of-class art shows will be temporarily suspended to reduce gathering, and allow for smoother pick-up at the end of class. Parents are still encouraged to arrive shortly before the end of class to ensure they're available to pick up their kiddo, but while we maintain social distancing we ask that parents wait outside for their children whenever possible.
Vaccinations: All StudioUs staff are vaccinated against Covid-19. In compliance with the new COVID restrictions put in place on January 3rd 2022, students in all workshop classes will be required to show proof of vaccination in order to participate in the workshop.
How you can help:
Talk with your students about hand hygiene, and practice proper hand-washing techniques with them at home! We’re ready to go with loads of wonderful-smelling hand soap for our students, but want to make sure they know how to wash their hands properly, and long enough to be effective.
Encourage your kids to avoid touching their face. For our younger students especially, remind them to keep their hands out of their mouth, nose, eyes, ears - anywhere goop lives.
If your kiddo is sick, please keep them home. We so greatly appreciate all of our families who help keep our staff and fellow students safe by staying home when they’re kids aren’t feeling well. We will get you scheduled for a makeup class at your convenience - makeups never expire, so you can use them at any time for as long as your student is taking classes with us.
Make sure we have your updated contact information. Many of our families have been with us for a long time, and we want to make sure we can reach you quickly if necessary. We will be going through our student and family information, and reaching out to any active students who we don’t have complete contact information for.
Thank you for your continued support as we navigate this situation. We will stay in touch with all of our families as things progress. As always, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact us via email at studiouschicago@gmail.com, or via call/text at (872) 222-7828.