Back to ECE Safely with SAGE: Reducing COVID-19 Transmission in Hispanic and Low-Income Preschoolers

The overarching goal of this study is to determine the acceptability, feasibility, efficacy, and scalability of back-to-early childhood education (ECE) testing in young children (3-5 years). We will also determine whether outdoor garden-based education can help close the education gap experienced by children who have been out of school during the pandemic. The subject population is comprised of three groups of people: (1) ECE-enrolled children, (2) their parents, and (3) ECE personnel. We plan to enroll ~800 children between the ages of 3 and 5, with the average age of 4 years to be evenly distributed by sex from 40 ECE sites in Phoenix, Maricopa, County, AZ. We will also enroll one parent of each child most of whom ~90% will be women. We expect most children and parents in the sample to be Hispanic and many to be Spanish language dominant. We plan to enroll approximately 40 ECE personnel. We plan to recruit an additional 800 child and parent dyads.