The world has faced challenges from a variety of viral respiratory illnesses over the past few decades, including the 2002 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and the 2009 swine-origin pandemic (H1N1) influenza. However, the disaster management guidelines for Early Childhood Education (ECE) programs in California were limited to earthquake and fire drills before the pandemic. COVID-19 exposed the world's vulnerability to a pandemic and the frailty of early learning programs. The pandemic showed how unprepared the field was for such a disaster and the need for a comprehensive disaster preparedness plan for early education programs. This qualitative study with 20 family child care providers in a large urban county in California explored participants’ preparedness and implementational challenges of emergency guidelines before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and their suggestions for future emergencies. The results demonstrated participants’ lack of respiratory illness training. Despite their best efforts, they encountered numerous obstacles to executing the COVID-19 guidelines routinely and fully. Regular cleaning of surfaces and materials and maintaining social distance were the two hardest rules to observe. The results point to the necessity of post-pandemic adoption of provisions that will be beneficial for providers in both general emergencies and specific disaster circumstances. (author abstract)