Due to the recent pandemic facing our country, it has been found that families are struggling a bit with the balancing act of parents trying to both work from home and take care of their children at the same time. With a small application process (that will NOT deny you), you can get the help you and your child(ren) so desperately need to ensure they are not only getting a healthy dose of socializing with their peers, but also continuing to receive education as well.
Lead Agencies have the flexibility to define which workers are essential, in accordance with any relevant State, Territorial, and Tribal laws or policies. Lead Agencies should consult with their jurisdiction’s chief executive, and may want to consider:
– Health care and public health workers
– Law enforcement, public safety, and first responders
– Child protective services workers, those who provide services in the child welfare system, and other critical social services workers
– Food and agriculture workers (including grocery store and restaurant workers and food truck delivery drivers)
– Child care workers
– Utility employees
– Water and wastewater employees
– Transportation and logistics workers
– Public works employees
– Communications and information technology workers
– Other community-based government operations and essential function employees
– Critical manufacturing workers
– Hazardous materials workers
– Financial services employees
– Chemical workers
– Defense industrial base employees
Building on these existing options, the CARES Act provides additional flexibility for providing direct child care services to essential workers. Lead Agencies may use CARES Act funds to provide child care assistance to health care sector employees, emergency responders, sanitation workers, and other workers deemed essential by public officials during the response to COVID-19, without regard to the income eligibility requirements. Therefore, Lead Agencies may provide CCDF subsidies to essential workers whose income exceeds 85 percent of State median income.
If you are nervous about the safety of your children going back to a childcare facility, there is no reason to worry! Childcare workers of high-quality centers have always instilled cleanliness (especially hand washing!) into their curriculum, but now, centers are focusing on extra sanitizing as well as reducing the number of children per class so that there allows for more space (for distancing).
Please use what is being provided to you and APPLY TODAY! Visit: https://www.nccanet.org/page/Advocacy and scroll to the bottom and select “State-Level Information for Essential Workers Seeking Child Care”.