CHILD CARE GRANT TIERS

As families return to work as the state moves through the four phases, childcare is ESSENTIAL to ensuring the workforce is able to restart. Families with young children NEED our support! Lack of access to child care impacts first responders and front line workers - they NEED our services more than ever! Child care NEEDS an IMMEDIATE influx of equitable grant monies, distributed on a PER CHILD basis - based on licensed capacity - not an arbitrary tiered system that does not take our real expenses into consideration.

Issues that appeared to be temporary, e.g. front line teachers and directors becoming ill and sites shutting down, at the onset of this public health emergency, are now causing permanent damage to the early education system. The cost of purchasing personal protection equipment (PPE) and reducing group sizes has further impacted how many children can access services. Without adequate capacity, children will not have access to care and parents will be unable to go to work. Immediate state intervention is needed to stop the COVID-19 pandemic from pushing the child care industry to economic collapse.