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BETHLEHEM, PA - New funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act is coming to child care providers in Pennsylvania. The Wolf administration announced Wednesday, an initial $51 million dollars will help nearly 7 thousand child care centers in the state as they reopen.
"The resource of safe and stable childcare is so crucial to the daily functioning of our commonwealth," says Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Teresa Miller, "Even in normal times, childcare is not an easy job to do and it’s certainly not an easy business to run."
The first wave of funding is a fraction of the total $106 million dollars that will be distributed to eligible, licensed child care providers in counties moving into the yellow phase and preparing to reopen. The second wave of money will be allocated after a study assesses the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child care providers across the state.
"This is going to be a very short, intensive survey of one thousand providers and the impacts COVID-19 has had on their operations," explains Tracey Campanini, Deputy Secretary of the PA Office of Child Development and Early Learning, "We’re really looking to this to provide us with some additional information on how we can best support those providers."
Lehigh County stands to gain $1,876,500 from the CARES Act, while Northampton will receive just over a million dollars ($1,098,400). Meanwhile, those counties remain in a red phase and under a stay at home order until at least June 4th.
Last week, the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning called on child care providers to follow guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommends child care centers limit the number of children in each classroom, intensify cleaning, modify drop off and pick up procedures, implement arrival screenings and require children over two years old to wear a mask. While social distancing standards will be left up to individual providers.
"In childcare settings it can be very difficult to limit the social distancing aspect," Campanini explains, "The CDC actually makes recommendations on maintaining consistent groups of children and adults together so that there is not cross contamination across classrooms."
"The CDC has put out very good, very specific recommendations and so we have not wanted to vary from that and put out our own specific guidance because again, it is quite good," says Miller.
But the recommendations are just that; with on-site licensing inspections suspended, the OCDEL says it will investigate complaints if necessary and DHS is providing instructional videos on how COVID-19 spreads and ways to prevent it.
"Our office of certification has various regional offices that are across the commonwealth and they will be following up and providing technical assistance and counselling to providers that we receive calls about not following these requirements" says Campanini, "Right now the CDC guidelines are not a part of our regulations and so in order to have any kind of penalty to not following them, we would be reaching out to have language included in the Governor or Secretary Levine’s executive order or we would be citing in egregious cases, regulations about health and safety if they’re not following those complaints."
And while childcare providers in yellow phases are not required to reopen, those in the red may apply for waivers to resume care for essential employees.
