The National Child Care Association’s Director, Cindy Lehnhoff gives an update about the recent $10B Coronvirus Relief package coming to providers! <<LISTEN HERE>>
Hello to all of our very ESSENTIAL Child Care Providers and Educators. I am Cindy Lehnhoff with the National Child Care Association coming to you again with an important message for those of you working to keep our nations young children safe in their child care and early education environments. If it weren’t for YOU, we would have parents that need to work but not able to do so. If it weren’t for YOU, many young children would be missing out on their early education. If it weren’t for YOU, some of our nations school age children would have no way to be supervised while participating in their virtual school programs. YOU are indeed the ESSENTIAL work force that allows all other ESSENTIAL employees to go to work.
Along with recognizing and thanking all of you for your resilience and determination to serve your families I want to update you on the progress that has been made in the passing of 2 more COVID relief bills that have provided a historical amount of money to fill in the financial gaps that have negatively impacted child care providers. These 2 bills combined will help renew and sustain our current child care system. It is also enough money to help set the stage for gd? Improving the system in ways we have only talked about for years. Thank you for the part many of you played in getting your US Legislators informed of what was needed to survive the pandemic and move forward.
As most of you know a bill was passed in late December and signed by then President Trump called the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CCRSA). This bill provided an additional $10B to the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG). Keep in mind that this is nearly double the amount that is typically budgeted for one for year to the CCDBG. What this means is that between March 2020 and March 2021 child care has received a total of $19.3B in CCDBG funds. This is almost 4 times what is funded in a “normal” year. The states have until September 2022 to spend the most recent addition of $10B to the CCDBG. Each state was required to submit their plans to the federal Office of Child Care explaining how they plan to use this additional money to sustain child care through the pandemic by the end of February. For your reference NCCA has posted on our website a document provided by the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) that provides a link to how every state plans to spend their allocation of this money. The information from CLASP also includes how much of the $10B each state is receiving. You will note that each state’s plan is signed by an individual designated as the administrator of the plan. He or she is the person that oversees the execution of it. You should also know that your Governor has the ultimate say in how and when this money is spent. Another thing to be aware of is their autonomy to change their plan without further notification to the federal Office of Child Care. Additionally, accountability for the money being spent in the ways intended is practically nonexistent at the federal level. This is where YOU as a provider or educator may need to get involved. This a huge amount of money that the federal government has provided child care and it must be spent as intended and with urgency. For example, the state receiving the smallest amount is Vermont and they are getting $12.2M and the state receiving the largest amount is Texas. They are getting $1.1B! While many states have written great plans to get this money out there to help providers not all states have. I encourage you to take the time to ensure that your state is one that is going to act with integrity and urgency in the use of these additional $’s. And if they are THANK your administrator and Governor for doing so. If they are not please work urgently to organize with other providers in your area to establish what it is, you need for them to do to help your families and centers stay open and operate in a safe way for children. If this is a route you have to take to ensure things are moving in the right direction, I recommend that you look at other state plans and how they are supporting their child care community with this huge influx of money meant for this purpose! Doing so will help you and other providers establish an agenda for the discussion you are going to have with your administrator, Governor, and perhaps your state legislators. Whatever you do please do not remain silent if you are not receiving the support that was intended by the passing of this relief bill.
This is all for now but stay tuned for the next update which will include more information and guidance on how the child care community can get involved with Reimagining the System of Child Care. With the recent passing of the American Relief Package child care has received an almost unbelievable amount of money–$39B. We have lots of work to do to ensure that we create a high quality and sustainable child care system once and for all. We have to use this money wisely and urgently because if we do not, we may never get another chance to demonstrate that with enough money we can do this.
So for now TAKE CARE and TAKE ACTION if needed to get the support our federal legislators want you to receive from your STATE Government with all of these additional $$$$’s!
To contact me please email me at clehnhoff@necpa.net and www.NationalChildCare.org.
Thank you for all you do.
Sincerely,
Cindy Lehnhoff
Director, The National Child Care Association
Also, read more updated info below:
