Province announces free child care for frontline workers
Posted Apr 15, 2021 05:31:14 PM.
The provincial government announced today that health care and other frontline workers will be able to access free emergency child care for school-aged children as of April 12, 2021.
The announcement came shortly after the decision to move elementary and secondary students to remote learning after spring break, in light of increasing COVID-19 cases and the appearance of new variants.
The service will be available for the duration of the remote-learning period, and is intended for workers who are performing critical duties and are unable to work remotely.
The news release states that “eligible parents and guardians with a school-aged child or children looking to access an emergency child care program should contact their local service system manager for information on availability, program locations and registration.”
At the time of writing, over 90 per cent of child care centres have no confirmed cases of the virus. “Child care is an absolutely critical part of our fight against COVID-19, and will be key to our economic recovery. I want to thank Ontario's dedicated child care staff who have stepped up time and again to provide your children with the care they deserve,” said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education.
Emergency care like this has been offered during the pandemic before, serving an average of 5,000 children daily across the province. However, today’s announcement provides the broadest eligibility thus far.
The government stresses that the “provision of safe, quality child care remains a priority.”
To keep these services available during the pandemic, child care workers, including Registered Early Childhood Educators, are eligible to be vaccinated during Phase 2 of the vaccine distribution plan.
In addition, child care settings have health and safety measures in place to keep children and families safe, such as mandatory screening, cleaning and disinfection, and use of personal protective equipment (PPE). To support these measures the government has been providing these settings with free PPE.
