The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced it has established an Emergency Child Care Subsidy Program to help essential workers pay for child care during the COVID-19 pandemic through May. The deadline could be extended further.
“Our health care professionals caring for those who are sick, grocery workers who are restocking shelves, and truck drivers delivering packages to our doors all need child care so that they can go to work – and we want to be sure child care teachers and programs have support to provide safe quality care,” said Mandy Cohen, NCDHHS secretary.
Interested parents must submit a completed COVID-19 Parent Application for Financial Assistance for Emergency Child Care to their child care provider. The financial aid is for essential workers “fighting COVID-19 or protecting the health and safety of communities” whose income is below 300 percent of the poverty line and feel as “they have no other viable child care options available to them.”
In addition, child care programs that stay open to assist essential workers will receive bonuses from NCDHHS in April and May. Full-time teachers will receive $300 per month and full-time non-teaching staff members, including administrators, custodians and support staff, will receive $200 per month.