ANNOUNCEMENT | CARES Child Care Scholarships to Provide Free Child Care to Eligible Essential Workers
En Español
Brightside Up applauds the action of the Cuomo Administration in developing a plan to provide child care to essential workers at no cost. This allocation of funding for child care for essential workers comes to the state from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), which has provided New York with $163.6 million in emergency relief to the child care system.
New York State is using a portion of this funding to provide free child care for income eligible essential workers. Essential workers using a regulated child care provider will receive a scholarship for the cost of care as long as the funds to support it are available. All licensed and regulated providers who are caring for essential workers are able to participate in this new program.
Access to affordable and safe child care is a barrier for working parents during the best of times, and even more so during a crisis. New York State’s plan will ensure that the workforce that is needed to protect and care for the public during this pandemic have the child care that allows them to continue to serve us all. CCR&Rs are the child care experts and the conduit to accessing child care in New York State.
If you meet the definition of an essential employee and have child care needs, register here (or click the button below).
We will follow up with you on next steps to gather information about your household and help you identify a participating child care provider or work with your current registered or licensed child care provider.
Parents are instructed to complete this application for the CARES Child Care Scholarship via the link above. The application will be considered complete once the online application is finished AND the required supplemental documentation is submitted to Brightside Up (Albany, Fulton, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady). Questions go to Tricia Howland at thowland@brightsideup.org.
For parents that currently receive subsidy from their local DSS to pay for child care, this scholarship can cover the parent co-pay. Parents should apply for the CARES Act Scholarship, and then contact their local Department of Social Services to get a letter stating their current co-pay.
The Program Information Profile at the link above is the application for child care providers to accept CARES Scholarship recipients and payments from Brightside Up. After completion of this profile, providers will be contacted by Tricia Howland or Keely Weise from Brightside Up with further information.