Executive order expands child care relief for ‘essential’ workforce
(FOX 2) - Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has signed an executive order Wednesday that allows some employers and Michigan schools to become emergency child care centers for essential workers amid the virus outbreak.
Effective immediately, the executive order allows the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs to issue expedited child care service licenses -- meaning employers, like hospitals, can operate their own child care services for their employees as they’re helping with the coronavirus outbreak. It also allows school facilities to be retrofitted into child care centers.
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“By expanding our ability to care for our children, we are allowing them to continue working and protect public health and safety. Child care services are essential to our collective effort, particularly while schools are closed,” Whitmer said.
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According to state officials, those considered essential include health care workers, home health workers, direct care workers, emergency medical service providers, first responders, law enforcement personnel, sanitation workers, child care workers, personnel providing correctional services, postal workers, public health employees, key government employees, court personnel, and others. Anyone considered a member of the essential workforce can click here to find child care services.
Intermediate school districts are being asked to help coordinate getting these child care services up and running by working with local education agencies, employers, early childhood educators, private or community-based child care centers, and licensed in-home providers.
To make sure those new child care services are safe, they must evaluate the health of anyone who enters the facility each time they enter, and must not allow anyone who doesn’t meet the evaluation criteria to enter the building.
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License child care providers willing to stay open during this emergency are asked to let the state know about your ability to take care of the children of the essential workforce with a short survey, click here.