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Update on School Readiness & VPK Services for parents!
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During these trying times, we want you to know that we are here to help your family with childcare needs. Although our building is closed to the public, clients can still apply for school readiness and/or VPK services on our Family Portal . All Coalition team members can still be reached by phone, at 772-595-6363 for Family Services, which covers enrollment, eligibility and childcare referral services, or 772-595-6424 for the general line, or through email, or through our social media platforms.
For more information on COVID-19 and how the State of Florida is handling this virus, visit the Florida Department of Health website . You can also visit our Childcare Locator on our website here to see which childcare centers are currently open. Here is the latest update from the state regarding:
Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) Education Program:
If you have not used your VPK certificate for a school year program and are considering a Summer VPK program for your child, please contact the coalition.
School Readiness (SR) Eligibility Program
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Gov. DeSantis stated childcare services are essential.
First and foremost, we want all of you and your families to be safe and healthy! We are urging providers to consider remaining open to allow parents that work for essential businesses (like banks, grocery stores, healthcare, first responders and gas stations) to utilize their services. While following all precautions/guidance from the CDC and our Department of Health, for safety; which includes adequate space for appropriate social distancing and limit of 10 individuals (includes teachers and children) along with not allowing anyone to go into other rooms. Also for consideration, providers may conduct initial health checks for children entering their facility daily and adhere to a strict illness policy.
Attached is a Q&A from the Office of Early Learning (OEL). All provisions in the document will be reviewed by OEL every 15 days. With that being said, some things could change very quickly; but, we anticipate some consistency for potential change to coincide with a full month from the beginning of the month until the last day of the month. DOE OEL QA 3-26-20 – FINALT he Q&A addresses the following that is important for parents:
- SR & VPK payments for absences and closures, with an emphasis on temporary closures.
- What does this mean for parents:
- The ELC will pay providers for ALL absences effective March 1, 2020, even over the ELC limit of 6 (3 unexcused plus up to an additional 3 excused)
- NO documentation for absences will be required
- Children will NOT be withdrawn from any program for not attending, including VPK.
- What does this mean for parents:
- Eligibility for School Readiness families
- Eligibility requirements have been suspended as of March 15th.
- NO families will be terminated from the SR program as of March 15th. If children were not attending prior to March 1 and the redetermination was March 15th or after, those terminations will stand.
- If you have been temporarily laid off, have a reduction of hours, lost your job, or had any changes of employment due to COVID-19, that will NOT be grounds for termination from childcare services.
- Redeterminations
- We will be working with parents in an effort to complete their redetermination by their original date, so it will not create a back log and extremely large number of redeterminations in the future.
- In the event you are NOT able to produce required documentation, we WILL extend your redetermination date by an additional 60 days.
- As far as we are aware at this moment, you will be required to complete redetermination by the extension deadline.
- Eligibility requirements have been suspended as of March 15th.
- School Readiness Parent Copayments
- This section directly addresses the parent copayment that is determined by the ELC and does NOT include any differential payments that providers may charge.
- We are anticipating a clearer answer in this section to specifically state “Providers are not to collect SR parent copayments effective April 1 and will be reimbursed for these copayments beginning April 1.”
- The clarification is from the effective date of April 1, 2020.
- Parents will NOT be responsible for ELC assessed Parent Copayments due to providers
- The ELC will be paying providers these fees as of April 1st.
- If your provider is still looking to collect any differential payment from parents, that will be between the provider and the parent.
- We encourage parents to discuss your situation with providers, if you are struggling to pay differentials.
- If you have any questions regarding the items listed above, please call us at 772-595-6424, choose Family Services and the directory will list our Family Services Specialists. Please pick the specialist that you have most recently worked with.
- There are other areas listed in the Q&A, if you have any questions regarding those areas not covered here, please contact Deb LaBella, Director of Programs, by email at labellad01@elcslc.org.
- If your provider is closed and you need care for your child(ren), you can contact our office and request a transfer of care. Only in the event that your provider is closed, will we NOT require a zero balance receipt.
Providers will be receiving a copy of this email as well. Please watch for emails from us, along with checking on our website at www.elcslc.org, Twitter: @early_lucie or like and follow our Early Learning Coalition of St. Lucie County Facebook Page. Since these are our main sources of communication with all of you during these unprecedented times we are trying to get information out in as many outlets as possible.
