Gov. Tom Wolf visited the child care center at PSECU headquarters in Harrisburg today to announce $53 million in additional financial support for child care providers that have suffered during COVID-19.
“This funding will help child care providers bridge the gap until their clientele returns,” Wolf said. “It will also help them with any increased costs that have been incurred due to the pandemic – things like cleaning and sanitization, which will help keep the 386,000 children who attend our licensed child care facilities safe, as well as the workers who do so much to care for them.”
The governor was joined at the announcement by Teresa Miller, secretary of the Department of Human Services; George Rudolph, president and CEO of PSECU; and Tonya Bastinelli, director of the Bright Horizons child care center at PSECU.
In June, the Wolf administration distributed $51 million in CARES Act Child Care Development Funds to eligible child care providers. The $53 million announced today is also from CARES Act funding and will be distributed this month. Another $116 million from Act 24 will be distributed in the coming months, bringing the total sum of financial support to $220 million.
The funding is distributed through the Department of Human Services’ (DHS) Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL), which licenses child care providers in the state and is working with Penn State Harrisburg’s Institute of State and Regional Affairs on an impact study to understand challenges for child care providers reopening and resuming operations during COVID-19.
