 Thank you. Identification of future needs. From Ken this more commissioner. Shats this morning. Commissioner. Thank you. Committee using. Hand raising. Do you have any questions? And Topper has a question. His hand. On my hands up. Oh, thank you. Please go ahead. All right. Commissioner. From what I can take from what you said. In terms of economic services by itself. You seem to be okay. What I'm looking for is, is there any help that you need from us in that area? I think it's really important to have that information, particularly with respect to the financial implications of this kind of increase. We're certainly appreciative of the fact that the federal government, of course, just passed the stimulus bill. It is complicated. What we need to do first is analyze what money is available. With respect to. In this case, it may be TANF. The federal government has made it pretty clear that any state resources that are already committed. Could not be replaced by federal resources. So we want to take advantage first. Over the federal resources that are available. So we need a little bit more time to be able to make the request of you, but I appreciate the question. Thank you. Are there other questions? I have a question. Can you identify yourself? Yeah. Mary Beth Redmond. And I put my hand up. So I'll, I'll lower it now. Thanks. Sorry. Topper, could you lower your hand too? Thank you. Thanks, Ken, for, for being with us today and for all your work. I couldn't imagine your job before this event. And now it's just being inconceivable with what you're handling. So thank you to you and your staff. I am hearing from nonprofits who are concerned about cash flow. And a lot of people are concerned about cash flow. And I am hearing from nonprofits who are concerned about cash flow. And a lot of these organizations are the boots on the ground. Organizations providing, you know, this care. And I'm just wondering if there's been any discussion of that relative to money flowing from the state for those who are providing care of COVID-19 patients and others who are kind of on the front lines, you know, it has there been any discussion. We certainly don't want these organizations to go bust in the middle of dealing with this crisis. So I just wondered if you've had any perspective on that or any information. So we're definitely concerned about it and appreciate the, the problem. And we've definitely been talking about that and we'll get into that more deeply. Melissa will talk about the efforts were made specifically with respect to childcare providers with exactly that thought in mind. And I think we need to stabilize that system of care. And there are others similar to that. As you correctly point out, we really were lying Vermont very heavily on our nonprofit partners. So again, we're looking at what federal resources might be available to be able to provide enhanced support, both in terms of pure numbers and again, also I'll talk more specifically with our business office staff in terms of the cash flow point that you made. I do, I do, of course, get that. And we're definitely mindful of that concern and working on it. Great. I'm particularly hearing from DA's SSA's, you know, the whole myriad of nonprofit world. So just to put that in there, but thank you. No, I do appreciate that. And I know the department of mental health and Dale have been talking very extensively, particularly with the designated agencies about their needs. Are there any questions? Committee. Generally in a general, general questions for the commissioner. Or can we move now to more specifically. Child care. Okay. Commissioner, are you kicking us off or is this something that, that Melissa is doing? What are, how is this going? I am going to kick it off briefly. And then turn it over to, to Melissa. So if it's okay, I'll just dive in. Please do. Okay. So the reality again, I know you've been following very carefully that the news and honestly the changes. And again, I want to appreciate the fact that we are all being carefully looking to the health department divide provide guidance. And then the governor in terms of making priorities and directives regarding the status of activities in our community. And frankly, that's changed over time. Even in this relatively short period of time. So again, I want to start by appreciating our staff in the child development division. Let's grow kids and all of our other network of support and providers of childcare. Because we do recognize the governor has recognized that childcare is actually a critical resource that enables essential persons to go about the activities, whether it's healthcare and first responders, or for that matter of grocery stores, being so many things are, are just essential to keep going, even while most for the most part, we're doing our best to stay at home. So these directives have evolved. A little bit over time. And again, we have come back to this place where, where CDD is being asked to essentially provide childcare through our childcare providers in the community for essential persons, children. And we're doing that through a matching mechanism. And let's grow kids have stepped up by creating a tool to provide information to children. And then let's grow kids have stepped up by creating a tool to provide information that then CDD uses to match with available childcare providers. I will tell you that in context of how quickly we've had to move, how challenging this has all been, I think that the Vermont community deserves a ton of support and recognition for we really are managing reasonably well under the circumstances. So to give you a little bit of data. We've, we understand that the total number of children who are children of essential persons needing childcare is approximately 1180. The number of slots available right now is a little over 2000. The point being that at this point we have a total number of slots that allows us to meet the need, but also to be straightforward, there are pockets around the state where it's a little bit uneven. There's certain populations of kids where it's harder to meet the needs. And so specifically, and Melissa can talk more about this as needed, but Addison, frankly, in Essex counties or areas where we recognize there are some gaps. So I think we're working very hard with childcare providers and our referral and support agencies to try to continue doing this matching. Again, as you probably know from both the governor's presentations and also to be clear, there's a lot of guidance and information on our website. So I want to make sure that you know that that's available and something you can look to for very specific information. We have obviously made an effort to provide financial supports both for families and also for childcare providers. We did reach an approach trying to be mindful of maintaining that support that we're asking families to pay 50% of their tuition or co-pay in order to preserve their slots once we get past this crisis period. We know that this is a challenge for some families, but the reality here is in terms of the amount of money that we're looking at, we felt that this was a, at this point anyway, a reasonable compromise in terms of maintaining the viability of the system, but also trying to support families. So as we go forward, we're continuing to do this matching work, continuing to support both childcare providers and families. And so let me now turn it over to Melissa to give you a little bit more specific information about how we're doing that. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. I have for the record, Melissa Regal Garrett. I'm the policy director at the child development division for the state of Vermont. And I'm happy to speak with you about the efforts. The division is made in conjunction with the department for children and families and the greater agency and of course the governor's office around childcare. First and foremost, as Ken commissioner Schatz mentioned, we've made several pivots in the last couple of weeks. And the staff and teen that I've been working with, I would be remiss not to call them out and say, they have done Yeoman's work, putting in countless extra hours to try to respond as quickly and effectively as possible to numerous pivots that we've faced. First, we focused on stabilizing the childcare system itself. As commissioner Schatz mentioned, a real value here around having a system that exists on the other side of this crisis and ensuring that families have slots to return to as well as programs are existing. So we did put in a stabilization program. It's my understanding we're on the cutting edge nationally and looking at it in this way and stabilizing our system. And we are moving forward right now, knowing that there's an indefinite period upon which we need to maintain the system. We did make a pivot last week to, rather than covering 100% of tuition for families that weren't able to make that payment. We're now asking families to cover 50% of that tuition. So then we have also been asked while that childcare system is in a closure period to work with folks to help provide childcare for our essential person's workforce that are required to work outside of the home and have no other resource available to them for care for their children. I want to stress that on every level, the essential person's childcare system is voluntary. It's voluntary for the childcare programs to step up and provide that care. It is voluntary for families to take advantage of that system. And so, you know, with that, it's been a little bit of a different experience for us in managing it. We've approached it from a variety of perspectives having to deal with that. We've also been able to really operationalize both financing mechanisms as well as the actual referral system that Commissioner Schatz referred to before. And, you know, we've had some values and some tenants that we have operated under. We have worked in close concert with the Vermont Department of Health, mostly and highly concerned about if we are providing this information to families in the state, especially in terms of who is in the home, how can we do so in such a way to mitigate exposure and to try to help protect the health of anyone that's involved in that system? So, really, consultation with Dr. Greene Homes from the Vermont Department of Health under the guidance of the state epidemiologists and guidance from the CDC in terms of how we can more effectively do this. that they it's been a it's been a tough couple weeks sorry please Melissa you have and your staff have been pulling long hours been doing yeoman's work and you're in right in the center and I know it's hard because you've got people coming at you at all corners thank you so I think let's talk first about the financing system that we have worked on and the system has gone through some pivots like I said we had the stabilization system part of stabilizing though that system did include a pivot in the way we handle child care subsidy so previous to the crisis we paid out subsidies based on actual attendance of children during this crisis we've shifted to an enrollment basis so for all kids that were enrolled in child care we continue to make payments to what we're referring to as their home provider or the provider they were enrolled in prior to the COVID crisis so so Melissa as you go through this I know there's been it's been an evolving process and there's been changes so if you can be really clear as to where we are now so the decision has been made we will continue to make those payments through subsidy on behalf of families to the home provider throughout the COVID crisis so the child care subsidy system is something that we did not pivot on or make any changes to as we learned of the lengthening period of the response what we did change is there are families within the subsidy system that do need to make co-payments to their child care providers those are either built in or they are on top of the co-payments that the subsidy system requires just because there's a difference between what a family what we pay and what a child care provider costs so those families are being asked to cover the 50% of that co-pay as we shifted that stabilization program so what is the they're being asked to cover 50% of the co-pay what if you can help us as to what that will mean in dollars per week and they may the the the essential worker may be part of a two-worker family of which the second worker no longer has a job so the ability to pay the co-pay even 50% so yeah so what we're saying is just like the entire workforce in Vermont that is making adjustments either not working or working from home and are being asked to care for their kids in that home setting that the same thing holds true for essential persons so if they are working from home or if their family member that they have a family member that is home that is able to care for their child that they utilize that mechanism and that they don't utilize the external system for care so with that again we're relying on things like the fact that the unemployment program has in fact gotten a boost according to this crisis as evolved in addition to that the federal government and the package that they just released does have you know payments being made to families and to individuals that have been laid off so knowing that those pieces are in place we did move to this 50% cost share program for families and that applies as well to the co-pay for childcare subsidy I don't know the answer to your question on a global or a systemic level representative pew in terms of the impact to each family that's because it's so different depending on you know the program that they've selected and if there even is a differential that they are asked to make up I can tell you my daughter is a subsidy family and her childcare program is closed and her work just announced their layoffs yesterday and as she went through her calculations her co-pay is typically $30 a week and she will be asked to make a $15 a week co-pay she's typically earns about $15 an hour when she's working generally so just I can give you that as an anecdote but I don't know in terms of how that impact looks across the board there are the questions about the stabilization program before I move into how we're paying for a central person and are you all making any involved at all in terms of families who are not part of the childcare financial assistance program yes so that's the other stabilization program that we rolled out last week and essentially it is it's rolled out in two parts and that's because the pivot in the length of time happened and we became aware of the financial impact of a potential long haul in stabilizing the system so the first part is in effect through the end of this week and that part one of the stabilization program for private pay families does we are asking Vermonters who can afford to cover their current slot in childcare their closed childcare program to continue to do so if they're unable to do that that system will pick up 100% of that tuition with that we're asking programs to continue to pay their staff and we're asking programs to preserve the slot for those families when the crisis is over families have a chance to return to those slots and it's the provider so the family has to say to the provider I can't pay for this and the provider contacts you that's correct we have a system we've operationalized to try to create a structure around that to make it go a little more smoother but yes representative that is correct we are pivoting that system at the end of this week to 50% of requirement that families cover 50% of that childcare tuition and then we will cover the other 50% we're still asking families that can afford to pay 100% to please do so but we will cover 50% of that tuition and with that again asking programs to not lay off their staff and to continue to hold those slots for those families on the other side of the crisis so they can return to those thank you Melissa committee what questions do you have and there's a whole list of questions in your that they all have their hands up can you see that no I can't I do have remarks that I can make on the on the essential person system and financing and how we're handling referrals I just wanted to get through the stabilized system first mind you make some comment I mean please continue if you are okay if you and all right all right so as I mentioned earlier the essential persons childcare system is a voluntary system we do have values around that one is the health and safety of those involved and under that wherever possible keeping families together keeping families in their home programs if those programs have remained open to serve essential persons and as we've made decisions moving forward you know those are some of the tenants that we are really paying attention to in terms of funding the essential person system we are offering to any on behalf of any child that is within and being provided childcare there's a hundred and twenty five dollar incentive payment that we are making to programs for serving those children families that are typically in the childcare system would have expected to pay tuition and so they may be paying tuition if the provider is charging that I will just gently remind folks that it's a market based system and so there's some levers we can pull in terms of what we can say our requirements and others that we can and so tuition may be being charged to families that would typically be childcare families recognizing that a lot of families as you probably aware at the end of last week we were asked to also utilize this voluntary system to support children are we okay yes sorry that's okay and so as we've done that that addition we did look at this and recognize those families otherwise would not have been budgeting or expecting to pay tuition and the state is offering 300 nope sorry a two hundred dollar a week tuition payment on behalf of children that are in the K-8 system so those are the financial supports that we're providing around essential persons moving forward the system to find care has been a bit of a challenge to set up and it's involved the cooperation and the work of so many folks both internal and external the state government and you know I'm gonna call out a few of those as I go through and describe the system but I can't tell you that if it wasn't for private public partnerships we would not be as far along with us as we are we would not have had the response that we've been able to make as quickly as we have essentially our partners that let's grow kids were able to really quickly set up a electronic mechanism a collector tool for any essential person needing child care to put in their information and they are twice a day providing the child development division with that data our child development division simultaneously has a team of 12 licenses for licensing texts and three licensing supervisors that have been working around the clock to contact each and every one of our private child care programs to learn if they're closed if they're remaining open and if they're willing to serve essential persons for programs that are closed we've been collecting data on if they know if they have staff members that might be willing to serve essential persons in other capacities whether that's directly in folks homes or moving to a program that's open we also have been asking if they have facilities that are currently closed but we know I've been regulated if they would be willing to have an external entity operate within their facility during this closure period so in this way we've been anticipating the need to fill gaps and first and foremost want to fill those gaps with folks that are within our regulated system our staff that are already within the regulated system as well as facilities that have already been regulated as we've turned our attention to public schools now being part of that process that has in fact it is a pivot that we are in the middle of and so we do recognize that there are folks within the public school that while they may not like para educators or other teachers have gone through some of the rigorous background checks that were required to make they have in fact had fingerprint checks and have been working with with children in public school settings so looking to figure out who among them may be available and willing to provide care and again in terms of buildings and facilities where are their public schools that we may be able to utilize so with all of that information both the essential persons that need care and then the facilities that are currently open to provide that care we hand that we clean it make it usable and provide that information to an existing referral specialist network that's always been present to provide childcare referral services to all families in the state of Vermont they have been doing an incredible job they've made 449 referrals for families to childcare in the last couple of weeks that to my understanding is six to seven times annually what they would have been doing for childcare referrals so just some incredible work by our community agencies and partners on the ground to help these families make the connections that they need we have identified some places of gaps as commissioner Schatz noted in particular Addison County has a large gap we know there are some gaps in Essex County and also in Franklin County and then finding a little bit of a pattern in the Burlington and Chittin area for children under the age of two so our team is really turning our attention to these gaps this week several strategies that we are using as I mentioned before as much as possible utilizing folks within the current system or programs that have been previously regulated we are also using the variance option that is within our regulations as effectively and quickly as possible that mechanism primarily is being used by programs right now in order to serve children in age groups that they did not previously serve whether that's being able to serve those K-8 students or being able to serve children we have after school programs that are asking to be able to serve children younger than K-8 a lot of the pattern on that again is that idea of keeping families together so those pieces are definitely in place we've also asked our partners again at Let's Grow Kids also at Building Bright Futures and some of the Head Start local programs are really interested in is there a way to coordinate folks being able to find a family friend in neighbor care so I do know that that work is underway within our partners in that informal system of being able to match folks I know they're exploring options like front porch forum potentially some of the nanny services that exist so trying to figure out you know how can we help families that would prefer or if there's a gap and we're trying to address it how can we potentially use the informal world of family friend and neighbor to do that there have been some interesting solutions even with childcare programs themselves where rather than having their staff work in house they have sent their staff to the homes of essential persons perhaps because they didn't have enough of a number of kids so we are tracking and are aware of some of the unique options that are happening out there just our families so I will stop there with some of the more general comments about the pieces and parts that we're putting together and it sounds like there are plenty of questions so thank you thank you Melissa and committee I've got four questions from you all four questioners Teresa then Dan and then I've got two more Teresa thank you Madam Chair thank you Commissioner Schatz and thank you Melissa both of you for being here and which I know is a really stressful time I just have a I'm going to ask I think I have like three questions so I'm just going to ask them and then I'm going to mute me and then Chair be able to move on so the first is is there any verification process that the childcare providers are continuing to pay for childcare workers I have had just one report of childcare provider receiving the payments or anticipating receiving the payments and then I'm still laying off the worker that they had so that was one you talked a little bit about continuing the work that you're doing with schools and I was just wondering if there's any um regional differences uh because I know that at least some schools and in our district here decided not to offer school facilities for childcare um and um it I'm just wondering if you have any other regional disparities around that and if that's causing any um issues for you and uh I thought I had three but I guess you only have two so that's it okay great thanks for the question um and you're bringing up pieces that we have um been absolutely grappling with uh over the last couple of weeks um uh I will call out our childcare financial assistance team uh we have one of the lowest improper uh payments rates in the nation in terms of um making sure that our our providers are actually following the standards that we establish for payment and this is no different scenario even though we are making payments outside of the childcare financial assistance program we are using and utilizing the team and the systems in order to ensure as best we can that folks are following the standards that we have outlined um uh I will say to you that some of this frankly is on the honor system of uh Vermonters uh and we see that play out uh both in terms of this verification as well as the essential persons list uh some of those pieces are um uh as we are working through this clicking more and more into place um so as ACCD was able to really identify uh codes that the Department of Labor uses uh it is enabled us to get um better at um ensuring that these payments are happening uh properly and people are following those procedures um uh we do not right now have a system for verifying paying workers uh we would appreciate folks handing uh that information in to the child development division uh if you are aware of that because we absolutely will follow up on that like I said we have a team that's well versed in doing research on these kinds of concerns um our licensor on duty line um it's our consumer concern line uh same phone number uh folks can call in and just leave that information for us uh and we will follow up on that um but I'll take this uh concern back to the team and see if we can strategize um how we might be able to be more proactive about that uh representative Wood thank you um and then in terms of the school's system uh you're absolutely right uh there is variety across the state in terms of what that public school response was uh to that directive from the governor to provide the k8 um uh child care uh and frankly we just got that order that directive from the governor to take that over last thursday uh we did have a little bit of a heads up um and in anticipation of that we added to um our team of folks uh that we meet with biweekly uh external partners with our internal partners we added vermont after school uh and that partner is uh proving already to be incredibly beneficial because they were on the ground with schools while schools were trying to make determinations around um uh whether they're going to provide care or not uh and so they're already feeding our referral specialist with information about the schools that uh were willing to do that um and how they approached that some contracted with um external partners to come in and do that work um some uh we're trying to set that up and establish that on their own what we are aware of is that schools um uh that were willing to do that work under the directive now that they know that it's voluntary um are uh choosing to focus uh laser sharp on making sure that students um have quality distance learning during this uh closure period of the buildings of public school um and um uh as as fellow agency partners to the agency of education into the uh school-based world um we fully um appreciate that task uh and really support the school folks in focusing on that learning um for our public school students um and therefore um you know as we are um helping them by providing this care for essential persons um you know we're just beginning uh on the verge of really understanding what that system looks like uh so we're setting up a survey so so Melissa you're doing a really good job of giving us a really full and detailed um explanation of how things are changing um and that folks are doing and I completely agree the best they can i'm trying to move you along because there are four three other people who have questions and then there are three people uh committee who have who are on the docket to testify and we have less than half an hour left got it um terry said did you get your question um answered the best that we can right now yes thank you um dan and after dan jessica thank you madam chair um melissa i just have a quick question um how are you communicating to the families about the 50 ask are you is are you reaching out uh directly or are you asking the uh the uh care providers to reach out just thank you yep right now um it is in fact on the care providers uh to do that outreach uh we are uh presently working as a team on frequently asked questions specific to families uh that will be a tool that uh providers can then utilize um as they're uh contacting and working with those families the only families that we have uh contact information for are just the child care financial assistance families which represent about a fifth of the families that use the system prior to adding k8 to it so um uh we previously have and continue to not have a way to make sure we can reach every family so there is a jump leap leap frog that happens there so melissa if you could uh send julie a copy of whatever the communication was to the providers since the thursday shift yes um when it went from 100 percent to 50 percent some of us are getting calls of of confusion as to what that really says um thank you dan jessica and after jessica carl thank you um so i have two questions if families who have a child that um and they are essential workers and they've been in the public schools so they've never had to apply for child care financial assistance before are they able to apply now through your website um yeah absolutely they can uh our um hope is that with the 200 dollar tuition payment that we're making on behalf of those families and then they added 125 dollar stipend uh that that's 325 dollars a week per k8 student that um families aren't uh the programs aren't going to need to charge families okay i wasn't sure if that 200 dollars had to be applied they had to qualify for it so i that's why i wouldn't it's for each and every essential person a couple of grocery store folks have been asking um the other piece is for the other side not part they're they haven't they're not receiving a subsidy but they work they're an essential worker who works in an area this actually is in the intensive care unit worried about the other children like their child catching something from them not wanting to put them in a full child care center have gotten support through um having hiring one of the folks who worked in the child care center in their home but also need to pay 100 percent they think of the child care um at the site so they don't lose their spot because they're hearing that if they don't pay 100 percent they're going to lose their spot and wondering if that's really fair is is really okay and it sounds like what you're saying is 50 but this is someone who's outside of the ccfap program so i just wondered how that works um so again it's a market-based program and uh all of the things that we've set up are voluntary so uh a child care provider on an individual basis that chooses to access our stabilization funding for that family that non ccfap family um right now this week if that family can't make that payment we will pay 100 percent of that tuition on their behalf starting next week um we're asking that that family make 50 percent of that payment if that child care provider is not um opting into our stabilization program um that is a relationship a market-based relationship uh that we are not able to really get in the middle of so that scenario could be happening representative if the child care program is not engaging in the stabilization program thank you okay um thank you thank you um jessica um carl thank you uh questions for melissa um the i've had some uh providers who have brought to my attention that some of their staff think it's unfair that they're working to provide care to essential workers and yet there are child care centers that uh where people are being paid but aren't providing a service to to children at this point in time at my best explanation is it's an extraordinary time uh and we're going to have some what appear to be inequities but i i wonder if you have a something maybe more concrete that i could uh tell them absolutely um um so again uh it's a voluntary program um and uh we looked at it as a uh our approach was really around incentivizing uh the programs to uh continue to provide this care for essential persons so that's what the $125 stipend for each and every child uh was really an effort around um and uh we can't tell the programs what to do with that $125 um per child stipend but it would certainly be our hope that that would result in um additional salary or bonuses or some sort of compensation uh for the actual staff members that are doing that care thank you thank you very much um i still see hands raised um Teresa and Carl do you still do you have other questions for um Melissa or can we move on to Sonia Raymond sorry i forgot to take my hand down that's okay that's okay top or do you have a question okay a quick question we got three people in half an hour quick question why can't you tell them that that subsidy if you've got people that are being paid and not working and you have people that are working allegedly voluntarily i don't know how that daycare that child care center could stay open if they were doing you know if they didn't come to work why can't you tell them to use that money to to provide more uh uh not assistance but pay to that worker that is in fact on site working whereas the other one is not working and being paid fully um again it's not something that we have ever gotten in the middle of uh even with the child care financial assistance program where we pay tuition on behalf of children to attend a program uh there are private business and they're really setting up their budgets and making their um their businesses work um i think that you're um probably accurate that they're not going to attract uh people to come in and do this work if they're not offering them uh additional compensation uh keeping in mind that these folks aren't um not compensated they should still be being compensated under the state stabilization program um so um it is highly likely that uh the way programs are in fact getting uh folks to be willing to do this uh in an ongoing way would be uh added compensation thank you thank you melissa thank you um tapper i'm sorry we got three we got three provider people who would like to or versions of that that i think would be important that we hear from um and what i would be looking for committee as we think um short and medium term and commissioners were thinking short and medium term if there is something that the legislature needs to do to address some of these issues um sanya reyman from um you are the executive director of the verman association for the education of young children yes uh thank you very much for allowing me to speak today um i'm also the owner of apple tree learning centers in sto so i'm going to be speaking from both perspectives a little bit today um just in terms of our role with ac and what we are doing in the throes of this as we have sort of become as i'm sure let's grow kids and um many other statewide organizations have become sort of the go-to points for um a lot of the programs in the state so they when they have questions um they are coming and looking to us as statewide leaders to provide those um answers as best we can so we have spent a lot of time working with um the different um organizations and um agency to try and get that information out to people as quickly as possible to steve off any confusion that we can not that there isn't any because there is but um it's in an effort to work you know with our partners to help that so we've been sending out a lot of communications over the last two weeks um and answering lots of emails and phone calls as i'm sure many other folks have um it was asked to talk about sort of the general impressions i have to say uh the package that melissa spoke to is gotta be the best thing going um in this country i can't imagine anything more supportive for this industry um we entered this you know this situation two weeks ago um and business owners and providers were absolutely um scared out of their mind uh they are generally a week to two weeks from closing their door in the best of circumstances and what has been put together as a financial package that melissa just described is um unbelievable frankly and it does allow if people opt in it does allow for um programs to come out the other side of this and be able to provide a service for families again um it isn't perfect i'm not sure we could put together something perfect but um it does work and it does allow for that um i will say um most of what we're hearing with regards to that package is um just some confusion about how it's working specifically and what they're supposed to be charging or not charging to whom and how and um not knowing who to speak to specifically to get answers and so the one thing that i would say if it's all possible is to have if we can have some sort of central housing for who you call or how you get your answers um in the quickest possible manner that would be great because what people are tending to do is go to their licensors at this point and the poor licensors they don't have all the answers to all of this they're doing the best they can um plus they're trying to work with the programs that are still open and those that are closing and and figure out how to help them manage things um but i i can say that that would be super important at this point um for clarity around all of this and um you know i want to speak to the essential care piece if i could for a minute because apple tree has chosen remain open and um this wasn't after a great deal of thought i could see the writing coming a few weeks ago myself on the wall and thought a lot about this idea before i was even asked if i would be willing to do it and well i couldn't agree more that um best case scenario is that every family have access to having care from you know a family friend or neighbor um for the least amount of touch points for the family as a whole in terms of um possible infection and for some continuity but i think given the circumstances what is the folks that are choosing to do this are doing is providing something in the interim um particularly because there are many families actually just don't have access right now to family friend or neighbor that they can actually get this care from or feel that they don't have that and so for us here those are most of the families that we are serving families who don't have other family in the area who live in very rural areas who um don't have close relationships perhaps with their neighbors or neighbors who are not comfortable watching their children knowing that these are people going off to work in hospitals and grocery stores every day um lots of reasons um and our numbers are very small right we have about 12 people enrolled right now we used to have 95 a day so that goes to show you that romaners in my opinion are really trying to do the absolute right thing by their families and for us to the decision to open is and do this was to fill the need um and i can say that we did it initially and then we decided not to do it and then we reopened when this new package and incentives came out for the essential providers and i'll tell you that 125 dollars that you were just asking about is a big deal it's actually what allowed me to feel okay about this for my staff because i was losing my staff every day that had agreed to do this initially they were getting scared they make like 15 an hour they you know if they don't have health care um then what happens if they get sick um so for me this 125 dollars is going directly to my staff those that are staying it's going in their pockets not mine um and i really hope that that is um what people are planning to do with this funding and from the providers that i am speaking with that is exactly their intention it is to put it into their program um to be able to stabilize their program and to pay um those workers that are staying and working a significant um increase so that they can a access health care they might need and have not felt they could do the premium on before or to just for their family whose spouse may have lost a job so i do think um that this has been a very important um piece to have in place and that was felt to me a direct response to having heard i am sure a ton of feedback from me and probably lots of other folks that we probably wouldn't have programs willing to stay open very long if we didn't do something to help the staff feel like they could do this and not fully you know jeopardize their families so um i could say a lot more but i know that we have three other people that would like or two other folks that would like to speak um sanya this is a representative pew um 125 dollars per per child um is a good incentive um what else do you need either monetary or um and i'm speaking to you when you as the executive director of the association for education for young children um short term and then medium term either in terms of funding or policy changes um i think you know the basics of businesses will be covered i can see that there might be some gap funding needed um i think what programs that the ones that i'm speaking with are doing is really pairing their expenses down to absolute bare minimum but as the stretches over time um you know the longer it goes i think some of those cuts are going to become quite vital to their business and they may need help to bring some of those back um so i can see that perhaps needing change the other thing that i would encourage some change in if possible is some policy around health care um we provide health care actually at apple tree um that does not mean that everybody can afford it even though we're paying half their premiums for them um and i think for this industry if we anyone who is choosing to stay and do this type of care should have and i know they can access it now through the state system but it does not mean it's affordable for them or at least that's what i'm finding with my own employees at this point so whatever we can do to help that situation i think would be important thank you um with the exception of topper who's not on mute topper do you have a question for sanya no i thought i was on that's okay um i don't see any questions sanya thank you very much thank you for deciding to remain to reopen appreciate it you're welcome um floyd um niece is next um floyd is the i'm going to speak from the lamoille parent child center and the perspective of parent child centers um so first of all thank you all for paying attention to these issues it's a it's a matter of crucial importance right now and um and i hate to be the bad news bear and i admire people like sanya who has uh who has am i still on my computer you are still on but for this is um um you're on at the bottom but what you submitted for testimony since we are on youtube is up there for people to look at okay so you have my testimony written and i'm just going to cover the highlights okay okay first um asking child care providers to provide care in a congregate setting in the context of a governor's order that says stay home and stay safe those are those two things are in conflict and i think that too that you're asking an awful lot for 125 bucks a day of people who are really taking great risks by um by going to work every day there are a bunch of questions that arise one is how do you maintain um social distancing among active children in a congregate setting how do you do that with toddlers how do you do that with infants who need to be changed who need to be held um so we have several pccs that have um that have child care facilities but don't have staff for them and because their staff have either to um they need to care for somebody at home they've got their own kids they're going to do homeschooling they're in a risk category um and so there are no staff so some of those parent child centers have been asked to reopen their child care facilities using some other caretaking arrangement like volunteers teachers from area schools um and that you know the my my legal counsel went nuts when they saw this because it doesn't there are so many liabilities to present themselves that it's a that it's a real risk to the organization itself ultimately um what happens if somebody who is attending your child care one of your children gets COVID-19 what happens then does the place shut down are you liable is it a workers comp issue for the people who can't come to work anymore it's just a it's a bundle of issues that haven't been addressed to date um and you can see some I've got them in there so you can take a look at but so speaking for myself and not for the network I want to say that I believe that I'm reading this I believe that caring for these children in congregate settings puts them and their caregivers at great risk it would be less risky to care for them in their own homes with relatives neighbors or friends I've let my staff know that they um that if they want to they can volunteer or they can uh they can decide to provide care um in someone's home um and that we will help them do that if they if they feel like they can but if as a last resort volunteers are used in children's homes it would make sense for them to have an off-site infrastructure that they could call on for support a hotline uh like to building bright futures that they could reach out to with questions or if an unanticipated challenge came up finally this emergency is brought into sharp focus the fact that the person can cashing us out at the grocery store is as critical to our daily lives as the doctors and nurses caring for those who are ill they should not have to put their children at risk while they themselves risk where they work schools are closed for a reason school districts across Vermont have largely been unable to fulfill this directive for many of the same reasons and districts that did begin to provide that that care are now shutting them down Barry is the case in point it's an unsustainable and unsafe model with serious liability should anything go wrong closing congregate child care settings for all but the children of essential personnel means that the only children being put at risk in that way are the children of essential personnel we have to find an alternative and I think we can but it's it just we can't we can't put kids in a congregate setting and put them at risk in this way and that is all the bad news I have to give but I do want to say one other thing and that is that parent child centers are in the same boat as da's and ssa's with regard to cash flow and just wanted to point that out thanks um thank you floyd um I'm just so that we are clear are you speaking for floyd niece and the uh lamoille parent child center when you or are you speaking for the um parent child center networks um broadly when you say congregate child care should not be the option um I think I can say that I speak for the vast majority of the parent child center network and so that people should be um going to individuals homes yeah yeah I think I think you know my if my uh my child is exposed to 10 kids or I'm sorry eight kids because they need to be two adults in a room to eight kids in a given day and those eight kids are exposed to their caregivers at home and whoever else they're exposed to there's a multiplicity of risks there that's pretty significant okay um committee questions for Carl Teresa I see your hand raised um thank you um floyd I just want to uh ask you a question about the last statement you made with regard to cash flow um I guess I'm making an assumption that if you have um people participating in the child care financial assistance program that you're getting the same payments that other child care providers are receiving is that accurate that's correct okay and then my second question is um with regard to uh the base payments you know the grant payments that the agency human services makes have you received any notification that there would be any change in those no we have not in fact um you know we made a point to the agency of human services that it would be great if they could um pay some of the accounts receivable um early and they have okay I mean the truth is that we're I don't think anybody's on the edge except perhaps in Rutland or um um where else anyway I know Rutland would be on is on the edge anyway but so I don't think we we don't need any emergency intervention at the moment okay thank you but we can all see them coming thank you um and floyd as usual you um have brought up um some hard points and some things that we need to balance and later this week or tomorrow or um next week we'll be talking more about um short term and mid term um solutions or responses but are the last person to testify and provide us with information today is ali richards who's the um um CEO of let's grow kids who have stepped up as an organization thank you so much representative view and all of you I'll try to be brief I know we don't have much time left okay um so I just truly appreciate the ability to share let's grow kids perspective right now in such a difficult time I'll pretty much as the last person on the roster be kind of underscoring a couple things and reacting to a few things but I think it's helpful to know um that the second this happened it became an all hands on deck situation and we've all been saying and so we see pretty much all of our normal activities at let's grow kids and pivoted to working hand in glove with the administration but also the early care programs on the ground so when you mentioned um our federal delegation and the state and national advocacy groups there's a lot of great TA and shared learning and people are knitting all of this together and so we're trying to be kind of a bit of a clearing house to um between all those various supports and sort of new information coming and going so I think it might be helpful for you all just to um hear what we've been doing which really puts into focus what Melissa mentioned is a public private partnership maybe give you ideas of other things you might even request in the coming days and weeks you know that that latter part would be very helpful right now perfect wonderful okay so here's a summary and then I'll just make two broad points at the end and and that and open up for questions so um we're basically collaborating with the state to be a resource for child care programs and early educators on the ground right now um part of that looks like collecting feedback from the early childhood field relaying their concerns triaging their concerns to the state and other policymakers as Sonia mentioned um we're also putting resources very regularly updated on our coronavirus website at let's grow kids and I think I want to make a note that this is for early held educators and families and employers who are three key constituency groups that have risen up with needs and questions in this a lot of guidance is coming fast and furious and some of it's not really digestible so we're both posting it directly and helping to digest to make some of that a little bit more accessible for these groups as well so that's constantly updated on our website the other big bucket of work we're doing has been alluded to by many is this emergency care now for um essential workers okay and I want to just make a couple key points there so as Melissa said we're partnering with the state for that intake it's purely intake and then it's passed right on to these cdd and these systems referral in place but what we're also doing is really focus on the health concerns so just as a quick and I'm not the bottom line on this in any shape or form we're working closely with cdd and brina homes at department of health and all I can say is we've been advocating very much and to people who are listening very closely make sure that those who are doing this care have access to the absolute best health guidance possible and and you know sort of the next wave of that is looking at health insurance and how can we think about you know sort of expanding that and supporting um that to these folks but we co-hosted a webinar on the health guidance and I will say in sort of speaking with brina they are thinking about what floyd is saying very very carefully um and they're looking at guidance they're looking at also looking a lot of data that's coming out of centers around the world and in other places in this country and and seeing that actually in very very small settings with a lot of hand washing that the risk is quite low that young children really are not vectors of this in many ways so all I will say is I know a lot of thought is happening with good public health guidance there and I would bring up something that vermont a y or national association nacy um has said time and time again which I believe is really ringing true for folks at a time of crisis like this really um highly qualified and prepared early childhood educators an incredible resource so in those cases where these children of essential workers can have that access to this care right now is actually a wonderful thing for them and their families during this time of crisis um so finally we continue to advocate for financial incentives and support for these programs and the state is doing so so much good work there as you heard from sonia the other thing that we're doing is we're supporting the programs that have closed um to do a series of things you know some of them do need bridge loans for a variety of reasons um there are some small gaps that are still arising so we're helping put a hotline together to get early educators um wonderful people have stepped up working in 50 percent you know and and folks are doing 50 pro bono people that you'll know around the state that do this great work a lot of legal firms um to give unemployment insurance advice and other hr related advice this field right now um and and working with vs ecu and the vermont community vermont community foundation on some bridge loans to fill some of these gaps um we've heard from so many people that want to help that we've set up an emergency fund for child care and have a really wonderful response and that money can be used for some of these things um and we're really making sure that any federal and state policies really do take into consideration the child care industry and the specific needs so they are not sort of left out in any way we're also supporting families right now they're really struggling in a variety of ways making sense of this being at home with their kids um the good news is a lot of the child care folks that are open right now um our are doing um great work actually with continuity of learning so i'd say we're actually now supporting some programs in um doing that continuity of learning what it looks like for child care folks that kids of this age how to support families and their children right now as an early educator that's you know um not physically seeing those people every day we're also really helping to support ramping up professional development for this field right now while they are still actively working and on payroll um we're also really supporting employers on what flexible sort of benefits look like for their staff right now at this time having them step up to support child care in variety of ways uh the last thing i'll mention is we're pivoting to supporting more of this informal care is sort of floyd saying it is a piece of the puzzle as melissa said as well and we've been working with cdd and um at this point it really looks like setting up resources for families to access um these informal networks and i will say one really bright spot is a lot of medical students can't be working right now because of the crisis and they are background checked and they have first aid and they're ready and willing and raring to do this so we're sort of um thinking about ways basically to link them and other folks up like that um who want to go into people's homes and be a part of this puzzle um that we're all sort of seeing come into shape now um and so that's uh that's continuing work that we're doing with cdd so really two final things i just have to say i just have to thank you all and thank state of vermont as others have said we are we are the best in the country right now in this moment we're following best guidelines using ccfap flexibly in the way that by the way you all have said in in your five-year redesign plan it should be used you know not only in a time of crisis but generally like this um so it's it's the right direction your groundwork and thoughtful work on this has helped put us in this place or we're the only state right now that has said we're going to be darn sure you can open up your doors when this is over this is such a vital resource for us and we're going to make sure of that and now these folks don't have to worry about being bankrupt while they do this continuity of learning for their families while they do crisis um emergency care for essential workers in some cases that is so huge i have to underscore that point um i also have to say you all know this painfully well too the lack of having a modern it system right now for cdd in a hs is crucial it's impeding efforts states that have made these investments like the ones that you've already set in motion but we haven't finished in vermont um have made things so much faster identifying gaps linking people to care it really will continue to find huge points like that in the crisis together for policy moving forward but i just have to mention that one um so all that is to say i would urge you all um in understanding sort of the magnitude of both the problem facing you know the early care and programs and the significant stepping up that the state has done to really support this industry thank you i'd love for you to make sure that you're looking at federal and state dollars to support and basically back up what the state has done thank you thank you um someone there's a someone has there something on because there's a reverberation um carl you have um the final question in the last minute that we have um and clearly folks who are listening we'll be continuing conversations around child care and where to move next we've spent a lot of time this morning saying being what people have been doing we need to know we need to move forward and what needs to happen forward um and ali um and melissa thank you for and uh floyd thank you for identifying some of those things carl thank you my question i don't know whether it be melissa or ali could answer this but what is it true then that somebody that let's say was working providing child care for uh essential workers in a in a daycare facility and they ended up having to stay home because they thought they were contracting a cold or something like that would they be going on unemployment or would they be going on uh what do you call it um workers comp melissa do you want to take that one sure um what we understand from our partners at the department of health is that they're because this is such a community wide and widespread uh contact scenario there really is no exact way the pinpoint where someone may have come in contact or contracted uh covid 19 uh therefore this is not a workman's comp issue because there's no way to actually prove uh that someone uh had that contact and actually contracted covid 19 from the child care program um thank you very much that that's a good good clear answer what i would um ask committee thank you for this last hour and a half if you have questions for um any of these um folks that we've heard from if you could write them down and email them to julie um tucker our committee assistant and myself um committee members we will and see how we can get them back to um or someone back to us to answer them but clearly this is the first step in um where do we go from here and we'll be having that conversation if not in another meeting this week that's not scheduled or at the very beginning of next week committee thank you very much um we're going on our lunch break and we're coming back at 2 30 help someone coming back at 2 30 um where we're going to be talking about wood side so thank you all very much and um this is the end of the morning for house human services bye