Harrisburg, Pa. — December 22, 2020 — Yesterday, Senator Maria Collett (D-12 Montgomery/Bucks), in collaboration with Public Citizens for Children & Youth (PCCY) and the Pennsylvania Women’s Health Caucus, asked Governor Wolf and the Administration to resume their COVID relief measure of calculating subsidy payments to childcare providers based on March enrollment figures as opposed to actual attendance figures. This relief measure was ended as of September 1st and has already taken a steep financial toll on childcare providers and the working families they support in Bucks and Montgomery counties and across the commonwealth.
Following up on her August 31 letter imploring Governor Wolf and the Administration not to end this relief measure, Senator Collett gathered her colleagues to collectively implore the Administration to reinstate it and pay providers based on pre-pandemic enrollment rates, reversing September’s decision that has cost childcare providers millions, threatens the permanent closure of many childcare centers within the next few months, and puts working families at risk of losing their child care – and thus their jobs – during this ongoing crisis.
“Childcare centers in my district have done everything in their power to operate safely and provide a desperately-needed service to working parents. But this does not come without a cost,” said Senator Collett. “We know that child care is critical to the function of our economy and the future success of our children, and the Wolf Administration’s decision to sever this lifeline to childcare facilities – many of which are small businesses run by older women and Black and brown women – has been devastating to providers who were already struggling to weather this storm.”
Read the full letter here.
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