With the increasing expansion of child care services under the province’s five alert levels in ‘A Foundation for Living with COVID-19’, the Compensation Grant Program for regulated child care services and the Essential Worker Child Care Program will continue until June 26 at which time they will conclude.

The programs were established in March to reduce immediate impacts on regulated child care services, employees and families, and to enable essential workers to provide critical services during the initial stages of the pandemic.

The Provincial Government has provided one of the most generous support packages in the country by investing approximately $17 million for these initiatives. This includes $14.7 million in compensation to regulated child care services to pay for all spaces and $2.3 million for child care for essential workers.

Regulated child care services are currently operating at 50 per cent capacity under Alert Level 4 and will expand to 70 per cent capacity when the province moves to Alert Level 3, expected on June 8.

Beginning with Alert Level 4, families, including essential workers, have been able to increasingly avail of their regular child care arrangements. As the province moves to Alert Level 3, and further restrictions are eased, capacity within regulated child care centres and family child care homes will continue to increase.

For the most up-to-date information related to COVID-19, please visit www.gov.nl.ca/covid-19. For general inquiries related to available government services, please email covid19info@gov.nl.ca.

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“Providing compensation to child care services while they were closed and establishing an Essential Worker Child Care Program was critical. We have made significant investments to support this sector which allowed services to remain intact, while ensuring essential workers could access child care services at a significantly reduced cost or no cost at all. Like other services and businesses in the province, regulated child care services are adapting to a new normal with COVID-19 and more families are returning to work and availing of their former child care arrangement.”
The Honourable Brian Warr
Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development

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Learn more

COVID-19 Child Care Operations Policy – Alert Level 3 (Effective June 8)

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Media contact
Tina Coffey
Education and Early Childhood Development
709-729-1906, 687-9903
tcoffey@gov.nl.ca