[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text animation=”slideInLeft”]In June 2020, child care facilities began reopening, however many of them had lost staff through the lay-off period. Some, unable to sustain facility mortgages and rentals, and staff payments through the shutdown, were closed for good.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text animation=”slideInLeft” animation_delay=”.2″]Jennifer Washburn, director of iKids in Benton, said her center that serves 80 students with 20 staff, would not have survived without federal relief aid and a paycheck protection loan.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text animation=”slideInLeft” animation_delay=”.4″]\u201cWe lost $150,000 in 2020, and federal relief and loans were critical in our survival,\u201d said Washburn. \u201cMy success is not measured in dollars. It is measured in families and their success.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text animation=”slideInLeft” animation_delay=”.6″]The recently passed federal stimulus package provided $15 billion allocation for child-development block grants, $1 billion for Head Start, and a $24 billion stabilization fund for providers, which will be distributed by states, including Kentucky.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text animation=”slideInLeft” animation_delay=”.6″]\u201cWe are pleased that the federal support is robust and flexible, allowing states like Kentucky to support operating costs, co-pays and tuition based on enrollment, training and professional development, facility maintenance and cleaning,\u201d said Ramsey.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text animation=”slideInLeft” animation_delay=”.6″]On Feb. 15, Gov. Beshear also announced that Kentucky\u2019s child care workers were added to the priority list for COVID vaccinations. The Prichard Committee and our early childhood partners from across the state pushed for this move when vaccine rollouts began.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text animation=”slideInLeft”]Cori Gadansky, executive director of Community Coordinated Child Care, a Louisville-based group that partners with Prichard, told the Courier-Journal that she was delighted by the prioritization, and immediately began informing centers of the decision.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text animation=”slideInLeft”]\u201cThis prioritization was crucial in helping our workers and families feel safer about returning to our centers,\u201d said Gadansky.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text animation=”slideInLeft”]In June 2020, child care facilities began reopening, however many of them had lost staff through the lay-off period. Some, unable to sustain facility mortgages and rentals, and staff payments through the shutdown, were closed for good.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text animation=”slideInLeft” animation_delay=”.2″]Jennifer Washburn, director of iKids in Benton, said her center that serves 80 students with 20<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"passster_activate_protection":false,"passster_protect_child_pages":"","passster_protection_type":"password","passster_password":"","passster_activate_overwrite_defaults":"","passster_headline":"","passster_instruction":"","passster_placeholder":"","passster_button":"","passster_id":"","passster_activate_misc_settings":"","passster_redirect_url":"","passster_hide":"no","passster_area_shortcode":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-learning-through-covid"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6066,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5466\/revisions\/6066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}