As we began to see schools around the state shutdown, we knew immediately that child care providers would quickly become overwhelmed. We also knew that as more and more people were sent home from work, some would find themselves losing children, and wondering if they would still get paid.

Our union, CCPU quickly organized and starting demanding the state come up with solutions to ensure that we could not only care for the possible influx of children, but that those would may lose children would be paid.

And we did it!

Thanks to the hard work of members like you, Governor Newsom has agreed to take steps to ensure that child care providers are properly paid, and won’t have vital utilities shut off during this state of emergency.

This week, Gov. Newsom issued the following orders:

• All childcare workers working within the state subsidy system, both in family childcare and center settings to get paid regardless of child attendance. Pay will be based on your most recent invoice, based on highest capacity, before the pandemic began.
• Local governments are to halt evictions for renters and homeowners, slow foreclosures, and protect against utility shutoffs for Californians affected by COVID-19. While this is dire for everyone this is especially important for child care providers whose place of business is their home.
• Family child care home, day care center, school-age child care center or infant care center may waive adult-to-child, teacher-child, or staff-infant ratios as necessary for prevention, containment, and mitigation measures, as long as the health and safety of children is not compromised.
• The ratio of child to staff in a family child care home is increased to up to 10 children per 1 adult. Small child care providers can care for up to 14 children and license exempt providers can care for kids from more than one family. There are additional guidelines for how providers should comply (notify licensing and parents, for example).
• Finally, compliance on staff guidelines to allow hiring and other licensing rules have been relaxed temporarily.

The state also released guidelines for the containment and control of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) for child care settings. You can view those guidelines here.

In moments of crisis, we pull through by uniting, as we’ve done in the past. COVID-19 has shown us that we are dependent on each other and whether we’re Black or white, Latino or Asian, native or newcomer, it all comes down to our shared values as providers.