Dear St. Paul Families,
Thank you once again for your patience as we get up and running. We will be mindful of not overwhelming you with emails and other forms of communication, but please know that there is a great deal of information to communicate and collect during these upstart days.
This email is in regards to childcare services for school aged children (K to 7) of Essential Service Workers. At this point in time we are not yet set up to provide this service to families who require it, and who qualify as an essential service worker according to the Ministry, as follows:
Essential Service Workers (ESWs) are those individuals considered critical to preserving life, health and societal functioning – including emergency responders, front-line health care workers, and critical infrastructure and supply chain (e.g. food, medicine) workers.
The Ministry is asking school districts and independent school authorities to follow the definition above and prioritize services and supports to ESWs as follows:
o Tier 1: healthcare workers and emergency responders;
o Tier 2: workers supporting vulnerable populations (e.g. social workers, income assistance workers); utilities workers and workers supporting key supply chain functions (e.g. grocery store workers, warehouse workers)
o Tier 3: teachers and childcare workers who do not have access to childcare and who are providing care or instruction to children of ESWs
There is also a link to a new process that the province unveiled today to aid parents who are ESWs in finding urgent childcare. https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2020CFD0017-000599 If you qualify as an ESW, and you complete the required form, you will be contacted by a local Child Care Resource Referral to connect you with licensed child care spaces in your community.
I am still awaiting clear direction on what child care support will look like for St. Paul parents who are ESWs. In the meantime I ask for the following:
If one or both parents are employed as an Essential Service Worker and will be requiring child care for your St. Paul child, please email Ms. Moorehead at mmoorehead@stpaulschool.ca with the number of school aged children you will require child care for. Please do so within the next 24 hours.
Thank you.
Yours in faith,
Maureen Moorehead.