Question about MD daycare rules
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Anonymous
Previous poster here. I think you're confused by the admittedly complicated space of overlapping executive authorities/actions and regulations at the state and local levels. The first thing I'd recommend is not to read too much into designations of "phase 1" or "phase 2." The phases provide a framework for expectation setting, but ultimately different businesses and public services will reopen at different times depending on the specific choices that state/local executives make, or based on the decisions of different regulatory agencies. Child care is (largely) regulated at a state level. The Division of Early Childhood within the state's Department of Education controls child care licensing and regulations. You can find the reopening requirements for daycares on their website. Simply put, the "phase 2" executive order at the state level didn't really change anything. Daycares can still only open up if they've applied under the EPCC program. Though, that program has been involving. As I said before, the state longer pays for childcare, and now any child care center can apply to reopen. Regarding who can use them, there's no meaningful difference about who can use them. Basically, if you're working (or teleworking), then you're allowed to send your kids to an EPCC site, understanding that you're going to pay whatever that center has picked as a rate. To be clear, technically the state-level regulations don't open up daycares to everyone. They open to people that are working. In MoCo, in theory only Phase 1 employees should be working (whatever that means). In other parts of the state, there may be some "Phase 2" employees working. But that phase 1 versus 2 designation is basically meaningless for the purpose of childcare. If you're working, you can use child care (now, whether you *should* be working is a different matter, but tangential to the child care topic). An interesting thing could happen as we get closer to phase 3. That's where the state's rough plan said daycares would open somewhat normally, and presumably be the end of the EPCC program. That's plausibly where there could be a divergence between state and local policies on child care. I doubt it, though. I suspect the county will continue to let the state Department of Education call the shots. That quite likely may be the only area where MoCo moves at the same time as the rest of the state. |
Anonymous
Quoting myself to fix a typo. I meant to say the state is no longer paying for childcare. They were previously paying for child care for essential workers, but that ended yesterday. |
Anonymous
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Wait? So if you are teleworking but your offices are not open because they aren't slated to open in phase 1 or 2- then you can use daycares? My provider told us that we would need to provide a letter stating that our workplaces are open and/or that its self-evident that our employers were essential (paramedics, hospital staff, etc.).
We deferred until Sept opening since we don't qualify. Both of our jobs have us teleworking for at least another month. My husband has an auto immune disorder so he will be the last phase of employees back at his fed office. I have an officemate and therefore cant follow distancing guidelines nor will I wear a mask for 9 hours a day when I can easily work at home (tech office). |
Anonymous
That sounds like a policy the daycare created themselves. Even when the EPCC payments were happening for essential employees, I don't think they required letters like that. Early on, it was somewhat unclear. The state said pretty quickly that teleworking essential employees could use the daycares at state expense. But, there's certainly ambiguity in the definition of essential. Feds are called out as essential if they have to work. But what does "required to work" mean? I'm required to work if I want to get paid- so am I an essential fed? My guess is that they wouldn't be happy about it, but probably would have done along with it. Now that the state payments have ended, that's moot anyway. Daycares are open to anyone whose business/workplace is operating, including teleworkers. Since there's no state payments, there are no special applications for parents. That's all left up to the providers. |
Anonymous
DP. Can you please show me where the state says who can use daycares in stages 1 and 2? My daycare said it was only people who work in places like hair salons, restaurants, etc. I would love to send my child back to daycare. We are both working from home and one is a fed, another a nonprofit worker. But our understanding was that we would not be able to use until stage 3. TIA! |
Anonymous
The main thing I'd point to in your case is that federal agencies and employees *were* covered by the Governor's executive order. Feds were arguably deemed essential personnel in the first executive order, and certainly are allowed to reopen under phase one/two (since they never had to close in the first place). Though, I have since found a new FAQ that complicates matters. The original essential employee FAQ had this to say:
To me, that seemed to strongly imply that the Department wasn't making any distinction between teleworking and in-person working. Since then, there's a new FAQ which has this to say:
It's only slight different, but different enough to give me pause. Anyways, again, if I were arguing with my provider (and I probably wouldn't argue- I'd switch if they were being jerks), I'd point to two things: 1) Executive Order 20-03-25-01 defines essential employees as including government employees required to work during the state of emergency. I assume the fed in your family is required to work, at least if you to continue to collect a paycheck. Most of us are on mandatory telework, as far as I can tell. 2) Executive Order 20-06-03-01, paragraph V explicitly excludes federal agencies from closures, making them part of the phase one/two reopening. |