Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children

As we cope with the coronavirus pandemic, we have heard your requests for more information about financial assistance.

So if you are a child care provider in Massachusetts, please fill out this short Strategies for Children financial assistance survey so that we can direct you to appropriate support services.

The survey asks for basic information about your child care business, and it asks what kind of state, federal, and philanthropic opportunities you would like to learn more about.

So far, we’ve learned a lot from previous responses to this survey, including:

• Child care providers are struggling with the loan application for the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Providers report that many banks are still awaiting federal guidance before accepting loan applications, while others have already begun reviewing the loan applications. (See EEC’s new guidance document on loan and recovery programs for small businesses.)

• Child care providers need legal help navigating a variety of situations, among them human resource challenges and contract breaches (See the Attorney General’s child care guidance for more information), and

• Providers also want to learn more about paid leave through the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act.

We are working hard to address these questions and challenges.

By taking this survey, you will add to our knowledge and help us collect statewide Massachusetts data on financial assistance needs and on what technical assistance would be most helpful. We will share this information with state and national policymakers in our ongoing advocacy efforts.

The information from this survey will also build on the findings of a different Strategies’ survey about private pay programs. This survey documents the fact that programs with private-pay families don’t know how long they can continue to make payroll during the state-mandated closure of child care programs. Without some funding relief, these programs could close permanently.

For more information and resources, please check out the Strategies for Children COVID-19 webpage.

And please let us know what your needs and questions are so that your experiences can help shape the advocacy we need to get through these historically challenging times. Write to info@strategiesforchildren.org any time.