Yesterday, Governor Charlie Baker announced that public and private schools would be closed for the rest of the school year.

He also announced that the state’s child care closures would remain “in place until June 29, 2020, and may be extended as needed.”

“We know that the lack of child care for many families has created an unanticipated burden and it’s hard to look after young children and balance the demands of working at home under the same roof, but maintaining this structure is the best way to keep our kids and our providers safe from the spread of this insidious disease,” Baker said, according to the State House News Service. “In the coming months, we’ll be working toward slowly restoring child care capacity for both family child care and center-based programs once it can be done safely.”

Department of Early Education and Care Commissioner Samantha Aigner-Treworgy also spoke, thanking providers for their hard work. (She appears at the 27:39 timestamp in the video above.)

“The providers across the commonwealth have stepped up to serve our essential workers, and their commitment to children and families has really been the backbone of the essential workforce as we navigate this complicated time,” the commissioner said.

“Today’s announcement to extend the child care closure helps the Department of Early Education and Care continue to keep the best public health interests of our families and our workforce at the forefront. It also gives us time to look ahead and align the reopening of child care with the reopening of employment across the state.”

Although most programs will remain closed, emergency child care for essential workers remains open, with more than 500 providers around the state providing this critical service to essential employees. Thank you to all our emergency care providers!

For more information about what’s going on, please check out Strategies for Children’s COVID-19 page, which has resources for the early education and care field.

And JOIN US TODAY at 2 p.m. for our town hall, technical and financial assistance webinar for early education and care programs.

Please contribute to our advocacy work by sharing your experiences in these challenging times. Fill out our child care provider financial assistance survey. And ask families to fill out our early childhood parent perspective survey.

We continue to advocate for the field during this time of closures and financial uncertainty. On Monday, we released Amy O’Leary’s message from Marathon Monday: Today We Will Cheer for You. And we look forward to collecting and sharing more of your stories so that we can get through the pandemic and build a better future.