Yesterday, Governor Charlie Baker announced a new way to protect the state’s early educators and young children: a Covid testing program called Testing for Child Care that will add more layers of protection for early childhood programs.

Thanks to the acquisition of 26 million rapid antigen tests, this new effort will enable child care programs licensed by the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) to provide free tests for children and staff and access testing resources, training, and protocols.

As the State House News Service reports:

“Center and family-based child care providers enrolled in the program will be given free rapid COVID-19 antigen tests to be used on children and staff age 2 and older who are close contacts of a COVID-19 positive individual. Students and staff who test negative daily for five consecutive days could be allowed to remain in their classrooms, officials said.

“Tests will also be available for day care centers that want to engage in symptomatic testing to isolate positive individuals and rule out COVID-19 in other children and staff who might have symptoms similar to those that come with the virus.”

Knowing, within minutes, the Covid status of children and staff members will help programs stay open and be able to send those who are Covid-positive home so they can rest and recover.

Speaking at Ellis Early Learning in Boston, Baker said, “as the dad of three kids who spent time in very high-quality and really terrific early education and care spaces, I know how important this is to people here in the commonwealth.”

Testing, the governor added, “is a huge part of how you keep centers somewhat predictable, reliable and dependable for kids especially, and also for parents, many of whom are working parents.” 

Lauren Cook, the CEO of Ellis added, “Today is an amazing day for the early childhood field. And I have no doubt that sighs of relief and joyful tears from the field across the Commonwealth will be heard all the way to the State House.”

“This program is designed to help minimize program closures while maximizing health and safety,” EEC Commissioner Samantha Aigner-Treworgy explains in an email to the field.

“All EEC-licensed and approved child care providers that would like free rapid antigen tests, training and implementation support, and resources to operationalize the Testing for Child Care protocols can sign up with Neighborhood Villages now through this form.”

Neighborhood Villages has been piloting testing programs in early learning settings for months. And its COVID-19 resources on this website and will be updated regularly.

In addition, “EEC has made updates to the EEC’s COVID-19 Mitigation Protocols & Guidelines for Child Care in partnership with the Department of Public Health (DPH) to account for the new Testing for Child Care options and to align with CDC guidance.”

Programs can sign up for the new program on a rolling basis. They can begin testing once they receive their kits and get written consent from parents and caretakers. Programs will receive more tests each month, based on the number of children and staff in their programs.

Appearing with Governor Baker, Aigner-Treworgy highlighted how essential keeping programs open is, noting, “It’s more important now than ever that we help keep children in care, learning, playing, napping, working with their friends… That’s why we are really so excited to launch this Testing for Child Care expanded option.”

“Prioritizing childcare for the distribution of these tests is prioritizing children. It’s prioritizing our early education and care sector and it’s prioritizing the families that rely on our providers each and every day.”