By Cecilia Nasmith

Northumberland County is coordinating with local child-care providers to offer eligible essential health-care and front-line workers targeted Emergency Child Care Services for school-age children while standard services are closed during the province-wide shutdown.

This shutdown was announced Monday, with Safer At Home restrictions in place for 28 days beginning Dec. 26. As part of this public-health measure, a range of time-limited public health actions were ordered to help curb the spread of COVID-19. One such action temporarily closes all elementary schools, publicly-funded and private, for in-person learning. Students enrolled in publicly-funded schools will move to virtual learning for the week of Jan. 4-8, with in-person learning scheduled to resume on Jan. 11 for elementary students and Jan. 25 for secondary students.

During that one-week period when elementary schools are operating virtually, licensed child-care centres and authorized recreation and skill-building providers will be closed to school-aged children. This includes all before- and after-school programs. These programs are permitted to resume operation when elementary schools return to in-person learning on Jan. 11.

Licensed child-care centres and homes serving younger children below school age may remain open for the full duration of the Safer at Home Restrictions. Operators with junior and senior kindergarten-aged children who are not registered in school but are instead registered in licensed centres as of Dec. 21, may continue to serve these children throughout the duration of these time-limited public health actions, including the week when elementary schools have moved to a virtual learning model. Please contact the operator directly regarding their plans.

“Following the directive of the Government of Ontario, Northumberland County is coordinating with local child-care providers to offer targeted Emergency Child Care Services for school-age children to eligible health care and other front-line workers, for the period of January 4 to 8, 2021,” Director of Community and Social Services Lisa Horne said.

“Licensed centres or homes approved to operate emergency care will be open with limited school-age spaces to facilitate health and safety measures. As these spaces are limited, the county may have to prioritize care based on the occupation and type of care required, in alignment with provincial criteria.

“Local health-care and front-line personnel have gone above and beyond to ensure essential services are in place for our community during this pandemic. We are proud to support them during this challenging time.”

A list of approved professions for emergency child care is available on the Province’s website at www.ontario.ca/page/covid-19-provincewide-shutdown#B. If approved, emergency school-age child care will be offered at no cost during this one week period.

To apply for Emergency School-Age Child Care during the week of January 4-8, 2021, residents are invited to complete an application at Northumberland.ca/EmergencyChildCare/