El Paso to Fund Free Childcare at YWCA for Rest of 2020

Tuesday evening, the City of El Paso announced a partnership with the YWCA El Paso del Norte Region that is going to provide child care and after school services for free. Federal CARES Act grant funding provided to the city is going to provide these services for children 12 years old and younger, now through December. Even though priority will be given to city workers, the programs will be available to essential workers and stressed families.

If you want to take advantage of these programs, you do have to meet two sets of criteria.

• Income is at or below 120% the Area Median Income (about $63,000 a year for a family of 4).
• Able to certify loss of income or economic impact directly related to Covid-19.

If you are concerned about safety, the YWCA has said they are going to be providing personal protective equipment (PPE) along with cleaning and disinfecting supplies to make sure all the child care locations operating as safely as possible. They will also be providing transportation when necessary. For more information, you can call the YWCA Childcare Service at (915) 519-0000.

If you're curious about where this money to provide this free service came from, you can look up the CARES Act, which established $150 billion (yes, BILLION with a "B") in coronavirus relief. There are some regulations when it comes to the money in the CARES Act:

1.      are necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19);

2.      were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020 (the date of enactment of the CARES Act) for the State or government; and

3.      were incurred during the period that begins on March 1, 2020, and ends on December 30, 2020.

For more info on the CARES Act, you can CLICK HERE.