Sonoma County Emergency Childcare for Essential Workers During COVID-19 Crisis

A partnership between Community Child Care Council of Sonoma County (4Cs), the County of Sonoma Emergency Operations Center and First 5 Sonoma County has resulted in a rapid deployment of emergency child care for hospital workers and possibly, other essential workers during the COVID-19 crisis.

4Cs Sonoma County will serve as the centralized administrator of a child care system that will provide, sustained, stable groups of care for the children of essential workers. Establishing care for 50 children of hospital and critical healthcare workers during the COVID-19 crisis is the highest priority as the system is initially funded and launched. The slots are being filled on a referral only bases from local hospitals. If you are an essential health care worker and have no other child care options, please contact your employer to see if you qualify. An additional 50 slots may be coordinated depending on how the emergency progresses and the duration of the shelter-in-place order. Care will be aligned with California Community Care Licensing mandatory requirements and guidance to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among providers, children and their families.

4Cs Sonoma County has subcontracted with licensed child care providers to provide care for children, 6 months through 13 years, in a variety of settings. Providers include the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Santa Rosa, North Bay Children’s Center, Sonoma County Family YMCA, and licensed small family child care providers. Child care providers will receive a hazard pay premium and incentive to guarantee slots for specified age groups under the mandatory group size and group “stability” requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We felt it was critical to support our emergency workers and their families. Working with establish licensed programs and family child care homes is a perfect partnership, we are supporting small child care businesses while providing quality programs to their children in this difficult time.” said Melanie Dodson, Executive Director of 4Cs Sonoma County.

In addition to working directly with the hospitals to understand the child care needs of their emergency medical workers, 4Cs is communicating directly with families to ensure that their child(ren) are placed in the appropriate child care setting. 4Cs is working to ensure that providers who are caring for emergency workers have access to needed supplies and are taking the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of the virus.

The emergency child care administration and direct services are funded through a combination of public funds because child care has been deemed a critical and essential service to support emergency response during the COVID-19 disaster. The County of Sonoma Emergency Operations Center has contracted with 4Cs as the centralized administrator. Additionally, First 5 Sonoma County was able to quickly move tobacco tax funding through the First 5 Commission’s Responsive Grants Program, by issuing a one-time payment to incentivize the commitment of child care providers that operate on thin margins by guaranteeing payment for child care slots.

"The COVID-19 crisis, as did previous disasters, shines a bright light on how absolutely critical child care is to the basic infrastructure of our community. The First 5 Commission applauds the County for investing in child care as essential to COVID-19 Emergency Operations and we're very proud to support 4Cs to stand up a system that will enable our first responders to save lives.” said Angie Dillon-Shore, Executive Director of First 5 Sonoma County.

If you are an essential worker, who is not in the emergency health care field and need to find child care, 4Cs Child care Resource and Referral department is here to help you. We have a list of current licensed providers who remain open and are taking families. Please email info@sonoma4cs.org or call us at 707-544-3077. Please note due to high call volumes and our staff working from home email is preferable as return calls may take longer to get back to you than usual.

If you are a licensed child care provider with available slots for essential workers, please contact 4Cs to be added to the referral list.

This community has seen disaster before and we know together, we will all get through this as we remain #SonomaStrong.

Community Child Care Council is Sonoma County’s state funded Child Care Resource agency and operates 12 state funded preschools across the county that prepare children for school and life success while allowing their parents to work or attain vocational education. Additional programs include the subsidized child care, nutrition (also in Napa and Marin Counties) and resource and referral services.