The Louisiana Department of Education has announced every child care provider in the state will receive free supplies to help ensure a healthy reopening following the COVID-19 outbreak. Assistant Superintendent Jessica Baghian says the state worked with vendors to acquire supplies for 16-hundred child care providers

“Utilizing federal recovery dollars that we have, we’ve just prioritized getting these supplies to our child care providers,” says Baghian.

Bagian says they used guidance from the Office of Public Health to choose which supplies to purchase for the child care centers.

“It’s everything from no-touch thermometers to gloves, to hand sanitizer to cleaning products like bleach,” says Baghian.

Dedicated federal funds were made available to purchase the supplies and Bagian says the first round has already been distributed to open centers.

“We have about 50 percent open as of now, at its peak it was only 30 percent. We expect even more to open at the point that we move to Phase Two, so we want to make sure that they are all prepared again to safely serve children and families,” says Baghian.

Baghian says the department feels an obligation to support child care providers and they want them to reopen safely as the economy reopens.

(Story written by Matt Doyle/Louisiana Radio Network)

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