As California Urges Day Care Centers to Stay Open, TOOTRiS Technology Delivers Services
TOOTRiS, a technology enabled service provider that connects parents with high-quality Child Care, today reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring that Child Care and early learning programs are fully supported as they provide essential services to our communities.
During the current health crisis, many center-based Child Care programs have had no option but to close, leaving essential workers like nurses, first responders and service workers scrambling to find Child Care alternatives. The Family Child Care providers (“FCCs”) who are still open but struggling to maintain operations are a crucial alternative for essential workers during this unprecedented reality and will be vital to businesses as we emerge from this difficult time. According to a recent NAEYC survey, over a third of California’s Child Care providers stated that they would not survive closing without significant support.1
“This exceptional situation has mostly forced in-home Family Child Care providers even further into a difficult position,” said Alessandra Lezama, CEO of TOOTRiS. “We feel a responsibility, now more than ever, to ensure all providers are fully supported and able to operate safely, so that the parents who rely on them have peace-of-mind as they support our critical infrastructure and families reincorporate into the workforce in the immediate future.”
Tynetta F., a San Diego-based active duty military service member and mom was desperate to find immediate care for her infant & toddler after the Child Care center they attended unexpectedly closed due to COVID-19. Tynetta turned to TOOTRiS, and within days she connected, vetted, and enrolled her children into a Safety First-verified TOOTRiS Child Care program. “I could not have done it without TOOTRiS! They provided all of the resources at no cost and were there every step of the way to help me secure a subsidy program and a Child Care provider that accepted subsidies.”
Cynthia Q., Director at Adventure Point Early Learning Center, said, “TOOTRiS was invaluable in connecting Tynetta’s family to our program in National City. We are so happy we could help and look forward to our continued partnership with TOOTRiS as we work together to place other children into our Safety-First program. They are a great service!”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently reiterated how essential Child Care services are during these trying times. “The bottom line is we need our Child Care facilities, our daycare centers to operate to absorb the magnitude of the impacts of these school closures.” In direct response, TOOTRiS has launched two financial aid programs to help under-resourced San Diego-based Family Child Care providers and essential workers get through this crisis. The first, reimburses FCC’s for any COVID-19 related expenses, including staff resources to meet newly imposed teacher to child ratios, cleaning supplies, and other necessary items up to $1,500, through June 30th. The second, helps essential workers pay for up to $1,500 in Child Care services through June 30th. TOOTRiS is also making available Safety-First Kits to FCCs containing some of the Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) materials that providers have struggled to source and desperately need to operate their programs safely. These kits are free for FCC’s while supplies last.
Complete details for all TOOTRiS support services can be found at tootris.com.
