According to the Maryland State Department of Education, all essential personnel child care provider payments are up to date.
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The MSDE stated that this week alone they disbursed more than $29 million to Maryland's child care providers. They announced this in a Facebook post Friday, stating "with current program enhancements, as second period invoices arrive and are processed, MSDE anticipates the timeline of invoice receipt to payment to be 5-7 days."
The department said that in addition to receiving payment for invoiced child care in the first service period, each essential child care provider received a grant of $800 (family care providers) or $1600 (child care center providers) for initial COVID-19 sanitization materials and supplies.
A subsequent grant for continued COVID-19 operating costs in the amount of $2000 was also dispersed this week.
“While MSDE did its best in this unprecedented situation, we know that we can do better. Working together, with our providers, our early childhood team worked around the clock to deliver $29 million in payments to our providers this week alone. This monumental effort completed the first round of invoice processing, and brings us up to date,” said Karen B. Salmon, Ph.D., State Superintendent of Schools in the post. “Over the last month, we not only established this new program from the ground up, we also honed our payment process to deliver the support, timely payment and service that our child care providers deserve.”
MSDE encourages providers with questions to direct all questions about invoices and amounts to the department through one of these platforms:
- Google Assistance Form https://bit.ly/35kSIOL , which allows specialists to prioritize and research your inquiry
- E-mail at earlychildhood.msde@maryland.gov
- Or by phone at one of these numbers: 410-767-0337, 410-767-6549, 410-767-0120, 410-767-7863, 410-767-6947, 410-767-1664, 410-767-7805, 410-767-0583, 410-767-7798, 410-767-7128.
