By Sam Whiting, San Francisco Chronicle, April 5, 2020
People on the front lines in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic — from grocery clerks to health care professionals to firefighters — will get priority in arranging child care based on an executive order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday.
The order allows parents in essential jobs to bypass administrative and eligibility requirements in order to enroll their children in programs when they are working. The order will be administered by the Department of Social Services and the Department of Education. Newsom gave the state agencies until Tuesday to work out the details such as how the child care will be facilitated while maintaining the required social distancing of the shelter-in-place order.
“This can be a real game-changer,” Sal Rosselli, president of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, said in a statement. “We’ve seen too many health care workers, including nurses and respiratory therapists, who are critical in caring for infected patients cut back hours because they have no one to care for their children.”
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