Related
The state is providing $250 million in federal CARES Act money to the state’s child care centers, and to provide child care tuition breaks for working parents.
Gov. Phil Murphy made the announcement outside of a child care center in Metuchen on Friday morning.
“As many families have discovered these past few months, child care has become a necessary part of our state’s economic infrastructure, and it will be critically important to our economic recovery to the COVID-19 crisis,” Murphy said.
The plan would give $50 million in grants to nearly 6,000 New Jersey child care centers to cover costs related to COVID-19. It would also provide per-child tuition grants to the centers, subsidies for low-income families, and child care tuition assistance for families with incomes up to $75,000 a year.
State Human Services Commissioner Carole Johnson said, with the new school year beginning, affordable child care is imperative for working parents.
“No matter how super-human parents are, it’s just incredibly challenging — if not impossible — to work from home or be at your essential job in a grocery store or a hospital or at a child care center and teach your kids during the day,” Johnson said.
The governor also said the state is getting closer to allowing people to eat inside restaurants again. He said if the state's health metrics continue on their current course, it shouldn’t be long.
“We’re almost there. That’s what I’ll say,” Murphy said.
“This isn’t just one good day. They’re sustained,” Murphy said. “We’re getting very close to being able to take that step.”
Earlier this week Murphy said he hoped indoor dining could resume before mid-September.