Child Care and Early Learning Instructor - Disaster Relief Payment Now Available

For Immediate Release: July 16, 2021

Gainesville, Florida -- The Florida Legislature and Governor Ron DeSantis authorized qualified disaster relief payments to childcare and early learning teachers affected by COVID-19. These payments are provided to qualified instructors to recognize their continuing service and dedication to Florida’s children and families. They will be sent directly to qualified individuals through the U.S. mail. 

There will be two rounds of $1,000 teacher payments: one from July 1 – October 15, 2021, and the second from January 1 – April 15, 2022

The Department of Early Learning has deployed a web-based portal (http://www.floridaearlylearning.com/disaster-relief) so that providers can apply on behalf of their teachers. The portal will allow providers to review the list of known teachers associated with your program, and you will be asked to do the following:

• Review the teacher names and confirm whether or not they are eligible for the payments based upon their dates of employment.
• Update any incorrect or missing information for each teacher (i.e., home address, email address, last four digits of SSN).
• Remove teachers who are not eligible (e.g., not employed as of the qualification date and/or the date of the application).
• If an eligible teacher is missing from the list, add them and provide the relevant information.

An email was sent out with instructions and a link to the application portal, but please check your “spam/junk” email if you did not receive the information.

There are also informational webinars taking place over the next few weeks that are very helpful as an overview of the process. Please access the links found on the portal.