Disaster Relief Payments
More about the Disaster Relief Payments
The application for the first qualified disaster relief payment is CLOSED. The application for the second payment opens Saturday, January 1, 2022.
Directors will complete the application on behalf of the instructors in their programs – instructors do not apply directly for payments.
Eligible child care and early learning instructors must be:
- Employed as of January 1, 2022, at a private child care, early learning center, or family child care home, or at a public school assigned to a VPK or Title I prekindergarten program or a Head Start or Early Head Start program;
- Employed at the time the center/program submit the application; and
- Assigned to a classroom, full-time or part-time.
Application Process - To start the application process, private child care/early learning directors and school district VPK program directors will receive an email notification to access the application website where they will be asked to add or verify information for each instructor. Email notifications to directors will begin the week of January 3, 2022, in batches. If you have not received the email by Friday, January 7, 2022, please contact disasterrelief@oel.myflorida.com for assistance. NOTE: Please check spam or junk folders first.
After the application is submitted, each verified instructor from the application will receive an email notifying them of the application submission and requesting they review their name and home mailing address. Instructors will notify their director of any updates needed and directors will make the necessary corrections to the application. Once the application is approved, the $1,000 payment will be mailed directly to each instructor at the address provided by the program/school director.
Questions - An informational webinar, application demo, program details, FAQs, and more are available on the application’s website. If you have questions, please email disasterrelief@oel.myflorida.com.
Additionally, the Florida Division of Early Learning will host technical assistance (TA) hours for directors on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout January from 2:00 to 3:00 PM EST. The TA sessions can be joined by using this link: https://www.gotomeet.me/officeofearlylearning/disaster-relief-payment-ta-hours-with-del
NOTE: The online room is limited to 250 participants at a time. Once questions are answered we ask that participants leave so others may join throughout the hour.
