Working Parents and Care for School-aged Children

This is an “all-hands-on-deck” moment and all of you have been so incredibly supportive. All of us, school leaders, educators, community leaders, and families, parents and caregivers, all have a role to play in the support of our children and their education.

 In general, students in 7th grade or older may be able to access remote instruction and support independent of adult supervision. These students are generally over 12 years of age and would legally be able to responsibly supervise younger children in a baby-sitting situation. Children from K-6th grade, however, will need adult supervision in a remote instruction and support environment.

 Ideally, this supervision would come from a parent, caregiver or trusted adult of the family. This will be the case for many New Hampshire families. Where this is not an option, we encourage (and are working with) local community support organizations (clubs, community libraries, etc.) to support families. The obvious question is that if children cannot attend school, how can the participate in community programming. This type of programming would be limited in the number of participants so that risk of infection with COVID-19 is lower.

 Additionally, Governor Sununu has signed Executive Order #5- Individuals who are unable to work or who have reduced hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic will have immediate access to unemployment benefits. Anyone in the following situations will now be eligible for state unemployment: If your employer temporarily closes due to COVID-19; Individuals that need to self-quarantine or are directed to quarantine at the instruction of a health care provider, employer or government official; Individuals that need to care for a family member that has COVID-19 or is under quarantine; Individuals that need to care for a dependent because of school closures, child care facility closures or other similar types of care programs; Self-employed individuals that are temporarily unable to operate their business because of any of the above listed situations will also be eligible.

 Individuals will need to file for each week of temporary unemployment and all of this can and should be done online at http://www.nhes.nh.gov, or by calling. People can do all of this online from your home internet connection or your phone without ever having to go into a state office. The website to access is http://www.nhes.nh.gov  and the phone number to call is 603-271-7700.