Samaritan Early Learning Center in Lincoln City has been approved by the state to provide emergency child care for a prioritized group of essential workers. That group is defined as health care professionals, first responders, emergency workers, critical operations staff and essential personnel, and other individuals working outside of the home.

Under the Governor’s Executive Order on March 24, child care facilities may remain open if they submit an application to provide Emergency Child Care and are approved by the Office of Child Care. Samaritan Early Learning Center, located on the campus of Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital, made its application and began offering emergency child care on April 6 for infants and children ages 6 weeks to 12 years.

Openings are still available. To summarize the service:

• Care will be limited to the children of essential health care workers only.
• Hours of operations are 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
• Financial support may be available to qualifying families.
• Enrolled children will be screened for symptoms daily (for example, coughing or fever) and will be excluded if they show symptoms or are potentially infected. This is necessary to maintain services for all families.
• If an enrolled child begins showing symptoms or becomes ill, their family will be asked to return immediately to pick up the child to enable services to continue for others.

For complete information and application forms, call SELC Director Barbara Dougherty at 514-994-4208 or send an email to [email protected].