The Baker Administration on Wednesday unveiled a new, statewide COVID-19 testing initiative for child care centers that officials touted as a “first-in-the-nation” approach to help keep more kids safely in programs as virus spread remains high. | Boston.com

A new program in Massachusetts will give more COVID-19 testing flexibility and get rapid antigen tests in the hands of early education centers, part of an initiative to make testing widely available and keep staff and students in school and child care programs, Gov. Charlie Baker announced Wednesday. Programs can sign up through the nonprofit Neighborhood Villages, which has been partnering with the Department of Early Education and Care to give child care centers access to testing options. | NBC Boston 10

Massachusetts child care centers will soon begin to receive allotments of COVID-19 rapid tests, Gov. Charlie Baker announced Wednesday. "Rapid tests for these two programs will be free and the distribution will be supported by Neighborhood Villages. Programs must be enrolled with Neighborhood Villages to receive free tests," Baker said. | WCVB

Early education leaders are working with the state Department of Public Health to craft protocols for the test-and-stay program that will look different from how it works in public schools. The state partnered with Neighborhood Villages, a Boston-based nonprofit that provides scalable solutions for early education providers, to distribute 40,000 rapid tests for child care workers this week. | Boston Globe

“We are excited about these enhancements to the testing program. They will offer child care providers across the state multi-pronged testing strategies and additional support,” said Neighborhood Villages Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer Sarah Siegel Muncey. “Testing in early childhood is one of the fastest, most effective investments we can make right now to keep child care centers open and our educators, children, and families safe - while also allowing our parents to continue to work. I want to thank Governor Baker and his Administration for their ongoing partnership and commitment to this important issue.” | Press Release

A Boston nonprofit, Neighborhood Villages, has been enlisted to help the state distribute 40,000 rapid tests to child care workers. As of late last week, about 2,100 of the state’s 7,000 child care providers were enrolled to receive the tests. | Yahoo Finance

“We know that our families are relying on child care to go to work,” said Samantha Aigner-Treworgy, Massachusetts’ commissioner of early education and care. “So we do want to provide alternatives to pulling children out of care for quarantine, but making sure we do so safely.” | Boston Globe

As the testing crisis stretches on in Massachusetts, there is new help for early child care providers across the state. Most educators in K-12 schools got rapid test kits already, and now tests are being made available at no cost to people who work in licensed Massachusetts early education and childcare. | WCVB

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges and exacerbated long-existing problems in early education and child care, from labor shortages to the industry’s low pay scales. Lauren Kennedy, the co-founder of the affordable child care advocacy group Neighborhood Villages, joined Boston Public Radio to share how early education and child care workers and advocates have fared throughout the pandemic. | WGBH

Every employee at Ellis Early Learning, an early childhood education and care provider serving more than 250 kids in the Boston area, is tested weekly for the coronavirus. The free screening has paid off: In part by detecting positive cases early, Ellis has managed to avoid internal spread at its centers since it started regular testing about a year ago. The screening, possible through what's now a statewide child care testing program in Massachusetts, has proved especially valuable given the omicron-driven surge in cases – as well as the challenge of working with young children who struggle to maintain social distance and wear masks. | USA Today

“As we continue to confront the realities of the Omicron variant, this testing program is essential to keeping our educators, children, and families safe - and allowing our parents to continue to work.  We urge any provider who wants testing to contact us quickly so we can set up this testing program for you and your families.” | Press Release

During our recent visit to Ellis’ new Jamaica Plain location, Tasha shared a gut-wrenching decision she is facing. Because teaching wages are so low, Tasha worries that she cannot afford to start a family of her own. She lives with her parents and has taken on second and third jobs. But it’s not enough. Choosing a career caring for others’ children means she can’t afford to have her own. Tasha’s experience as an early educator is unfortunately not unique. Not by a long shot. | WBUR Cognoscenti

Following the dramatic expansion of a first-of-its-kind, free COVID-19 pooled testing program for early education and care programs, more than 40,000 COVID-19 tests have been administered to teachers, staff, and children at Massachusetts child care facilities since September 2021. Since the September expansion, the program has tested 42,431 teachers, staff, and students, with 33 positive results, a .077% positivity rate. | Press Release

Thirty-three cases of COVID-19 from more than 40,000 tests administered to teachers, staff and students of child care programs around the state have been detected since September as part of a partnership between the state and the nonprofit Neighborhood Villages. | State House News Service

Neighborhood Villages began with a goal: do for childcare what the state already does for K-12. Organize it, regulate it and most importantly, support it. “If child care is a public good, we should create a public infrastructure to allow providers to thrive, but for free,” said Lauren Kennedy, co-founder of Neighborhood Villages, a nonprofit which serves as an early childhood district for five child care centers in the Boston area. | Early Learning Nation

On a tour of Ellis Early Learning, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley may not have been planning to comfort a little lady. But that's exactly what happened during a recent visit. Pressley visited EEL on Oct. 14, and was also there to promote the Build Back Better Act (BBBA) that President Biden is pushing to pass. Among other things, the BBBA would lower childcare costs, and lower higher education costs. | Jamaica Plain News

“We can’t find teachers to be in classrooms, and if we don’t have teachers in classrooms, we cannot enroll kids,” said Lauren Birchfield Kennedy, cofounder of Neighborhood Villages, an organization that advocates for child-care reform. “And as a result, we’re seeing many programs need to close the entire classrooms or in some circumstances even close entire locations.” | Boston Globe

Neighborhood Villages, a systems-change non-profit working to realize a future in which all families have access to affordable, high-quality early education and care, today was awarded funding from the Boston Children’s Collaboration for Community Health. | Press Release

Affinity Empowering, Inc., today announced a program to offer no-cost weekly COVID-19 testing for all Massachusetts licensed early education and care programs. The testing is being offered to both center-based and family childcare, as coordinated by Neighborhood Villages and the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC). | Yahoo Finance

Affinity Empowering, Inc., a leading provider of the most sophisticated and secure occupational, behavioral, and direct-to-consumer health services, along with non-profit Neighborhood Villages, today announced he will conduct weekly COVID-19 testing for all Massachusetts licensed early education and care programs. | List23