The Louisiana Department of Education is removing 4,500 children from a waiting list seeking to enroll in a child care program.

Executive Director of the Early Childhood operations, Lisa Brochard, says 39-million dollars in federal one-time money will pay for kids from low-income families to attend a child care center, but there’s still a lot more children on the list.
“Still going to leave about 2,500 kids on the wait list. It is just a portion of the wait list but we are excited for those families that it is going to affect.”

Brochard says the program benefits not only children but parents as well.

“It not only affects the children in that they are able to get better care and better education, it allows the families, the parents, to go to work and or go to school. It’s sort of like a two-generational way to assist families.”

The money is only enough for one year of service for those reaping the benefits, and Brochard remains optimistic for additional federal and state funding.

“We are hopeful that maybe we’ll get some additional federal funding. We don’t know that though and we can’t count on that. Even though additional federal funding and additional state funding would be great for these families.”

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