New Mexico offering free childcare for wildfire evacuees
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – New Mexico’s Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD) is offering to pay for childcare for evacuees of New Mexico’s wildfires. The department says they are willing to help, even if families are missing important documents.
“Our team is willing to work with people, no matter what they had to evacuate with,” says Sara Mickelson, the deputy cabinet secretary for ECECD. “The best thing to bring would be your ID. If you have your child’s birth certificate, you can bring that. But again, we would recognize that people had to evacuate quickly and may not have those materials, and we can work with them.”
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The program can help connect families with children up to the age of 12 (or older if they have a developmental disability) with local childcare options. Families can also get help paying for childcare if they already have a childcare provider.
“The process goes fastest if they already know what childcare provider they want to use,” Mickelson says. “We can also work with families who may want to use a relative or a friend that they know who is going to be caring for less than four children.” Mickelson says ECECD also has an online childcare finder.
To get help, families can call 1-800-832-1321 or visit https://www.nmececd.org/child-care-assistance/. ECECD says they will also have staff visiting evacuation centers to connect with families. You can also visit an ECECD office in-person (the Roswell field office is at 400 N Pennsylvania Ave, Roswell, NM 88201 4th floor Suite 441).
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