March 29, 2020
Dear Rutgers ELRA Families,
We hope that your keeping yourselves and your families healthy and coping well with this critical health situation. Our staff have worked very hard to keep in touch, provide you with support and continue to engage children through structure remote learning. We thank everyone that have made it a priority as we know that children are most impacted by these changes in routines and by the consequences of social distancing.
We want to provide you with an update. Last week, Governor Murphy ordered all child care centers to close indefinitely. This action applies to all our Infant and Toddler Programs. As a precaution, we had already closed this month and transitioned to a Remote Learning strategy for children. The pre-school program will remain closed and in remote learning until the Governor advises otherwise. Governor Murphy will provide an update status by April 17, 2020. However, all indications are that the pre-school and child care programs will remain closed for a longer period time.
We are committed to continue providing Remote Learning opportunities. Our Abbott pre-school program continues to be funded during this period of remote learning, so our teachers are all on board. For the Infant and Toddler Program, we will work hard to continue to provide some online activities and will reach out to families with support and information.
We had originally scheduled a Spring Break for the week of April 10 to April 17. We have decided to honor this well-deserved break for our staff, so there will not be any activities during that week. Upon the return of the staff, we will resume our online programming. We will be posting updates on the website and will communicate through Dojo and Tadpoles.
Our Family Workers are working hard to connect families to services and programs that are available through the government.Please continue to check our website and social media channel for updates. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher, family worker, and Pre-school director at janccruz@camden.rutgers.edu.
We are in this together and we will come out successful. If any of the children are ill from the COVOD-19, please let us know so that we can advocate and support you. Stay safe, follow the social distance guidelines, and remain hopeful that this will pass. We are here to support you.
Thanks, and be safe.
Sincerely,
Dr. Gloria Bonilla-Santiago Janet Cruz
CLC Director ELRA Senior Administrator