Changes to RecognizeB5 Payments for 2024-2025 and 2025-2026

Virginia Department of Education sent this bulletin at 07/08/2024 02:00 PM EDT

Educators who registered for RecognizeB5 in 2023-2024

This memo seeks to inform you of changes to RecognizeB5 for 2024-2025 and 2025-2026. Since 2019, RecognizeB5 has provided a financial incentive to help attract and retain eligible early childhood educators in publicly-funded child care centers and family day homes that are participating in VQB5. RecognizeB5 has supported thousands of child care and family day home educators during Virginia’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

RecognizeB5 has been supported with $40+ million per year of federal and state funding, with the primary source being federal COVID recovery funds. While the Virginia General Assembly has made a $20 million investment in RecognizeB5 for the upcoming year, federal COVID recovery funding is scheduled to end in September 2024. This reduction in overall funding will impact future payments for RecognizeB5.

Payments for 2024-2025 and 2025-2026:

Overall available funding for RecognizeB5 in 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 has been significantly reduced. As a result:

For 2024-2025: Lead and assistant educators will be eligible for a maximum of $1,500.
- The incentive will be primarily supported through state funding from the 2024 Virginia State Budget.
- The incentive will be distributed in two equal payments ($750 each payment) for eligible educators.
For 2025-2026: Currently there are no funds for RecognizeB5 in the 2025-2026 state budget.
- This means that there would not be an incentive for educators in 2025-2026.

Eligibility for RecognizeB5:

There are no changes to eligibility for RecognizeB5 for the 2024-2025 year. You may be eligible to receive RecognizeB5 if all of the following criteria are met:

You must complete your educator profile in LinkB5 between August 15- October 1, 2024.
You must work in a publicly-funded child care center or family day home (such as the child care subsidy program),
You must continually work at least 30 hours or more per week directly with birth-to-five children in a classroom/family day home setting, and
Your child care center or family day home completes VQB5 required participation activities, including completion of site registration in LinkB5 between August 15-October 1, 2024.

Additional information on VQB5 Participation Requirements and Improvement Supports can be found on VQB5 website. If you have questions about VQB5, please email VQB5@doe.virginia.gov.

Additional information on how to participate in RecognizeB5 in 2024-2025 and answers to frequently asked questions can be found on the RecognizeB5 Help Center, or by emailing RecognizeB5@vecf.org.

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