If a lead or assistant teacher, employed at a publicly-funded child care center or Family Day Home participating in VQB5, is temporarily away from their site on approved family and/or medical leave (FMLA) during the entire VQB5 registration window, a Site Administrator will need to create and fully complete a teacher profile for the teacher by the close of VQB5 registration in order for the teacher to be considered for participation in RecognizeB5. The email address included in the teacher profile should be one that the Teacher uses and/or has access to as RecognizeB5 will use this email as a primary contact for relaying important program information. Once the teacher has returned to work, they will need to login to LinkB5 and confirm the information provided in their teacher profile.
For teachers to qualify for this participation exception, they MUST also have worked at least a combined 30 hours directly with children ages birth to 5 (children not in kindergarten) in a classroom setting during the first employment period. The teacher will need to otherwise meet and maintain all existing eligibility criteria in order to participate in and receive incentive funds from RecognizeB5. Of note, an agreement between the site and teacher to reduce a teacher’s hours to accommodate work or schooling outside of the site (unrelated to site operations) does NOT constitute site-approved leave.