The cheque will soon be in the mail.
Eligible B.C. families who have registered for the Temporary Education Support Payment (TESP) program during the provincial teachers’ strike can expect to receive their cheques in the mail shortly.
Since Oct. 20, approximately 165,000 cheques have been processed and mailed out to eligible families. This represents more than half of the total number of cheques expected to be sent out. Nearly 230,000 families have submitted registration forms representing close to 295,000 students. So far, an estimated 97 per cent of families eligible for the program have registered.
Families should receive the majority of TESP payments in the next two weeks.
Additional time will be required to confirm with school districts the enrolment of students attending kindergarten and those who are new to B.C. public schools. Mail-outs for those students are expected to commence in late November.
The TESP program is intended to help parents of students 12 years old and under with the added cost of learning and supervision as a result of the labour disruption.
The temporary education support payment of $40 a day applies to the first
13 school days of September from Sept. 2 until Sept. 18 — until teachers ratified the collective agreement.
Parents have until Jan. 31, 2015, to register. No new registrations will be accepted after this date.
Registration can be completed online at: www.bcparentinfo.ca.
"We recognize that the labour disruption at the beginning of the school year imposed costs on families,” said Finance Minister Michael de Jong. “Our intention with the temporary education support payment was to provide a modest degree of support for parents who incurred most of those costs. As promised, families can expect to receive payment over the coming days."
