Peusch said some providers have had to shut down, while others are maxing out credit cards to meet rent and to pay workers.

“It’s shameful,” she said.

Peusch said the unanswered invoices cap off what she described as an extremely unorganized and uncoordinated effort by the state to provide child care to essential workers.

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On March 25, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) signed an executive order to provide child-care services to essential workers. It took more than a week for the program to launch, as child-care providers had to re-register as essential providers and the state had to find appropriate locations.

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Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Karen Salmon, who is administering the program, said in a statement that she “understands and sympathizes” with the providers and “the challenges they are facing.”

Lora Rakowski, a spokeswoman for the state’s Education Department, said the agency had to create a new system before processing the invoices.

The delay “can be attributed to the need to put an entirely new administrative and validation process into place, the volume of invoices and limited staffing,” she said.

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Rakowski added that the processing staff has doubled and should resolve the delays.

Salmon’s statement does not say when the payments will be disbursed but notes that the state comptroller’s office will expedite the payments “on the same day they receive our vendor files.” In a statement on Facebook on Friday, Salmon said her department would “ensure that the Comptroller’s Office receives this information today.”

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Salmon said the department also will issue $2,000 grant payments to the providers by the end of next week.

In a message on Facebook to child-care providers, Comptroller Peter Franchot (D) said his office was contacted by the state Department of Education on Tuesday about guidance on how to process payments and has been working “tirelessly” with the agency “to address this delay of your payments and get your money to you as soon as possible.”

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