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  Last Updated on 12/17/2008

Michigan Child Care Task Force Minutes for April 5, 2006

— STATE AID MSRP:
Updated income eligibility guidelines have been posted to the web.
The Department is on track to release the Community Needs and Resources Assessment (CNRA) through the Michigan Electronic Grants System (MEGS).
This report begins the allocation process for fiscal year 2007.
The Department is following language changes in the proposed school aid budget SB 1095. The legislature seems ready to increase the per pupil allocation to $3400; the PIE (parent involvement and education) language, deleted by the Governor, is back in the bill; the option to use a set amount of money to provide half-day and/or full-day programs seems likely to pass.
— COMPETITIVE MSRP:
There is concern regarding the lack of parity in language between school aid and competitive programs in SB1095. There is no language to reflect per child increase or allow for full-day programming. Advocacy efforts are in place headed by Anna Miller 313-577-1686 amiller@wayne.edu (with assistance by Richard Lower and Steve Manchester).
Competitive MSRP applications are due May 24th. Technical assistance sessions (TAs) are planned for April 24th in Lansing and April 28th in Gaylord. A reader session to score application will be June 13th. Handouts are available for prospective volunteers willing to read the applications.
* 21st Century Community Learning Centers:
There will be an After School Conference on May 11th. Brochures are available. For more information www.michigan.gov/21stcclc
* Even Start — MDE is on track to award grants by June 1st.
* Birth to 3 Secondary Prevention — SB 1095 currently shows an increase from $250,000 to $500,000 due to the work of advocates.
* DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION INFORMATION
You can obtain information on MDE'S early childhood programs at: http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-5234_6809-22847--,00.html
Information on ECEC grants is available at:
http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-5236---,00.html

** GUEST SPEAKERS:
Darlene Zimny, Oakland 4C, & Whitney Pavlov, St Clair County ISD, presented on the new child care center program developed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Darlene and Whitley gave a history of how the new accreditation program was developed and how it works now.
* The new program responds to concerns that the old system: (a) involved long waiting lists to engage in accreditation; (b) received too little support from NAEYC; (c) used out-of-date materials; (d) had inadequate accountability to assure that accredited centers retained high standards (e) lacked credibility in the eyes of many; (f) was not reliable in producing centers of consistently high quality. The revision process addressed the following.
* Standards & Criteria Organization
Early education and care experts spent considerable time examining standards of quality that centers had to achieve. These experts established concrete criteria for measuring whether desired standards were met. The process led to standards and criteria that allowed for the fact that high quality centers could vary on individual standards and criteria but still have an excellent program.
* A Clear 4-Step Process for Achieving Accreditation:
(a) Enrolling in self-study;
(b) Becoming an applicant;
(c) Becoming a candidate;
(d) Meeting program standards.
Each step contains significant changes from the old practice and represents a more serious commitment to accreditation. Each step breaks a challenging process into manageable sections that allow for reflection and a re-charging of the commitment to quality before moving to the next step.
The new accreditation process brings substantial improvements. It aims to provide more a consistent process across the nation; it brings more human resources to help centers achieve accreditation; it makes a challenging process more achievable by breading it down into steps that make sense and allow centers to gather themselves for moving on to completion.
* NAEYC offers lots of information and assistance. Contact NAEYC at: www.naeyc.org (there is a new web site section dedicated to accreditation); phone: 202-232-8777 or 800-424-2460, ext 3 email the “NAEYC Academy” at academy@naeyc.org.

** Department of Human Services — There was no report this month.

** MDCH Mental Health Services to Children & Families — There was no report presented this month, but Deb Marciniak left a written report as follows:
* Research and Training Center on Early Childhood Development
The major aim of the Research and Training Center (RTC) on Early Childhood Development is to implement a coordinated, advanced program of applied research on knowledge and practice that improves interventions associated with the healthy mental, behavioral, communication, preliteracy, social-emotional, and interpersonal development of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with or at risk for developmental disabilities.
The RTC web site targets parents, therapists, early childhood educators, and early interventionists, as well as researchers. The web site includes information about effective early childhood intervention practices based on research. The RTC is a major initiative of the Center for Evidence-Based Practices <http://www.evidencebasedpractices.org> at the Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute <http://www.puckett.org> . The RTC is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Research-to-Practice Division.” http://www.researchtopractice.info/index.php
* Program-Wide Positive Behavior Support: Supporting Young Children’s Social-Emotional Development and Addressing Challenging Behavior
This booklet provides a report on the program-wide implementation of the "Teaching Pyramid" within a Head Start Program. The Teaching Pyramid is a model for supporting social competence and preventing challenging behavior in young children (Fox, Dunlap, Hemmeter, Joseph, & Strain, 2003). The pyramid involves four levels of classroom practices that represent promotion, prevention, and intervention.
The report documents the experience of The Southeast Kansas Community Action Program (SEK-CAP) with the implementation of the model and describes the outcomes for the children, families, teachers, and program. Available at The Center for Evidence-Based Practice: Young Children with Challenging Behavior web site: http://challengingbehavior.fmhi.usf.edu/.

** Division of Child Day Licensing, DHS - Don Vita (vitad2@michigan.gov)
* New Positions Posted — Five new positions in the Division have been posted, though interviews have not yet been scheduled. Already candidates are responding to the job posting. These new staff people will still make the child care consultant caseload at 300-to-one instead of the 100-to-one recommended by child care experts.
* “Michigan Child Care Matters, the Division’s newsletter will be out in April.
* Fingerprint Problems — Some child care providers have to complete the fingerprinting requirement two times because they are employed by a school district while working in a program licensed by the Division. The two fingerprinting laws, one for K-12 schools and one for child care licensing, are written such that submitting fingerprints under one of the laws does not meet the requirement of the other law. Thus, some people have to get fingerprinted twice. Also, the process is too slow in these early months of the new legislation. The Division is working on bring these problems to legislators and the administration, the people who can correct this situation. Don will keep us apprised on this matter.
* Child care providers operating in home based care under the new training requirements in the child-care-home-rules have one year to meet those requirements. The home rules took effect on January 1, 2006 so people have this calendar year to obtain the required training.

** TANF Reauthorization — Jane Zehnder-Merrell, Mich League for Human Services
The new federal work requirements for TANF families will fall heavily on Michigan. Michigan’s “all family” employment rate (22%) is 28 percentage points short of the federal 50% requirement; and the two-parent rate (30%) is 60 percentage points short of the 90% federal requirement. Failure to meet the work participation rates could result to penalties totaling $108 million. The only families that are exempt from work requirements by federal law are mothers with infants less than 12 months old. The current cash assistance grant for a family of three in Michigan is $459—it hasn’t been increased since 1996.
The DHS and members of the House Committee on Appropriations for the Department of Human Services are looking to the “Georgia” model to boost employment rates. Georgia families are guided through a “pipeline” of services to employability. Michigan will also look at using a wider variety of work-related activities and options such as education and training or community service options to expand participation.
Currently, 50 percent of the Michigan caseload returns within the year. The Department is piloting the Jobs, Education and Training program in Sanilac County as well as selected sites in Oakland, Kent, and Wayne counties, to address the needs of these families by matching activities to individual abilities and needs; developing personal, basic, and job skills; and strengthening support for job advancement and retention.

** Head Start Reauthorization — Richard Lower, Mich. Head Start Association,
No real changes to report. A persistent sticking point continues to be a proposal to let “faith based” programs hire only staff from a particular religion.

** Announcements:
* The new KIDS COUNT report is coming out soon. You can get information about this from mihls.org, click on “Right Start 2006.” There is a discussion on what drives the data in Kids Count and how do these data change.
* The “Stop Over-Spending” (SOS) ballot proposal is being circulated. It looks like it will get on the ballot for November. It is similar to the proposal that existed in Colorado for many years; there, it succeeded in
cutting funding for state services by huge amounts.
* The report from Michigan's Children titled Equity: Moving toward Better Outcomes for All of Michigan's Children examines the current disproportionate shares of African-American and American Indian children in the welfare and juvenile justice system and makes recommendations to reduce these inequities. See www.michiganschildren.org.
* Two flyers on early education professional are available: (1) Earning an Early Childhood (ZA) endorsement; (2) Earning a Child Development M.A. degree. For more information contact Elaine Williams at <willi127@msu.edu>.
* It is April and, thus, Month of the Young Child.

The meeting adjourned at 11:45 a.m.

Meeting notes compiled by Steve Manchester, Michigan AEYC, with assistance from many of the people who made reports.

MCCTF Co-Chair Contact Information:
Richard Lower
Michigan Head Start Association
Executive Director
517-374-MHSA
richard@mhsa.ws

Jane Zehnder-Merrell
Michigan League for Human Services
Senior Research Associate & Director
Kids Count in Michigan Project
517-487-5436
janez@michleagueforhumansvs.org

The MCCTF Organizational Sponsors:
Michigan 4C Association (Community Coordinated Child Care)
Michigan's Children
Michigan Association for the Education of Young Children
Michigan League for Human Services
Michigan Head Start Association
Association for Child Development

Legislative Sponsors:
Senator Patricia Birkholz, Dist. 24
Representative Michael Murphy, Dist. 68