Child Care Advisory Council

Minutes

4/7/2017

CCAC Purpose - The Child Care Advisory Council is established, in accordance with Title 5, section 12004-I, subsection 35-B, to advise the Legislature and the department regarding child care services in the State. The council shall encourage the development of child care policies that are coordinated among state agencies to promote, quality, uniformity and efficiency of service.

Members in attendance: Kirsten Capeless, Associate Director of Early Intervention & Prevention; John Jacobs, Child Care Services Team Leader; Teresa Barrows, OCFS /Children’s Behavioral Health Rep; Kristopher Michaud, DOE/CDS Rep; Tera Kennedy, CDS Rep; Pamela Prevost, Maine Roads to Quality; and Alica Johnson-Grafe, Center-based provider not receiving subsidy

Members not in attendance: John Gregory, Parent Rep receiving subsidy; Richard McCarthy, Asst. State Fire Marshal; Liz Ray, OFI; Sue Reed, DOE; Amy Taranko, OCFS and Tammy Dwyer, Family Childcare Provider; Rep Deborah Sanderson and Rep Jennifer Parker; Julie Hart, After-School Programs

Phone: Brian Duprey, Center-based provider; Linda Labas, Center for Community Inclusion & Disability Studies; Lori Bozeman, Childcare provider; Chantel Pettengill, Parent Rep not receiving subsidy; guests: Shireen Riley, ACF Region I; Cheryl Walker, Maine EAYC and Michelle Cyr, Center-based program

Guests: June Holman, Child care provider, Jennifer Welch and Janet Whitten, Licensing and Rita Furlow, Maine Children’s Alliance.

Kirsten Capeless facilitated this meeting as the CCAC needs to nominate a Chair and/or Co-chairs. Welcome and introductions followed.

Topics identified to discuss:

· Membership Update

· CCAC Meeting Structure Discussion

· - nominee(s) for CCAC Chair and/or Co-chairs

- minute taking

- meeting schedule

· Market Rate Federal Regs

· Health & Safety Trainings

· Licensing Update

Membership Update

There are still a few vacant seats that will need a follow-up letter sent: Dept. of Economic & Community Development Rep and a member of the Senate. Nominees have been identified and sent applications to complete for gubernatorial appointment for the Maine Women’s Lobby seat and the Head Start seat. Still need to find a nominee for a rep of a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of children, youth and families. Currently there is still outdated language in the statute that has been prohibiting seats being able to be filled, i.e. organizations no longer in existence and/or nominating body no longer in existence.

Cheryl Walker from the MaineAEYC shared that there is a new Family Child Care Association of Maine. Tammy Dwyer is the President. With this new information another seat should be able to be filled. Also the Licensing seat was also inadvertently omitted in a prior statute change. The CCAC worked on updating the entire statute last year and it did not move forward. This is planned to be revisited.

CCAC Meeting Structure/Nomination of Chair and/or Co-chairs

The majority of the CCAC membership is now comprised of brand new members. CCAC needs to nominate a Chair and/or co-chairs. It is important that whoever serves in this capacity have some knowledge of the statute. Co-chairs have worked well in the past. It was recommended to possibly have a parent and/or a provider serve in this capacity. This would allow an opportunity for any new member to work with a co-chair with CCAC history. We also need to be mindful of the 1 year term commitment and subsequent terms are permitted. Suggestion was made to send out electronically to all appointed members a request seeking nominees for chair and/or co-chairs. CCAC members can always nominate themselves as well. Once it is known who is interested in serving, each nominee will be asked to write a short bio for the full CCAC to review prior to voting. At this meeting, CCAC member, Linda Labas, put forth two names she would recommend for co-chairs Pamela Prevost and Tera Kennedy. Barbara Sousa will be sending out an email to the CCAC membership looking for any interested members who would like to be considered for nomination prior to the next meeting.

Minute taking - Barbara Sousa will continue to take the meeting minutes. A draft version will be sent electronically prior to the next meeting for review. Minutes will be finalized at the next meeting by appointed members and will then be posted on the OCFS website: http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/ocfs/ec/occhs/advisorycouncil.htm

Another possible posting site was also suggested: Child Care Choices.

Frequency of meetings - The CCAC historically has met the first Friday of the month (except for the summer months) from 9:30 to Noon. There was past discussion of only meeting quarterly as required by statute. Concern was raised about meeting less without having goals in place. It was decided to table further discussion of quarterly meetings, until the CCAC has established its priorities and goals.

Market Rate Federal Regulation

Copies of the last Market Rate Surveys were handed out for review. There is an RFP already approved for the next survey. This survey will need to be completed by June 30, 2018. CCAC will have input on these before they are sent out. Some wording changes have already been identified. It was noted that several providers received the wrong survey to complete last time. Small facilities are also categorized as centers at Licensing which may also have contributed to the wrong surveys getting mailed. It was also felt that Rec centers may have had a negative impact the school-age rates. Three surveys were used last time: Centers, Family Child Cares and Legal, Unregulated Providers.

A copy of the Federal Regulation was handed out. The Market Rate Survey is now to be conducted every 3 years. In this regulation it also includes the option of using an Alternative Methodology. Maine may want to consider using this process. Kirsten asked Shireen Riley if any other states in Region I have ever used this. Shireen shared that no other states in Region I have ever done one. This will be an on-going agenda item.

Health & Safety Trainings

In the new CCDF federal regs there is a Health & Safety training requirement for all providers participating in the Child Care Subsidy Program (CCSP). Maine Roads to Quality has contracted with Better Kid Care to provide a 6 hour on-line Health & Safety training for all CCSP providers. This training is provided at no cost to the provider. All six hours do not have to be completed at one time. Once completed, a certificate will be generated. The deadline to complete the training is September 30, 2017. This training will count as state approved trainings for MRTQ and licensing. This will be an annual requirement for CCSP providers. It is planned to also have a type of refresher training available. Maine Roads will be notifying the CCSP providers of this required training.

Questions and comments

After the September 30, 2017 deadline, how long will a provider have to complete the training?

(Shireen Riley confirmed that it is 3 months.)

Can providers who do not accept CCSP take the training as well? (Kirsten will look into this as this training is being paid by the State.)

Concern was voiced for the older providers who are not computer savvy and those providers with English as a second language (Department will be exploring ways to accommodate them on a case by case basis. T/A can always be requested through Maine Roads)

Licensing Update

Children’s Licensing and Investigation merged into the Maine CDC’s Division of Environmental and Community Health in April of 2016. Licensing had previously shared its intent to merge the current three sets of child care rules (Facility, Family, Nursery Schools) into one rule with core standards. After much consideration, the decision was made not to proceed in this direction. Licensing is approaching the formal rule making process for the proposed Rules forFamily Child Care providers. A lot of work was done to clarify, unify, and streamline the rules. The proposed rule will be shared publically in mid -April along with the public hearing date and public comment period timeframe. Written comments will be accepted during the public comment period for those who are unable to attend the public hearing. The date should be known by the next CCAC meeting in May. June Holman inquired about how the public will be notified of the public hearing and comment period. It will be posted in the newspaper, email notice will be made to identified stakeholders, and all child care providers. Maine Roads also assists with sending notices out as well.

Changes to the Child Care Choices Website posting

A public statement to providers has not yet been made as licensing needed to ensure that all changes were complete prior to sharing information with the provider community. Licensing’s original intent was to post Statements of Deficiencies, Plans of Correction, and all licensing action to the Child Care Choices website and would be viewable to the public for as long as the provider was an active resource. Licensing has determined that what is most critical for public view are documents relating to current licensing action and current deficiencies. Dated or corrected deficiencies do not provide a fair or balanced view of a program in the absence of an entire inspection report that highlights the program successes and strengths as well. Documentation regarding negative licensing action will be posted during the period of time that the provider is sanctioned and then the document will be pulled from public view. It is important to note that there is a statement reflecting the sanctioned period of time and the public may request the documentation or verbal information if desired. Statements of Deficiencies and Plans of Correction will be posted for 6 months, if resolved sooner than 6 months the document will be pulled down when resolved. A concise statement will remain for public view and like a licensing action, the document may be requested or information shared verbally.

Next Meeting

May 5, 2017 from 9:30-Noon, OCFS 2 Anthony Avenue in Augusta