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Minutes taken by Linda Coon, Washtenaw Regional
4C
and Steve Manchester, Michigan AEYC
Co-chairs Lisa Brewer and
Kristen McDonald-Stone called the meeting to order
shortly after 9:30. Each person gave a self introduction
and the group adopted the agenda.
UPDATES ON THE BUSINESS OF THE TASK
FORCE
The KIDS COUNT report on
adolescence is now available as a separate document. It
is an excerpt from the regular, annual Kids Count report
for Michigan, which was published in November. For
details contact Jane Zehnder-Merrell at the Michigan
League for Human Services: 517-482-5436 or
janez@mlan.net; Michele Corey at Michigan's Children:
517-485-3500 or corey.michele@michiganschildren.org. You
can download the report at:www.milhs.org - click on "Kids
Count Data Book 2002"; click on "Adolescence
Booklet."
The 2003 CHILDREN'S AGENDA,
produced by the Michigan Coalition for Children and
Families, will be released on February 19. For
information, contact Richard Lower at Michigan's
Children: 517-485-3500 or
lower.richard@michiganschildren.org.
MDE, Early Childhood and Parenting
Programs, JUDY LEVINE.
The 21st Century grants will be announced next
week. Interviews for a consultant to handle this program
are underway now. Administration of various grants
continues with various technical assistance (TA)
meetings. ECPP needs readers for various applications;
people can learn a lot about grant writing by reading
grant applications. So far, funding cuts for School
Readiness Programs have not been proposed. Nor is there
any talk, so far, of cutting either of these programs for
fiscal year 2004. The revenue estimating conference
scheduled for next week may indicate how many education
programs, if any, are at risk for funding cuts.
The Collaborative Conference, held in Dearborn on January
22-24, is filling up; interested people should apply
now.
LAME DUCK LEGISLATIVE SESSION
KRISTEN and LISA reported
on HB 6202 (now Public Act 674 of 2002), which was passed
by the legislature and approved by the Governor. PA 674
deals with background checks on volunteers working in
child care facilities. Advocates opposed a provision that
required background checks on parents who came into the
facility. The Senate deleted the provisions dealing with
parents.
STEVE MANCHESTER reported on
House Bills 5583/84 (now Public Acts 696 and 695 of 2002)
These public acts amend the statutes that regulate
school-based, school-age child care. Currently, such
programs are regulated as child care centers. The new
public acts require all new programs to operate without a
"substantial violation" for four years, after which the
program could choose to operate under requirements set
out in the School Code. A detailed explanation of how
these bills work can be found at:
http://www.miaeyc.com/public_policy/School_age.htm
GUEST SPEAKER: MARY CUNNINGHAM
DeLUCA and RACHEL SCHIFFMAN -- Mary is the
Director of Children's Programs, Community Action Agency
(for Jackson, Hillsdale and Lenawee counties); Rachel is
an Associate Professor, College of Nursing, MSU. They
presented and discussed findings of evaluations done on
Early Head Start programs and the positive effects that
high quality programs have on children age
zero-to-three.
The evaluation compared two groups, randomly formed, one
of which experienced an Early Head Start program while
the other did not. (An experimental study based on random
assignment provides data and analyses that pass rigorous
scientific criteria for validity and reliability.)
On a variety of measures that deal with early childhood
readiness to succeed in school and later in life, the
early childhood program produced children more likely to
do well in life. These successes were found regarding
intellectual, social, emotional, language and health
characteristics of the two groups.
In addition, the program produced various positive
impacts on the children's families, on the staff that
delivered the program to children and their families, and
to the communities in which the program was provided.
The study and the measures of good child development can
be examined at:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/core/ongoing_research/ehs/ehs_intro.html
MORE UPDATES
REAUTHORIZATION OF FEDERAL
LEGISLATION - TANF and CCDBG (Child Care &
Development Block Grant) were supposed to be reauthorized
in 2002, but Congress and the President did not complete
that work. Advocates hope that these two programs will
continue as they currently exist instead of experiencing
funding cuts plus having more difficult work requirements
placed on TANF parents.
HEAD START is scheduled for
reauthorization in 2003. Head Start leaders oppose moving
the program from Health and Human Services to the US
Department of Education. They fear that Head Start would
then focus too much on narrow academic development of
young children at the expense of the other necessary
areas of early childhood development. In Michigan, local
Head Start advocates will call on the various child
advocate networks to support Head Start during
reauthorization.
TRANSITION in the GOVERNOR'S
OFFICE DIRECTORS OF STATE AGENCIES IMPORTANT TO
CHILDREN:
Family Independence Agency (FIA) - Nannette
Bowler
Consumer & Industry Services (DCIS) - David
Hollister
Community Health (DCH) - Janet Olszewski
Corrections - William Overton
People expect that children's programs within these
state agencies will change. In particular, Child Day Care
Licensing may return from DCIS to FIA.
DAVID HOLLISTER, Mayor of
Lansing and a former State Representative who founded
this task force, will become the new Director of the
State Agency that now houses the Division of Child Cay
Care Licensing. He is aware of the concerns this task
force has regarding the recent reorganization of the Day
Care Division.
MIKE FLANAGAN, Director of
the Michigan Association of School Administrators (MASA)
is taking a leave from that position to be Governor
Granholm's education advisor. Mr. Flanagan has a great
interest in early childhood education and his appointment
to this advisory position is seen as good for the early
childhood community.
A GENERIC WEB ADDRESS FOR
MUCH OF STATE GOVERNMENT
To get a web page that gives you every state agency, each
with a single click, go
to:http://www.michigan.gov/emi/0,1303,7-102----A,00.html
CHILD ADVOCATES WORKING WITH
THE TRANSITION TEAM
The Granholm Transition Team did outreach to child
advocates. The new Governor is seeking ideas on how she
might structure her administration and policies that the
administration might want to consider. The advocates,
representing a broad set of interests and specialities,
provided a good deal of information on numerous
children's issues.
LISA & KRISTEN composed and sent letters to
Ms. Granholm, one on licensing and one on school-age
child care, as requested last month by the task force.
The Governor's office has responded.
NANCY WILLYARD was
introduced as the new Director of the Michigan Head Start
Collaboration Project.
FIA will do a pilot Early
Head Start program in the near future.
CCTForce Communications
Network: 885 email + 141 snail-mail = 1026
The meeting ended at 11:30 a.m.
The NEXT MEETING will be on
February 5, 9:30 a.m. - noon, State of Michigan Library
in Lansing, the Lake Ontario Room.
NO GUEST SPEAKER: There will
be no guest speaker; instead, the task force will examine
its public policy agenda in light of things learned from
the Governor's State of the State address, new budget
figures and late breaking news about the organization of
the new administration. Other information to be
available:
o Legislative Committee assignments
o Updates on the Michigan Ready to Succeed
Partnership, including its roll-out of Phase II of the
"Hero from Zero" campaign
o Recent legislative receptions with Michigan
legislators
o News from Congress
o and more . . .
Thanking You for Your Support:
Kristen McDonald-Stone, Michigan Head Start
Association
Lisa Brewer, Michigan 4-C Association/T.E.A.C.H.®
Co-chairs, Michigan Child Care Task Force
o Please FORWARD THIS NOTICE TO OTHERS; we invite people
to join this email network.
o Comments, suggestions, or requests to be removed from
this list should be directed to
smanchester@MiAEYC.com.
o This message is made possible, in part, by generous
support from the Frey Foundation of Grand Rapids.
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