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SPRING/SUMMER
SCHEDULE for the TASK FORCE:
June 4 - Public Hearing on Child Care Development Fund State
Plan; NO MEETINGS in JULY & AUGUST; September 3 - Resume
monthly meetings - State of Michigan Library, Lake Ontario
Room, 3rd floor, 717 West Allegan, Lansing.
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
MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION, Early Childhood & Parenting Programs -
Jacque Wood reporting:
1. Michigan School Readiness Programs - the normal operation
of this program continues, although final decisions about
next year cannot happen until the Legislature and Governor
adopt a budget. Senate Bill 367 would give "at-risk" funds
to schools but delete many legislative requirements that now
exist - a sort of block grant to the schools. As introduced,
HB 367 would have included school readiness programs. The
Senate Education Committee deleted all pre-K programs from
the bill.
2. 21st Century Community Learning Centers - Grant
applications for these programs are due on June 3. Grant
readers are still needed.
3. ASAP-PIE Funding for most programs dries up on June 30
though a small number have found ways to continue past 6/30
with reduced programs. A small shadow of PIE will probably
remain in the Fiscal Year 2004 budget: $3.5 million to be
spread over 59 ISDs and a couple of school
districts.
FAMILY INDEPENDENCE
AGENCY - Kathi Pioszak reporting
1. Public Hearing on the Child Care & Development Fund
State Plan: at the Task Force meeting on June 4, 10:00 a.m.
to noon; State of Michigan Library, Lake Ontario room. TO
DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE PROPOSED PLAN GO
TO:http://www.michigan.gov/fia/0,1607,7-124-5453_5529-67880--,00.html.
This brings up the HEARING NOTICE; in the third paragraph,
click on "proposed State Plan." The proposed plan is 78
pages long. The Hearing Notice gives instructions on
obtaining a printed copy of the proposed plan and providing
WRITTEN COMMENTS, which are due to the FIA by June 13.
2. The National Infant & Toddler Child Care Initiative
at Zero to Three has chosen Michigan to be a participant in
a national project. Mark Sullivan (CEO, Michigan 4C) served
as leader of the proposal team. This project will bring
technical assistance and consultation to help improve
Michigan's infant and toddler child care system.3. House
Resolution 26 directs the FIA and Michigan Department of
Education to convene a task force of state agencies and
private organizations to develop high quality after-school
programs for all Michigan children. The "Michigan
After-School Initiative will be up and running soon and
deserves close attention from this Task Force. It is
expected to conclude its work by December 15,
2003.
GUEST SPEAKER: JIM
SINNAMON, Bureau of Family Services, Department of
Consumer & Industry Services (DCIS) - on the
re-reorganization of Child Care Licensing
1. The reorganization of child care licensing that occurred
in November is being redone under Governor Granholm. Some
serious staffing problems exist: staffing fell from 83 to
the mid-40s with early retirement last year and will only
rise to 60 or so in the near future. The November
reorganization into groups who specialized in narrow tasks
is has pretty much ended; field managers may organize staff
work any way that seems most effective. Field offices may
return to a semblance of "case management," but other
offices are too under-staffed to do that right away.
2. First Priority: get caught up. The Bureau fell behind in
processing applications for new and renewal
licenses/certificates. Applications were sent to Lansing
under the first reorganization and poorly processed so that
many were essentially misplaced. The backlog is becoming
smaller. Eventually all center licensing work will occur in
the field offices. The Bureau may decide to retain the
processing of day care homes in Lansing. Centers and Group
Homes that have applied for a license renewal have been sent
letters extending the existing license until the backlog is
resolved; providers should not throw THOSE LETTERS away as
they SERVE AS A LEGAL DOCUMENT THAT PERMIT PROVIDERS TO STAY
OPEN.
3. Licensing consultants may, once more, work with various
organizations, including this Task Force; they may present
at conferences. Many people expect Child Care Licensing to
return to FIA, but so far no specific word to that effect
has been mentioned by this administration.
4. Governor Granholm wants a strong child care system in
Michigan: improved licensing standards; rules that better
recognize child development needs; a system that prepares
children for eventual literacy. She will permit a school age
program exemption with respect to the director-to-program
ratio. Granholm will look seriously at the old Ad Hoc
Committee report that proposed new child care center rules;
she may call the Ad Hoc committee together again.
5. Currently, it takes about six months to process a new
license application. That will speed up as the backlog is
handled and staff size increases. The field operation will
change due to lowering the number of field offices from 23
to 15.
FURTHER UPDATES ON
THE BUSINESS OF THE TASK FORCE
HEAD START
REAUTHORIZATION - Kristen McDonald-Stone, Michigan Head
Start Association, reporting:
The U.S. Senate seems reluctant to support the President's
proposal to block grant Head Start funding to the states.
Also, it seems that the President's wish to move Head Start
from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to the
Department of Education has been defeated (at least for
now).
MICHIGAN READY TO SUCCEED
PARTNERSHIP (RTS) - Steve Manchester, Michigan AEYC,
reporting:
1. RTS has completed a paper that contains a proposed
definition of the expression "Ready to Succeed." It
discusses the concept from three perspectives: What a child
looks like if ready to succeed at age five; what a family
looks like when it is ready to help children become ready to
succeed; what a community looks like when ready to help
children become ready to succeed. RTS will make this paper
public soon.
2. The Partnership has instituted a new Executive Committee
to help provide guidance over the next year, especially to
the co-chairs, Dr. Marvin McKinney (Kellogg Foundation) and
Heath Meriwether (Detroit Free Press). The new committee
members are: John Colina (Co-chair, Colina Foundation),
Kristen McDonald-Stone (Director, Michigan Head Start
Association), Hubert Price (Child Policy Consultant and
former State Representative), Milt Rower (CEO, Frey
Foundation), Marianne Udow (Senior Vice-President, Blue
Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan).
3. RTS has added some important new members to its Executive
Council, which is the governing body. New members include
the four state legislators who are heading up a revived
Legislative Children's Caucus in the Michigan Legislature
(Senators Patricia Birkholz and Deb Cherry; Representatives
Mike Murphy and Barbara Vander Veen); the President of
Detroit Renaissance (Paul Hillegonds) and the CEO of the
Michigan Manufacturers Association (John MacIlroy); state
agency directors Nanette Bowler (FIA) and Janet Olszewski
(Community Health).
SPEECH & LANGUAGE
WHEEL, Margaret Goodley, Director of ASAP-PIE, Washtenaw
ISD reporting:
This wheel provides the normal developmental stages that
children, age 0-to-5 go through as they develop speech and
language abilities. It is designed for parents and helping
professionals. They may be obtained for 75¢ each
through Washtenaw ISD.
ADDITIONAL
UPDATES
1. "MICHIGAN CREATIVE AFTER
SCHOOL EXPERIENCES" has just gone on-line. It connects
people to a large, and growing, list of resources and
activities that enrich out-of-school programs. Organizations
may join a growing data base by visiting the web site at:
www.micase.org. For more information, contact KATHY TARDIFF
at Ktardiff@michigan.gov or 517-373-4457.
2. Last year, Representative Joseph Rivet wrote a letter,
addressed to various people, about the inability of child
care licensing to do its mandated work because of staffing
cuts. The state's Auditor General will do a performance
audit of the office in response to the Rivet letter.
3. The task force communication network jumped from just
over 1000 members to 1410 thanks to a sign-up booth at the
Michigan AEYC annual conference and a similar effort at an
Upper Peninsula early childhood conference. The network has
1269 email and 141 snail-mail members. Also, Michigan has
almost 700 people subscribed to the NAEYC listserve.
Michigan AEYC will push to increase this number
significantly. Anyone wanting to subscribe to the NAEYC
and/or Children's defense Fund listserves can do so directly
at -http://capwiz.com/naeyc/home/ - and/or,
http://capwiz.com/cdf/home/ - or send their name, mailing
address and email address to: smanchester@miaeyc.com -
(indicate the listserves wanted).
4. The ninth annual GOVERNOR'S EDUCATION SUMMIT will occur
on September 30 at the Lansing Center in downtown Lansing.
This year, the Governor has asked that it focus on education
for children age zero-to-five. Cost is $130 per person
(lunch included) with the per person cost dropping to $110
when teams of four or more people register together. Details
will be available soon.
5. The "Southwest Group of ISDs" aka "The Southwest Gang"
held a meeting of about 40 child advocates, on April 30, to
discuss what the Governor's Great Start Initiative might
look like; this in response to the administrat-ion's request
for advice on such matters. A summary of the day's
recommendations and a list of those in attendance will be
sent to the task force in the near future.
6. Bob Redmond, Branch ISD Superintendent, commented on the
wisdom of people wearing their "Hero from Zero" buttons. He
said he would bring buttons for people attending the June
task force meeting. Buttons in small quantities (100 or
less) may be ordered through Bob at a cost of 40¢ each
plus shipping. Bob may be reached
at:Redmondb@branch-isd.org
7. Michigan has been chosen as one of four new states to
participate in the "BUILD INITIATIVE"; the other states were
Hawaii, Oklahoma & Washington. This will bring technical
assistance grants to Michigan and link Michigan with other
states in sharing best practices knowledge about early
education and care. This will become part of the Governor's
Great Start initiative.
8. The Detroit Free Press is doing work regarding Lead
Poisoning and its effect on children. Those interested in
this issue should contact Emilia Askare at the Free Press -
313-223-4461.
9. The Task Force needs a way to provide input into upcoming
efforts to amend child care licensing rules; doing so
electronically over the Internet is very important.
Manchester was asked to think about ways to make this
happen; ideas for doing this should be emailed to him.
10. As the Task Force email network grows, people want
notices sent out to the list. Steve reminded the group that
vague requests about stuff to send out will be rather slow
in going anywhere, if it goes at all, compared to items that
are already prepared and need merely to be forwarded.
11. Bob Parks, United Ways of Michigan, announced that
United Ways would host a one day forum on June 12 dealing
with the Governor's Great Start and the "No Child Left
Behind Act." The cost of the forum is $25; space is limited.
It takes place at the Holiday Inn South in Lansing. For more
info contact:bparks@uwmich.org
The
NEXT
MEETING will be on June
4, 9:30 a.m. - noon, State of Michigan Library in Lansing,
the Lake Ontario Room. SPEAKER: There will be no headline
speaker. Nanette Bowler, Director of FIA, had to postpone
her appearance before the Task Force until the
fall.
AGENDA
HIGHLIGHTS:
o Public Hearing on
Michigan's Draft Child Care and Development Fund Plan
o Budget updates
o News from Congress
o State Legislative Updates
o The Governor's children's initiatives (e.g., Great
Start)
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
Minutes taken by Steve
Manchester, Michigan AEYC; Jane Bobay, Lansing Community
College. And thank you to TILLIE CAZARES, Children's
Resource Network, for her able assistance with the April
minutes.
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 The task force sponsors: Michigan 4C Association
(Community Coordinated Child Care); Michigan Association for
the Education of Young Children; Michigan Head Start
Association; Michigan's Children
o This message is made possible, in part, by generous
support from the Frey Foundation of Grand Rapids.
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