MICHIGAN
CHILD CARE TASK FORCE MINUTES
MCCTF Co-Chair Contact
Information:
Lisa Brewer, Michigan 4C
Association, T.E.A.C.H. Director
866-648-3224, ext. 27; brewer@mi4c.org
Richard Lower, Michigan
Head Start Association, Executive Director
517-374-MHSA; Richard@mhsa.ws
Future SCHEDULE for
the TASK FORCE
June 2 &endash; Lake Ontario Room, 3rd floor, State of
Michigan Library
717 West Allegan, Lansing, MI 48909-7507
(517) 373-1580
Co-Chair Richard Lower
called the meeting to order shortly after 9:30 a.m.
Introductions were done.
BUSINESS OF THE TASK
FORCE
Department of
Education, Judy Levine
1. Michigan
School Readiness Programs - The State Aid funded
programs may lose $2 million (out of $72.2 ml) in the
budget process. The Comprehensive Community Need and
Resources Assessment (CNRA) information is now overdue
for some school districts; that info must come in.
Competitive MSRP: The FY 2005 budget still proposes a
continuation of $12.25 million. Technical assistance
(TA) sessions held in April were well attended. Grant
applications are due on May 24; readers are needed for
those applications. Grant reading takes place on June
15.
2. 21st Century Community programs need grant readers
for May 17.
3. Even Start - Final decisions on applications will
be announced soon. Funding exists for fiscal year
2004-05, but the President is proposing elimination of
the program after that.
Family Independence
Agency - Kathi Pioszak
1. Family
Resource Centers - Twenty-four additional schools are
identified for expansion of these centers, bringing
the total number of sites up to 40. FIA is beginning a
Phase II, which involves opening a minimum of 20 new
sites, beginning an evaluation process and promoting
community collaboration.
2. Children's Cabinet
- The Cabinet held its 2nd meeting and continued
developing a work plan. The "Foundation Liaison"
office will develop a priority list that will help the
Michigan foundation community focus its efforts in
birth-to-five initiatives.
3. Children's Action
Network (CAN) - The newly reconstituted CAN will hold
its first meeting on May 10. Comprised of several
state government officials and advocacy groups, it
will connect to the work of an entity called the Early
Childhood Core Team.
4. Joyce Foundation
Planning Grant - Joyce has granted the Council of
Michigan Foundations a $20,000 planning grant. This
grant will lead to a grant application for funds to
begin the development of a universally available
pre-kindergarten network in Michigan.
5. Federal Legislation
- TANF reauthorization is stalled in the U.S. Senate
with no clear indication as to when, if ever, it will
be taken up for further consideration. (NOTE:
According to NAEYC, the expectation in Washington, DC
- as of May 11 - was that nothing would happen with
any of the reauthorizations until 2005.) The federal
budget for Fiscal Year 2005 is moving very slowly. FIA
is working on a Congressional strategy to advocate for
changes to Title IV-E eligibility
requirements.
6. The Office of Child
Development and Care - Day care automated provider
recoupment began on April 29. Providers who have
received too much reimbursement will automatically
have 20% of their payments withheld until the over-pay
is collected. CDC providers will receive new personal
identification numbers (PIN) for telephone reporting.
This improves security. Providers must be sure their
address records with local FIA offices are up-to-date.
The new process starts in July.
7. Conference:
"Supporting Families with Young Children" - FIA seeks
presenters for this conference held on November 8-10
at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids.
Presenters are needed in these areas: supervision,
nurturing the worker, family literacy, and diversity.
Contact Mara Stein at: mara@steinassociates.org. For a
conference brochure and registration materials
contract the Children's Trust Fund at
517-241-7226.
GUEST
PRESENTER:
Representative
Jennifer Elkins, Chair of the House Democrats Early
Education and Care Task Force. Representative Elkins
discussed the task force report, "Early Childhood
Education and Care: Moving Michigan from Patchwork to
Tapestry," which was recently released.
The Democratic Task Force (DTF) was inspired by the
Governor's comments about child care in the 2003 State of
the State address. The DTF held 13 public hearings across
the state during June-December, 2003.
The DTF report had 31 recommendations, with the most
controversial being the formation of a state department
that specialized in children's issues. The report, which
only presented items heard in testimony at the hearings,
focused on brain development, the importance of the early
years of life, and the fact that "child care" and "early
education" are the same.
The DTF was quite concerned with the lack of training
standards required of child care providers. The report
recommends a tiered rating system that would provide
different FIA payment rates to providers based on the
quality of child care delivered. The report also
discusses how to improve care provided by relatives.
Elkins wants to make implementation of the
recommendations a bipartisan effort, particularly in
cooperation with the "Legislative Children's Caucus,"
which is connected to the Michigan Ready to Succeed
Partnership. She believes that the business community
will support many of the recommendations.
Ms. Elkins believes that the business and law enforcement
communities care a lot about early childhood education
and care. Public awareness about early childhood issues
has increased rapidly in recent years. The DTF report
provides a road map for the state to use. The report is
available at: www.housedems.com/elkins.
MORE BUSINESS OF THE
TASK FORCE:
MDCH Mental
Health Services - Richard Lower reported for Deb
Marciniak.
1. Michigan
Mental Health Commission - Although four public
hearings have already been held, child advocates
have opportunities to comment on children's mental
health issues via: a.
www.michigan.gov/mentalhealth; b. Fax - 517
484-6549; c. By mail to: Michigan Mental Health
Commission; c/o Public Sector Consultants; 600 W.
St. Joseph St., Ste. 10; Lansing, MI 48933 d. In
person at all business meetings of the Commission.
Future meetings will be in Lansing from 8:30 am to
4:00 pm on: May 24, June 28, July 26, September 20
and October 25, 2004. Check the website under
"Calendar" for meeting locations.
2. The National
Center for Children in Poverty has a new child care
and early education web site. It cover ECEC
research and the use of that research in
policymaking. NCCP joins with the Inter-University
Consortium for Political and Social Research at the
University of Michigan, and the Child Care Bureau
of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
in producing this web site. The web site is built
on a relational database and includes a searchable
research collection, data sets for secondary
analysis, specially developed syntheses, and a
50-state data tool to compare policies within and
across states. You can reach it at:
http://childcareresearch.org/discover/index.jsp
3. Course on
Perinatal Depression - Wayne State University is
offering a Spring/Summer-semester course titled,
"Special Issues: Perinatal Depression -
Consequences for Infants, Parents, and
Relationships" in May and June on three Saturdays
in Detroit. For more info, call Reta Collins at 313
872-1790.
Other Reauthorizations of
Federal Statutes - In addition to the non-activity with
TANF, Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block
Grant legislation is also stalled in Congress. Most
people expect that nothing will happen until 2005.
Office of Child and Adult Licensing, FIA, Pat
Hogg
1.
The two ad hoc committees looking at proposed new
rules for child care centers and home based child
care continue to work.
2. There is no news to report regarding the
directorship of the Office of Children and Adult
Licensing.
Adding a New Member to
the Task Force Steering Committee - The Michigan
League for Human Services is at the final stage of
joining the Steering Committee. There were no comments
from the Task Force and the current members of the
Steering Committee will make a final decision next week.
(NOTE: MLHS is now on the Steering Committee and is so
listed below.)
Quality Rating Systems
(Tiered Systems) - Bob Parks from United Way of
Michigan described a "tiered system" effort that
United Way of America (UWA) is sponsoring. This UWA
program borrows from a program called Educare, which has
been piloted in Colorado. Michigan may be a state
selected this year for a pilot program. Governor
Granholm's strong interest in young children and other
exciting early childhood activities happening in Michigan
make this an attractive state for a pilot. A concept
paper titled, "Quality Rating System in Michigan" was
recently sent to UWA. Bob Parks will be prepared to speak
more about this possible opportunity at the Task Force
meeting in June. You can obtain information about the
Educare program by going to Google.com and typing in:
"EducareColorado" Bob and the people in attendance at
this task force meeting asked that the concept paper be
emailed to the email network. (The paper was emailed to
the network last week.) You may obtain additional
information from Bob at: bparks@uwmich.org
A Conversation on the
Composition of the Ad Hoc Child Care Rules Committees
- Recently, the Task Force asked the Steering Committee
to look into whether these ad hoc committees met the
membership requirements of PA 116 of 1972. Richard and
Steve both reported that the committees did meet the
requirements of that statute. There was some discussion
as to whether that statute even controlled the current
committees; no resolution to that question seemed
available.
Children's Agenda
Cards Delivered to Legislators - The Michigan
Coalition for Children and Families (MCCF) delivered
about 1700 constituent cards to members of the Michigan
Legislature. The cards ask legislators to support the
2004 "Children's Agenda" and existing "prevention"
programs that protect children, especially as the fiscal
year 2005 budget is developed this spring. MCCF will
deliver additional cards if people want to obtain
constituent signatures on them. To obtain the Children's
Agenda and the cards, contact Michigan's Children at:
800-330-8674 - or - www.michiganschildren.org.
The meeting adjourned at
11:35 a.m.
Ron Barratt (Wayne
Westland Schools) and Steve Manchester (Michigan AEYC)
took notes for these minutes.
***
NO
MEETINGS in July and August
***
September 8 - Lake Ontario Room, 3rd floor, State of
Michigan Library
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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; and Michigan Head Start Association.
Legislative
Sponsors:
Senator Patricia Birkholz, Dist. 24; and Representative
Michael Murphy, Dist. 68.