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MICHIGAN
CHILD CARE TASK FORCE MINUTES
Meeting Minutes for November 5, 2003
MCCTF
Co-Chair Contact Information:
Lisa
Brewer, Michigan 4C, T.E.A.C. H. Director, 866-648-3224,
ext. 27, brewer@mi4c.org
Richard
Lower, Michigan's Children, Policy Associate,
800-330-8674,
lower.Richard@michiganschildren.org.
Fall/Winter
SCHEDULE for the TASK FORCE
December 3 &endash; Lake Ontario Room, 3rd floor, State of
Michigan Library
January 7 &endash; Lake Ontario Room, 3rd floor, State of
Michigan Library
717 West
Allegan, Lansing, MI 48909-7507
(517) 373-1580
Co-Chairs
Lisa Brewer and Richard Lower called the meeting to order at
9:45 a.m. Introductions were done.Mark Sullivan volunteered
to take minutes.
BUSINESS
OF THE TASK FORCE
Family
Independence Agency, Kathi Piaszak
1.
FIA Licensing-the person appointed to direct will report
directly to the Director.
2. FIA Family Resource Centers will be up and running by
November 13, 2003 in Detroit. Saginaw will be soon after.
FIA workers will have data access to help families at
sites. There is discussion about 20 more sites. Community
Mental Health will also provide some staffing.
3. Provider Handbooks are now available on the FIA web
site. There will be new revised printed copies available
in January 2004.
4. Changes to aide and relative care application and more
information will be available in January.
There was
a question regarding the role of staff at the Family
Resource Centers. Will there be on-site applications? Not
Sure. What is the focus: 0-5 or school age? The answer is
that the Centers will have a broad focus and a continuum of
services.
GUEST
SPEAKER
Sue Carnell, Education Policy Advisor to the
Governor
Regarding
funding issues: Ms. Carnell conveyed that the Governor is
emphasizing that "everything is on the table." The state has
roughly a $900 Million deficit. The intent around the School
Aid Act foundation allowance is to look at dollar amounts
rather than percentage. Reminder that a law already exists
that enacts a prorated cut unless the legislature does
something different within 30 days of the Governor's
notification.
The Governor's Summit went very well. Attendees were
delighted about the early childhood focus. The theme
stressed that early learning success is important and that
it is only the beginning to making sure the pieces connect
and the early childhood community partners with the K-12
education community.
When asked if a birth to 18 education system has been
considered, Ms. Carnell replied that the Administration is
thinking about it &endash; actually a birth to 26 education
system. Ms. Carnell talked about her previous role in the
Michigan Department of Education (MDE) where she blended
early childhood programming with K-12 for a time, but later
reversed and separated early childhood because it got buried
within the traditional K-12 system.
Regarding the Great Parents/Great Start program. The
Administration's view is that it is programmatically a
continuation of the ASAP-PIE philosophy. There is $3.3
Million available to continue the concept. Applications are
in and being reviewed. Announcements of grantees will be
soon. When asked if this program is also on the table for
cuts, Ms. Carnell replied that "everything is on the table."
However, it is the Administration's full intent that these
programs be funded.
Ms. Carnell spoke about the Governor's Children's Action
Network (CAN). Emphasized the Governor's wisdom and vision
of "One Michigan to focus on early childhood and K-12."
Talked about "everyone," meaning all state agencies, is at
the table looking at the message. Talking about how to make
parents more aware and better at what they do. Referenced
the Governor's announcement at her Summit regarding support
around this from Meijer, who will be putting a parenting
message on their bags. Also referenced the Governor's PSAs
around parenting to be aired around the state. Also
referenced the Governor's announcement of new and improved
READY kits&emdash;added information on health and nutrition.
The goal is to have a kit for every birth - @ 130,000 births
per year. There is only funding right now for 40,000.
Strategies for getting the kits into new parents hands are:
having a visiting nurse introduce kits to new parents, and
OB-GYN offices will run "Early Years Last Forever"- a video
by Rob Riener around the importance of the early years.
Ms. Carnell opened the rest of the time up for questions.
Q:
How can we focus, muster resources to get the job
done?
A: Go
to the Project Great Start we site
www.greatstartforkids.org, and you can get a logo of
approval for your program by submitting your program
description to Great Start. Main contact person is Doug
Paterson. With approval, an agency can put logo on their
own web sites and materials.
Q:
What is the difference between Great Parents/Great Start
and Project Great Start?
A:
Project Great Start is the umbrella effort, of which
Great Parents/Great Start is just one programmatic
effort.
Q: Is
the Governor's CAN membership really agency directors and
do they attend regularly or do directors' representatives
attend?
A:
Some of each. There are really two parts to the
Governor's CAN-Government agencies and Non-Government
Agencies. Some of the meetings are just attended by
individuals from the government agencies and there are
other meetings that are opened up, in which
non-government agencies are in attendance.
Q:
What do you need from us to support your
work?
A:
Promote a unified message. Don't let the message
change.It was voiced by a MCCTF member that EarlyOn can
achieve a lot of the Governor's initiative's goals, but
it needs adequate funding.
Ms.
Carnell asked the question, "If we have so many people focus
on early childhood, why aren't we there?"
MCCTF members replied: lacking a unified identity, turf, too
many messages from multiple entities. Bob Redmond Added that
babies don't vote and parents of babies don't vote-due to
lack of time, energy, etc. of being a new
parent.
Q:
Any hope for continuation of ASAP-PIE?
A: Ms.
Carnell voiced that the statewide evaluation shows
results! It was suggested by MCCTF members that the state
might want to convene a conference of ASAP-PIE
participants to reflect upon the experiences and where to
go from here. Ms. Carnell emphasized that "everything is
on the table" for funding cuts. Several factors leading
up to this point: 12 years of old administration, people
not feeling the cuts yet. The way to affect change and
process is to call legislators and ask for
change.
Bob
Redmond asked for the following message to be taken back to
the Governor&emdash;"Don't gouge categoricals." The
MASA/MAISA, school lobbyists are backing this message.
ADDITIONAL
BUSINESS OF THE TASK FORCE
Department
of Consumer and Industry Services, Jim S.
1.
Regarding licensing, opened review of the FCC rules.
Should be complete within 12-15 months. Center rules
should be complete within one year.
2. Transition issues-the transfer to FIA from CIS will be
as of December 7, 2003.
3. Currently meeting with Pat Farrell, MSU-FACT, to
develop literacy ideas regarding the 30 minute reading
rule. More information is on the CIS web site.
4. There is confirmation from Sheri Falvay that reducing
the risk of SIDS kits are at each of the 14 licensing
consultant offices.
5. Year end report in, 381,000 spaces, there were 1662
investigations which led to 92 revocations of licenses
and 30 summary suspensions. Licensing is still behind on
renewals and interim inspections.
Head
Start Reauthorization, Kristen McDonald Stone
1.
Senate version was introduced and passed out of
committee. Maybe on the Senate floor in January. Senate
version much better than House version, however, still
are some concerns.
2. Added, http://thomas.loc.gov is the main federal site
for tracking federal legislation.
3. Urged continued contact with members of Congress to
voice support for Head Start.
4. For further info, contact Kristen at (517) 374-6472 or
Kristen@mhsa.ws
MAISA,
Bob Redmond
1.
Talked about a letter to Governor in support of the Great
Start concept.
2. MAISA is going to continue to promote early childhood
care and education.
3. Would like any comment on "low cost/no cost" ideas to
suggest to the Governor and for MAISA to promote.
4. For more, please contact Bob Redmond at
redmondb@branch-isd.org.
Department
of Community Health, Deb M.
1.
Announced Child Care Expulsion Prevention (CCEP)
programs. CCEP programs provide early childhood mental
health consultation for parents and child care providers
caring for children ages 0-5, who are experiencing
behavior or emotional challenges in child care settings.
Currently, there are 12 CCEP projects, 7 are funded by
FIA and are administered by the DCH. These projects are a
collaborative effort of community mental health agencies
and the Mi4C network.
2. For more information, contact Mary Mackrain, CCEP
statewide technical assistant consultant, at 248-594-3250
or mackrain@aol.com.
3. Sheri Falvay is working on a new social-emotional
development booklet to be ready before January 1,
2004.
4. Announced a recent report, Hardwired to Connect: The
New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities. This
report examines new scientific findings on why large
numbers of American children suffer from emotional and
behavioral problems. Available online at
www.americanvalues.org/html/hardwired.html or Google it
"Hardwired to Connect."
Michigan's
Children, Richard Lower
1.
Michigan's Children began its first Voices for Michigan's
Children Leadership Academy in September 2003. The
Academy class will be provided the training and education
necessary to expand community or civic involvement in
public policy discussions related to young children. The
class includes participants from 15 different Michigan
communities, urban and rural.
2. For more information or interest in the next class,
contact Michele Corey at 517-485-3500 or
corey.michele@michiganschildren.org. Also, visit the web
page at
www.michiganschildren.org/page.cfm/108.
Project
Great Start, Lisa Brewer
1.
For more information on Project Great Start, see above
notes on Sue Carnell's presentation and visit
www.greatstartforkids.org
WORKGROUP
During
October's meeting, Director Bowler, FIA, asked the MCCTF to
put together a concise bulleted piece to help her better
plan for licensing once it comes to her in December. The
last 45 minutes of the November meeting was dedicated to
this task. The group utilized a preliminary letter to
Director Bowler as a guide for discussion. The main topic
areas within which discussion was had were:
staffing/management expertise levels, functions of the
licensing system, manager's roles/duties, funding,
inspector's roles, and licensing rules.
The following will be considered by the steering committee
in a final letter to Director Bowler. The final letter will
also be distributed over this network.
Funding
•
Maintain consultants with training/expertise in the field
of child care
• NAEYC recommendation of 1:100 and MCCTF
recommendation
• Protecting funding for subsidized child care
• Maintaining standards for payment
Licensing
Rules
•
Currently being done and moving forward
• Support applaud this
• Public comment important
Consultants
Roles
•
Consistency of caseloads (relationships)
• Training provided again to programs/providers
• Consultants involved in community and access to
resources
• Government (private/public
partnerships)
Combined
Duties
•
Managers and consultants be assigned within areas of
expertise
• i.e.- Child care with child care, managers
supervisors only, child day care licensing
Functions
(redmondb@branch-isd.org)
•
Support the functions be consolidated
• Maintenance of minimum standards while encouraging
high quality child care
• High quality &endash; what is definition
• State support existing research
• Communication within department and
workers
Clients
•
Waiting period needs to be addressed
Staffing
•
Relevant experience in field
• Ongoing required training for consultants
• Teaching degree
• Different agendas (fields)
The next
meeting will be December 3, 2003 at the State of Michigan
Library, Lake Ontario Room, from 9:30 a.m. &endash; noon.
Invited speaker is Representative Jennifer Elkins, convener
of the Democratic Early Childcare and Education Task Force.
Minutes
taken by Mark Sullivan (Mi4C).
SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE
Send
comments and suggestions regarding this e-mail network, or
requests to be added or removed from it, to
mcctforce@miaeyc.org.
Please
FORWARD THIS NOTICE TO OTHERS; we invite and courage people
to join this e-mail network.
Legislative
Sponsors:
Senator
Patricia Birkholz, Dist. 24
Representative Michael Murphy, Dist. 68
The MCCTF
Organizational Sponsors:
Michigan
4C Association (Community Coordinated Child Care);
Michigan's Children;
Michigan Association for the Education of Young Children;
and
Michigan Head Start Association.
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