Child Care Advisory Council

Child Care Advisory Council Minutes 5/5/2017

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: John Jacobs, Child Care Services Team Leader; Pamela Prevost, Maine Roads to Quality; Teresa Barrows, OCFS/ Children’s Behavioral Health Rep; Kristopher Michaud, DOE/CDS Rep; Tera Kennedy, CDS Rep; Lori Bozeman, Childcare provider; Linda Labas, Center for Community Inclusion & Disability Studies; Julie Hart, After-School Programs; Rachel Pawloski, Native American Rep and Julie Hart; School-Age rep.

Members not in attendance: Kirsten Capeless, Associate Director of Early Intervention & Prevention; John Gregory, Parent Rep receiving subsidy; Liz Ray, OFI; Sue Reed, DOE; Amy Taranko, OCFS and Tammy Dwyer, Family Childcare Provider; Rep Deborah Sanderson and Rep Jennifer Parker

Phone: Brian Duprey, Center-based provider; Chantel Pettengill, Parent Rep not receiving subsidy; Richard McCarthy, Asst. State Fire Marshal; Alica Johnson-Grafe, Center-based provider not receiving subsidy; guests: Cheryl Walker, Maine EAYC; Laura Landry, ACF Region I

National Center on Subsidy Innovation and Accountability: Bob Frein, Program Manager and Leigh Ann Bryan, Technical Assistance Lead, National Center on Subsidy Innovation and Accountability (NCSIA)

Guests: Michelle Cyr, Center-based program; Janice Clowes, OCFS; June Holman, Child care provider, Jennifer Welch and Janet Whitten, Licensing; Erin Frati, Afterschool programs and Rita Furlow, Maine Children’s Alliance.

John Jacobs facilitated this meeting. Welcome and introductions followed.

Approval of Minutes Draft Minutes of the April 7th meeting were reviewed and approved as written. Minutes will be posted of the OCFS website.

Voting for Chair and/or Co-Chairs Two nominees have been identified and have accepted their nomination for consideration. Bios for Pam Prevost and Chantel Pettengill were distributed to voting members. Inquiry was made as to the number of vacant seats still needing to be filled. Membership update: Currently there are still three gubernatorial appointments pending: Head Start seat, Maine Women’s Lobby and for the non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of children, youth and their families. Letters were also resent requesting a Senator and a rep from the Dept. of Economic & Community Development.

1 There also has been a seat vacant for some time due to the nominating body no longer being in existence. There is a new Family Child Care Association of Maine, (FCCAM) which Tammy Dwyer is in charge of. Tammy currently holds a seat representing home-based providers. FCCAM would now be able to fill this vacant seat. After discussion, Cheryl Walker of the Maine AEYC was asked to speak with Tammy Dwyer requesting that she consider filling this seat.

A suggestion was made to hold off on the voting until more members are appointed. After some discussion it was decided to wait until the next meeting. Barbara Sousa will be in contact with the Governor’s office for updates on the pending gubernatorial appointments. It is hoped to have these three seats filled by the June 2nd meeting. It was also noted that the CCAC may not be able to wait until all seats are filled to elect leadership.

Market Rate Survey Discussion/Alternative Methodology At the last CCAC meeting there was interest expressed in learning more about Alternative Methodology. Joining this meeting by phone was Leigh Ann and Bob Frein to help answer any questions. NCSIA provided some examples of what some other states have used to understand the cost of child care and ensure families have equal access to quality child care.

Alternative Methodology is a new, very complex and complicated tool that is used internally to determine the true cost of quality using many variables. There is a tool available on line to help states called - Provider Cost of Quality Calculator. Copies of the District of Columbia’s report were distributed for review. It was noted that DC’s alternative methodology did not collect the current market rates. They ended up having to do both to determine how their subsidy rates compare to the private market.

If Maine decides to do an Alternative Methodology the Regional Office and Office of Child Care would need to approve request and a Market Rate Survey would also need to be done. After some discussion, it was felt that adding some additional quality questions to our Market Rate Surveys may be the better option. Leigh Ann was asked to see if she could provide some samples of questions used by states that are similar to Maine. John also inquired if Leigh Ann knew what the average cost of a market rate survey is. Leigh Ann will look into that

It was shared that Maine’s school age category was impacted negatively the last time survey was conducted. Bob shared that some states use a FT in the summer and PT during school and some states use a blended rate for this population.

Concern was raised that the quality indicators will be based on the current QRIS. It is felt by some providers that these indicators are not true indicators of quality. Linda Labas shared that two revision reports to the QRIS have been submitted to the Department in 2015 and 2016. They are on the OCFS website. The Provider Cost Quality Tool was used in the QRIS revision report submitted to determine what the cost would be to implement these revisions. There was interest expressed to learn more about these revisions. Pam Prevost will look into the possibility of having a presentation done for the June meeting.

2 CCSP Data Report – March The number of families with an Open Authorization is up slightly from 2283 in February to 2332 in March. Number of children with an Open Authorization is also up from 3693 in February to 3755 in March. There continues to be no waiting list. June Holman shared that parents are being told that there is a waiting list. John will look into this.

Child Care Choices Traffic Report - In March 2017, there were searches from 1,183 unique IP addresses. Sessions over 11 months (Feb-Dec) the average traffic is 75 sessions per day both in 2015 and 2016. (2015 = 25,198 2016 = 25,231)

CCDF Plan Health and Safety Training requirement for CCSP providers - Inquiry was made as to how it is going. To date 104 have completed the training - 396 have signed on. There is a code to use to have the $15 fee waived.

Updates

 Family Child Care Rules - Public Hearing for will be on Monday, May 8th @ 9:00 at the Augusta Armory. Inquiry was made if someone was going to be testifying, how many copies would be needed? (one copy). All comments must be received by May 18, 2017.

 Facility Rules - Question was raised regarding the timeline for these rules (currently there is no timeline)

 CCSP Rules – These rules are currently are being reviewed by OCFS’ Legal Counsel.

 2017 Maine Kids Count Data Book Was released on April 11th – copies are available on line at: http://mekids.org/assets/files/databooks/2017/2017MEKidsCount.pdf

Next Meeting: June 5, 2017