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Kristen MacDonald-Stone
called the meeting to order shortly after 9:30 a.m. Each
person gave a self-introduction; the agenda was reviewed and
approved.
UPDATES
ON THE BUSINESS OF THE TASK FORCE
Playground
Safety: Information
Available - A handout on playground equipment was made
available. It contains a copy of Public Act 16 or 1997 and
the current application of that law by the Division of Child
Day Care Licensing.
Fight Crime:
Invest in Kids - FCIK
opened its new state office on March 26 in downtown Lansing.
FCIK will appear before the task force in June.
MiAEYC's
amicus brief for family child care court
hearing - The Michigan
Court of Appeals recently ruled that family day care could
exist in a subdivision despite a covenant that prohibited
residents from running businesses in their homes. The court
declared childcare a public good that superseded a
covenant's prohibition on home-based businesses. The
Michigan Supreme Court decided to hear this case on appeal.
Michigan AEYC, which prepared an amicus brief at the Appeals
Court level in support of home-based child care, will
prepare another such brief for the Supreme Court.
Special
Education Rules - Mary
Jo McEvoy led a discussion on proposed revisions to the
special education rules that determine special education
services in schools. The deadline for public comment will be
extended until September. Special education advocates fear
that necessary special education services will be withdrawn
from children under the proposed rules changes. It is too
early to predict whether these rules will change, and if so,
in what ways.
The Task Force
communications network has 672 email and 130 regular mail
members for 802, the first time this network has topped
800.
T.E.A.C.H.
Update - Mark Sullivan
announced that Michigan 4C had been awarded the contract to
implement T.E.A.C.H. in Michigan (T.E.A.C.H. = "Teacher
Education and Compensation Helps").
--T.E.A.C.H. will help
providers reach one of four levels of early childhood
education: (1) Early Childhood Credential (a new
credential); (2) CDA; (3) Associate's Degree; and (4)
Bachelor's Degree.
--Levels of support include
Scholarships that include 80% of tuition and book costs plus
a travel stipend; support for release time from work; cash
bonus upon achieving the credential/degree.
--T.E.A.C.H. will help its
clients earn a grand total of 60,000 college credits during
the first 2.5 years of operation beginning this fall. People
enroll in classes beginning this
August/September.
--Two job positions are open
with applications due by June 11. For information go to
www.mi4c.org; scroll to "Position Announcements"; click on
either or both of the T.E.A.C.H. positions
listed.
House Bills 4617 & 4619,
before- and after-school programs (BASPs) for school age
children - Steve Manchester gave an update on these bills,
which were in the House Education Committee and slated
committee action the next day (May 3). It seemed quite
likely that DCIS oversight and rules enforcement of school
age BASPs would end sometime during this legislative
session.
--The Michigan Department of
Education would prepare a model BASP that appears to require
attention to standards developed by the National School Age
Care Alliance. In addition, school boards in districts that
have BASPs would annually pass a resolution describing how
the district would implement the new law. Once these bills
leave the House of Representatives, they will go to the
Senate for further deliberation.
The Task Force unanimously
passed a motion that the members of the Task Force Planning
Group send a letter to appropriate legislators expressing
concern that the safety, well-being and development of
children in BASPs be the main concern of the
legislation.
MIKE
FLANAGAN, Executive
Director, Michigan Association of School Administrators. Dr.
Flanagan is also a founding member of the Ready to Succeed
Dialogue/Partnership with Michigan. He recently moved from
Wayne RESA, where he was the Superintendent, to
MASA.
--Mike described his years
as a school administrator, and how long it took to fully
appreciate the importance of children's prekindergarten
development to their later success in school and
life.
--He discussed the enormous
workload carried by school administrators, which makes it
difficult to bring preschool issues to their
attention.
--He proposes that K-12
funding could extend into the pre-K years as a rational way
for the K-12 system to more effectively use its resources.
He also realizes that that it's a tough sell.
--Mike described his work
with the Ready to Succeed Partnership with Michigan, which
aims to develop a universal, high quality system of
birth-to-K services for children. In particular, he has
worked to develop a statewide public awareness media
campaign that could begin to operate as early as this
fall.
--Mike pointed out the need
to treat each child as an important individual whom society
supports, honors and cherishes.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The next
meeting of the task
force is Wednesday, June 6, State of Michigan Library, Lake
Ontario Room. The TASK FORCE WILL NOT MEET IN JULY AND
AUGUST. The task force will meet on Wednesday, SEPTEMBER 5,
same place.
Our guests in
June:
PAUL
NELSON, Director, FIA
Child Development & Care. Paul will discuss changes in
the program regarding new methods of payment for child care,
direct deposit of subsidy checks, billing procedures,
changes in authorization, changes in eligibility, provider
control over payments.
K.P.
PELLERAN & SHERIFF GENE
WRIGGELSWORTH (Ingham
County) from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. K.P. is the new
state director of the new Michigan office; Sheriff
Wrigglesworth serves on FCIK's national Advisory Committee.
They will discuss their efforts to organize in Michigan to
effectively fight crime through investment in
children.
The meeting adjourned at
12:00 noon.
Steve Manchester, Michigan
AEYC and Kristen McDonald-Stone, Michigan Head Start
Association
Co-chairs, Michigan Child Care Task Force
--Please FORWARD THIS NOTICE
TO OTHERS; we invite people to join this email
network.
--Comments, suggestions, or
requests to be removed from this list should be directed to
smanchester@MiAEYC.org.
--This message is made
possible, in part, by generous support from the Frey
Foundation of Grand Rapids.
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