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MICHIGAN
CHILD CARE TASK FORCE MINUTES
Meeting Minutes for November 6, 2004
MCCTF
Co-Chair Contact Information:
Lisa
Brewer Walraven, 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
MEETINGS OF THE TASK FORCE:
November
3 and December 1, 2004; The
Regular Location: State
of Michigan Library
Lake Ontario Room - 3rd floor, 702 West Kalamazoo Street,
Lansing
MINUTES
of the meeting of October 6, 2004
Co-Chair
Richard Lower called the meeting to order shortly after 9:30
a.m. Introductions were done.
GUEST
SPEAKER:
DENISE VanDYKEN, Director of Early Education Services,
Allegan County Intermediate School District
Ms.
VanDyken and Carl Ill, who retired this summer, were leaders
in the development of Allegan County's early childhood
programs. Denise took over as director of Early Education
Services this summer. Her presentation at the task force was
titled, "The Allegan County Model: School Readiness
Practices Birth through Third Grade." Over the years ACISD
drew the following conclusions regarding early education and
built programs consistent with them:
*
Preschool children are developmentally ready to acquire
preliteracy and prenumeracy skills, much more than
thought possible a few years ago;
*
Learning such skills, if done correctly, promotes
appropriate social and emotional skill
development;
*
Learning such skills is best done through developmentally
appropriate programs;
*
Insofar as schools do school readiness programs, their
primary obligation is helping preschoolers gain skills
that correlate highly with success in
K-12;
* A
large majority of parents of MSRP pupils can be trained
to help their children at home and are eager to be
involved;
* It
is possible for groups of at-risk children to reach
kindergarten as "ready to succeed" as groups of
not-at-risk children;
*
It's important for preschool teachers to be "intentional"
in promoting preliteracy and prenumeracy skills; teachers
can and should be trained in how to prepare preschool
kids to be ready to succeed in K-12;
*
Early education providers must be prepared, as necessary,
to help link children and their families with other
community supports.
These
conclusions are based on research and the experiences of
early childhood educators over the years. It is particularly
important to have young children in supportive, loving
environments that contain lots of language and number
experiences.
Denise went on to explain the range of programs that ACISD
and Allegan County's eight school districts have developed
to create birth through 3rd grade education. Programs
covered included: "Baby Links"; Parents as Teachers; "Parent
University"; Michigan School Readiness Programs; Even Start;
Welcoming Schools Projects; Dolly Parton's "Imagination
Library."
Allegan
County's school districts Allegan County Literacy Initiative
has a common goal among all eight districts: "To ensure that
all Allegan County public school children will become
successful readers and writers by the time they leave 3rd
grade." School leaders in the county often add the
expression, "Every Child, No Excuses" when discussing this
initiative. The districts share common practices: the same
assessment tools for all children; common professional
training of teachers in literacy development; common,
research-based teaching methodology.
Ms.
VanDyken will email you her power point presentation and
share other information about the ACISD programs upon your
request. You can reach her at:
dvandyken@alleganisd.org.
BUSINESS
OF THE TASK FORCE
Department
of Education,
Judy Levine.
(1) Judy introduced a new staff colleague, Blanche Deren,
who will policy related to Michigan School Readiness
Programs.
(2) "Early Childhood and Parenting Programs" has been
elevated to the status of "office" and will soon become
the Office of Early Childhood Education and Family
Services. Early On will join this office.
(3) The Governor signed the State School Aid and
Department of Education budget bills.
(4) Michigan School Readiness Programs - State Aid funded
programs will continue at the same levels for the fiscal
year, $72.8 million via the School Aid Act and $12.25
million in the Department of Ed budget. The option to
fund ASAP-PIE programs with school aid funds was retained
for another year. Last year, this provision caused MSRP
enrollments to decline by 770 pupils spread across 37
districts. 59 competitive grant programs received
notification of MSRP funds, most of them were
continuations of last year's programs at the amount
funded last year.
(5) Fourteen new 21st Century Community Learning Centers
were funded this year.
(6) 32 Even Start programs received grants. Action in
Congress indicates that this program may be in its last
year of funding.
(7) The Early Learning Standards are in the final stages
of revision. The Department will hold informal public
forums Berrien County (November 16), Traverse City
(date/time unknown), Detroit (November 18), and Iron
Mountain (November 29). This Child Care Task Force will
devote part of its December 1 meeting to a similar public
forum, in Lansing.
(8) Work to produce Zero-to-3 early learning standards
have just begun; there are no standards at this
time.
Family
Independence Agency
- Kathi Pioszak
(1) In January the age limit for day care aides will
increase from 16 to 18 years. Currently enrolled day care
aides who are 16 and 17 may continue to provide care for
FIA children.
(2) Starting in January, provider billing will come under
new time limits. The time limits have been 12 months, but
the new limits are the later of:
* 90
days after the end of the pay period being billed for;
or
* 90
days after the authorization was entered by the local
office.
Providers must submit billing/attendance reports within
90 days of providing care to receive FIA payment.
Providers are encouraged to complete back billing now in
existence.
(3) The Children's Trust Fund (517-241-7226) will sponsor
the Fourth Biennial Statewide Conference on the Early
Years: Supporting Families with Young Children; November
8-10, 2004; Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, Grand Rapids. FIA
will provide funds to pay the registration fees for up to
50 parents and 150 providers (the deadline for this was
October 8, but call 517-241-7570 to see if the deadline
was extended)
(4) Some details of the FIA budget for FY
2005:
* Day
Care Services @ $492 million; * Enhanced Quality
Improvement Program (EQUIP) @ $1.35 million; * $350K
start-up grants for new family and group home providers;
* infant/toddler incentive payments continue;
*
$25K to support the Michigan After-School Partnership; *
The Department will examine a child care rate structure
that reflects the most recent Market Rate Survey, done in
2002, and a new survey will occur FY 2005;
* Support for before- and after-school programs @$5
million with an emphasis on meeting community needs.
(5) FIA has listed the new Family Resource Centers that
are starting up this fall.
Mental
Health Services
- Deb Marciniak reporting
(1) The Michigan Mental Health Commission is finalizing
its recommendations and will present them to Governor
Granholm on October 25.
(2) The Child Care Expulsion Prevention Initiative
partners are sponsoring an Early Childhood Mental Health
Consultation Mini-Conference in January 05 in the Lansing
area. It will feature Roxanne Kauffman, National
Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health,
Georgetown University. The date has not yet been
determined.
(3) The ECCS Social-Emotional Health Workgroup will be
finalizing its strategies for the ECCS Strategic Plan on
Oct. 20.
(4) Resources on Emergent Literacy Recommended by
Elizabeth Sulzby, Center for the Improvement of Early
Reading Achievement, UofM:
*
Starting Out Right: A Guide to Promoting Children's
Reading Success (3-5 years) - go to: http://www.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/0309064104?OpenDocument
*
Speaking and Listening for Preschool Through 3rd Grade -
go to: http://www.ncee.org/i/store/products/products_final/1889630411/S&L%20Sampler.pdf.
A CD available through this resource includes excellent
videos of children in developmentally appropriate
contexts showing evidence of meeting standards without
paper and pencil tests.
Office
of Child and Adult Licensing;
FIA
- Pat Hogg reporting
(1)
Five thousand of the OCAL CD that provides an orientation
to licensing statutes and rules will be available once
the new rules are promulgated.
(2) Technical assistance is on the FIA web site under
"Child Day Care Licensing - Resources."
(3) A draft of the proposed child care center rules is
available on the FIA web site under "What's New." On
October 15, at the State of Michigan Library in Lansing,
FIA will hold a forum on the proposed center rules. The
hearing is an informal comment period strictly for
advising the ad hoc rules committee before it submits its
final recommendations to FIA.
(4) The proposed Home Child Care Rules are on the web
site of the Office of Regulatory Reform. These proposed
rules be become available for public comment sometime
this winter. These public hearings are a very important
part of the formal rules promulgation
process.
There
was consensus among the task force participants that at
least one public hearing be held in the
evening.
Federal
Reauthorization of Children's
Programs
- Richard Lower reporting
(1) TANF and the CCDBG were continued until March 31,
2005. There were no changes to these programs.
(2) Head Start is off the table until next
year.
FINAL
ANNOUNCEMENTS
(1)
Next month the Task Force will begin a review of its
action agenda in preparation for the new calendar year
and the new state and federal legislatures.
(2) Julia Meredith from the Library of Michigan, and new
to the Task Force, introduced herself. She discussed
various ways that the library can support early education
issues.
(3) Campus Child Care - Marcia Rysztak reporting U.S.
Senators, Christopher Dodd and Olympia Snowe will soon
introduce the "Child Care Access Means Parents in School
Act (CCAMPIS). It would increase current funding to help
low income parents with children attend college. The bill
would increase grants to colleges and universities so
that they apply for funds; current grants are so small
that schools find that the funds received don't cover the
costs of applying for them. The Task Force will consider
support for this bill as part of its soon-to-be-revised
action agenda.
(4) Joan Firestone, Director of Early Childhood
Education, Oakland Schools, is a candidate for the
Governing Board of the National Association for the
Education of Young Children. Members of NAEYC in good
standing as of next spring may vote in this
election.
The
meeting adjourned at 12:00 noon.
Mary
Hentschl_Early (Kalamazoo Public Schools) and Steve
Manchester (Michigan AEYC) took notes for these
minutes.
NEXT
MEETING:
Wednesday, November 3, 9:30 - noon, State of Michigan
Library, Lake Ontario Room - 3rd floor
702 West Kalamazoo Street, Lansing
Main
Speaker:
JEFF WILLIAMS, Vice President and Senior Consultant for
Technology and Public Policy, Public Sector
Consultants
Mr.
Williams will discuss the deeper meanings of the election
that will take place just the day before this meeting. What
do the results mean at the federal and state level for early
care and education policy? What do the election results
portend in the next few years as to where political battle
lines will be drawn?
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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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