MICHIGAN
CHILD CARE TASK FORCE MINUTES
Meeting Minutes for December 3, 2003
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's Children
Policy Associate
800-330-8674
lower.Richard@michiganschildren.org
Winter SCHEDULE for the TASK FORCE
January 7 &endash; Lake Ontario Room, 3rd floor, State of
Michigan Library
February 4 &endash; Lake Ontario Room, 3rd floor, State
of Michigan Library
State of
Michigan Library
Lake Ontario Room, 3rd floor
717 West Allegan
Lansing, MI 48909-7507
(517) 373-1580
Co-Chair Richard Lower
called the meeting to order at 9:40 a.m. Introductions
were done.
Steve Manchester volunteered to take minutes. Richard
made an early announcement that today's speaker
Representative Jennifer Elkins fell ill the night before
and therefore will not be with us today.
BUSINESS OF THE TASK FORCE
Department of Education, Judy Levine
1. Even Start will continue with level funding.
Competitive grants will be announced soon with a
technical assistance (TA) session scheduled in January or
February.
2. MSRP's "final expenditure" report is on-line.
Interested parties should check on-line to make sure that
information in the report that pertains to them is
correct.
&endash;
Competitive grants are awaiting final budgetary
decisions before grant applications can be prepared
and evaluated. MDE expects that the process will get
going soon and that reader sessions will take place in
June.
3. Great Parents/Great
Start: All ISDs are participating in this $3.5 million
program which is the successor (sort of) of ASAP-PIE.
Money must go for, among other things, parent
education.
4. The Michigan Collaborative Conference will be held on
January 20-23 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dearborn.
There is NO ON-SITE REGISTRATION. One may register
on-line at www.miaeyc.org, but this requires credit card
payment at the time. Registration deadline is January 2,
2004. For information call 517-336-9700.
Michigan Department of Community Health, Deb
Marciniak
1. Great Start
&endash;
Community Conversations are now underway. Go to
www.greatstartforkids.org
for information on how to participate in or organize a
community conversation. The deadline for this activity
to be finished is December 12.
2. Gerry Cobb and a
former North Carolina State Senator will be in Lansing on
December 9 and 10 to meet with various people, including
the Legislative Children's Caucus. Ms. Cobb is from North
Carolina's Smart Start.-the National Technical Assistance
Center.
Jim Sinnamon from CIS was not in attendance. However, it
was announced that Child Care Licensing would officially
move from CIS to FIA as of Monday, December 8. Though
this unit will move organizationally, it will remain in
its current location on West Saginaw in Delta
Township.
The Michigan League for Human Services
1. Kids Count data on 35 Michigan cities will become
available next week.
2. Tomorrow, on December 4, there will be a citizen's
rally on the east steps of the Capitol in support of
expanded human services funding.
3. The League and several other organizations are
starting to push hard on bringing an awareness about lead
poisoning before the public. Added funding is needed to
protect children.
4. Regarding TANF and CCDBG reauthorization, there is
nothing new to report at this time.
Head Start Reauthorization and fiscal matters, Kristen
McDonald-Stone
1. Child advocates need to speak out on pausing the state
income tax cut due to take effect on January 1. There is
opposition to pausing this tax cut. Child advocates need
to contact their Representatives and Senators to voice
their support of the pause. The pause would generate $115
million in this fiscal year and $165 million per year
thereafter.
2. Head Start reauthorization: The U.S. Senate bill,
according to Head Start, is much better that the U.S.
House bill. Amendments that strengthen the bill are
expected on the Senate floor. No legislative action can
occur until after the holidays since Congress has taken
its holiday recess. Michigan members of Congress in the
House have served Head Start well, especially
Representatives Ehlers, Upton, Kildee and McCotter.
Senators Levin and Stabenow have been very good and
deserve thanks from advocates. Do not send letters to
Congress because anthrax concerns still exist. Instead,
call, fax or email Congress. Email works just fine so
long as a name and address are part of the message.
Other Governmental Updates, Richard Lower
1. The executive order on the budget has been delayed
until next week. So far, the Governor has had a tough
time selling the pause on the income tax cut. One can get
up-to-date information about Michigan's budget situation
at www.michiganschildren.org.
2. The Michigan Surgeon General (Michigan is the only
state with a Surgeon General) and the legislature are
working on lead poisoning. A series of Senate Bills
dealing with this problem has been introduced (SB's
753-757). Information on these bills is available at
www.michiganschildren.org.
3. A letter was sent by the task force to Nannette
Bowler, Director of FIA, as agreed at the November task
force meeting. A copy of the letter is below.
November 21,
2003
Ms. Nannette Bowler
Director
Michigan Family Independence Agency
235 S. Grand Ave.
Lansing, MI 48909
Dear Ms. Bowler:
After you spoke at the Michigan Child Care Task Force
(MCCTF) meeting in October you requested we prepare
suggestions to help with the transfer of Child Day Care
licensing to the Michigan Family Independence Agency as
of December 7, 2003. We would like to take this
opportunity to bring to your attention several issues
voiced by MCCTF members during a discussion at our
November meeting. Please consider the following as you
and your staff prepare for the transfer and look at the
future of Day Care Licensing:
1. The recent reorganization of Child Day Care Licensing
has resulted in a lack of expertise in early childhood
development among some of the licensing staff, including
some important management positions.
• We recommend that the Director of the Child Day
Care Licensing Division have a minimum of a Master's
Degree in Early Childhood Education or an equivalent
field and at least five years of relevant experience in
the field of child care, as well as experience as a
licensing consultant.
• We recommend that there be ongoing required
training for all licensing staff, especially
consultants.
2. The recent reorganization of Child Day Care Licensing
also separated such functions as Licensing/Renewal
visits, Complaint Investigation and Record Keeping. The
result is a highly fragmented system in which confusion
abounds regarding license status, complaint status and
records.
• We recommend and believe it is critical that these
functions be consolidated.
• We recommend that the State continue maintenance
of minimum standards while encouraging continuous quality
improvement and striving for the highest quality child
care possible.
• We suggest that there is a need for a better
definition of high quality child care and that the State
should utilize best practice research to support such a
definition.
• We also encourage better quality communication
within the Department, Division, and its workers.
3. Recent reorganization combined duties for managers to
handle child care, foster care and adult foster care all
at the same time, rather than allowing for specialists in
those areas.
• We recommend that Managers and Consultants be
assigned within areas of expertise. For example, an
individual with expertise and training in child care be
assigned to handle child care, an individual with
expertise and training in foster care be assigned to
handle foster care, etc.
• We recommend that managers return to their roles
as supervisors as their sole duty.
4. The staffing for Child Day Care Licensing is seriously
underfunded.
• We recommend that you maintain consultants with
training and expertise in the field of child care, while
working to increase the numbers of staff to meet
appropriate ratios.
• We have strongly recommended in the past and
continue to recommend the appropriate consultant to
program ratio of 1:100 (currently Michigan is at
1:300).
• We recommend protecting funding for subsidized
child care and maintaining standards for payment.
5. The recent reorganization confined licensing
consultant's role to that of inspector only and
eliminated their very important role as consultant and
educator.
• We recommend that the Michigan Family Independence
Agency return to a philosophy of "Consultant" rather than
"Inspector/Regulator" in order to move the child care
system to a higher level of quality and safety.
• We recommend that there be consistency of
caseloads for the consultants so that relationships can
be formed between the consultant and program.
• We recommend consultants provide training again to
programs and providers. In the past, consultants have
been able to provide technical assistance and support to
programs in order to help them meet compliance and foster
a trusting relationship in regards to program improvement
and maintenance.
• We recommend that consultants get involved in the
community to better understand the resource base in order
to able to educate on how to access those resources. As
consultants are allowed to participate in the community
they again can act as a resource for improving the
quality of child care.
• We encourage private/public partnerships to
increase the quality and safety of child care in
communities.
6. Michigan's licensing rules are among the lowest in the
nation in terms of quality.
• We would like to take this opportunity to
acknowledge that the Day Care Licensing rules are
currently being revised and give our support and
appreciation for the process for revising child care
center rules.
• We do encourage public hearings on the revised
rules once the drafting is completed in 2004. Public
comment is important and critical to the process.
• We also encourage you to start the process for
review of family provider rules and
regulations.
We hope that these
concise comments and recommendations from individuals who
have many years of experience will be helpful to you and
your staff as you take on this very important
responsibility and strive for improving the quality and
safety of child care settings for children and their
families in Michigan.
Sincerely,
Lisa Brewer, Co-Chair;
Richard Lower,
Co-Chairs, Michigan Child Care Task Force
Organizational
Sponsors:
Michigan 4C Association
Michigan's Children
Michigan AEYC
Michigan Head Start Association
Michigan Association of Intermediate School
Administrators, Robert Redmond
1. Fourteen organizations, including the four
coordinating organizations of the task force, signed a
letter written by the Michigan Association of
Intermediate School Administrators (MAISA). The signers
support the Governor's Great Start; they will meet at
least three times per year to share ideas and pursue
joint advocacy.
2. Michigan businesses and various state legislators are
virtually alone in the entire nation in continuing to
push for more tax cuts. Many local Chambers of Commerce,
which are not at all related to the State Chamber,
believe that tax cuts have gone too far. We should
contact our legislators.
3. We need to keep wearing our Hero-from-Zero buttons to
demonstrate a broad network of like-minded advocates.
4. Sharon Peters from Michigan's Children announced a
handful of Republicans and Democrats have advocated for
changes in fiscal policy and deserve our support,
especially since they have incurred the wrath of their
party leadership. In the end, we still need bipartisan
support.
MCCTF 2004 ACTION AGENDA DISCUSSION - led by Richard.
1. A second draft of the action agenda will be revisited
at the January 7, 2004 meeting and then the action agenda
will be finalized and sent in the minutes for that
meeting.
ADDITIONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. The committee on child care center rules is about to
complete its work. Proposed rules will be ready for
public hearings this spring. A revision of home-based
care rules has begun, but much work lies ahead.
2. Doug Paterson, from DCH and with administrative duties
related to the Governor's Great Start; and Steve
Manchester, Michigan AEYC; will discuss the Build
Initiative at the January meeting. This initiative brings
Michigan into partnership with eight other states in
developing statewide systems of universal, high quality
early education and care. The discussion will include a
focus on financing such systems.
3. The next meeting is Wednesday, January 7, 2004; Lake
Ontario Room, State of Michigan Library; 9:30 - noon.
Happy Holidays!
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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.