In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, in the Work and Family section, Sue Shellenbarger talks about child care center safety records, and results of inspections that are now made public, via the internet, for parents to review. According to Ms. Shellenbarger, 20 of the 50 states have begun to post the results of inspections online. Thirteen more plan to do so soon. This article highlights the importance and need for transparency in the operations of child care programs.
Parents want to know whether a child care program has a clean record in its work with children. Recently while talking with the director of a local child care program, here in Brooklyn, she mentioned that a new parent told her that she checked on the program’s inspection record through Craig’s List before bringing her child to the center. Parents are concerned, and rightly so, that they are putting their children in a safe environment.
In an effort to be open and transparent about their center’s operations some child care programs have gone as far as to have cameras installed so that parents can view child care activities at the center during certain hours of the day through the internet; this helps the parent to know what is happening with and to their child during the day. While some of us may think that is a little extreme, the point is that we should each in our own way make an effort to include parents in the planning and daily activities of our child care program and make them comfortable that their child is safe and nurtured. If we are providing safe, healthy, nurturing and developmentally appropriate child care services we should have nothing to hide. We can feel comfortable with parents having full access to the program.
Smart Child Care businesses will see this trend towards more transparency as an effective marketing strategy when designing program operations and policies.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Articles Wanted!!!
Child Care Business Connections is seeking individuals to contribute to this BLOG. We will accept articles or informational pieces that can help child care businesses or inform them about trends in the child care community. Submissions should not exceed 250 words and must be typed and ready for publication. Publication of submissions is at the discretion of CCBC. We will notify writers of pieces that are accepted prior to publication.
We will also accept notices about public events that are planned or taking place in the Brooklyn child care community. We will post these events at no charge. For information and instructions about how to post notices go to the CCBC website.
Remember, our website is new and we are still working out the bugs. If you have difficulty with any part of the site please call us at 718-622-1115 or email my personal email address at freddiehamilton@nyc.rr.com
We will also accept notices about public events that are planned or taking place in the Brooklyn child care community. We will post these events at no charge. For information and instructions about how to post notices go to the CCBC website.
Remember, our website is new and we are still working out the bugs. If you have difficulty with any part of the site please call us at 718-622-1115 or email my personal email address at freddiehamilton@nyc.rr.com
DOH Regulations
All child care businesses should make sure that you have checked out the revised child care regulations at the NYC DOHMH. Go to http://www.nyc.gov/. under NYC agencies, find the DOHMH and look for division of child care services. Remember that NYC is regulated under article 47.
Following the Progress of ACS’ Project Full Enrollment
As I continue to follow the ongoing saga of ACS’ Project Full Enrollment initiative for NYC publicly funded child care centers, I am learning quite a bit. In an article in the most recent New York Non-Profit Press (NYNP) John Mattingly, Commissioner of ACS stated that it is not the intention of ACS to close centers but to make sure that centers are fully utilized. According to the Commissioner, ACS’ efforts are intended to help child care centers work through their under enrollment issues including changing ages served; called aging down or changing budgeted capacity.
ACS is currently calling in under enrolled centers to have them explain their plans for bringing themselves to full enrollment. For the past few weeks I have attended 5 of these meetings, at 66 John Street, with centers in Central Brooklyn. It’s clear that centers are at differing levels of understanding and commitment in fully complying with the mandate. Although ACS says that, prior to these individual meetings, it has conducted informational and technical assistance sessions, with all of the child care centers, some centers are still confused about their options and what ACS will approve. It is also my opinion that some of the ACS facilitators are more helpful than others.
However, most centers are in agreement that the HRA child care population is highly unstable. The primary reason is that there are a whole host of policies that frequently make participants ineligible for child care payments. There seems to be sort of a revolving door of eligibility as participants move from project to project or up date their documentation. Often when these participants are dropped from eligibility the centers are the last to know.
In my next segment I will try to explain, from my understanding, ACS baseline expectations for centers.
ACS is currently calling in under enrolled centers to have them explain their plans for bringing themselves to full enrollment. For the past few weeks I have attended 5 of these meetings, at 66 John Street, with centers in Central Brooklyn. It’s clear that centers are at differing levels of understanding and commitment in fully complying with the mandate. Although ACS says that, prior to these individual meetings, it has conducted informational and technical assistance sessions, with all of the child care centers, some centers are still confused about their options and what ACS will approve. It is also my opinion that some of the ACS facilitators are more helpful than others.
However, most centers are in agreement that the HRA child care population is highly unstable. The primary reason is that there are a whole host of policies that frequently make participants ineligible for child care payments. There seems to be sort of a revolving door of eligibility as participants move from project to project or up date their documentation. Often when these participants are dropped from eligibility the centers are the last to know.
In my next segment I will try to explain, from my understanding, ACS baseline expectations for centers.
New Legislation
The City Council passed legislation in January requiring city day care centers to distribute health insurance information pamphlets to families who register children for day care. Councilmember Letitia James stated “As the lead sponsor for the bill, I believe this simple common-sense approach to increase outreach will reduce the number of uninsured children in New York City”.
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