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Showing stories 1 - 15 of 1905.
AZ - Web site offers care-center information
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, August 28 @ 09:06:45 EDT by kkurth
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The state unveiled a new Web site Monday that allows residents to read inspection reports and other care data on Arizona child-care centers, assisted-living facilities and nursing homes.
The Web site - www. AZCareCheck.com - was created in response to a January executive order by Gov. Janet Napolitano. The site allows users to:
• Search for licensed nursing homes, assisted living facilities and child-care centers.
• Peruse inspection reports and complaint investigations, as well as view recent enforcement actions taken by the state Department of Health Services.
• View quality ratings for nursing homes across Arizona.
By putting the information online, it is hoped that DHS staff will have more time to respond to care complaints. DHS Director Sue Gerard noted that AZCareCheck.com is a good starting point when shopping for a nursing home or child-care facility, but no substitute for an in-person visit.
"Choosing quality care for your loved one is one of the biggest decisions people face," she said in a statement. "This Web site gives quick access to critical information people need to make informed decisions."
Full text available at the Arizona Republic
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NY - Schools offering child care centers
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Monday, August 27 @ 10:18:13 EDT by kkurth
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At West Side High School, kids sprawled on the floor as an African music CD played. A few jokesters had their peers in stitches.
The fun in one corner ended, however, when a stranger's greeting set off a fountain of tears from one diaper-clad youngster.
West Side is one of 40 New York high schools that house a day care center. It serves the babies and toddlers of students - teenage parents who are trying to stay on track and raise little ones.
Danielle Ford said the center allows her to stick with her studies while she brings up Nazaiah, a brown-eyed toddler with a killer smile.
"I have nobody else to watch him for me," she said as she watched her son dance in circles. "He has fun here. If he was home with me, he wouldn't get to play with kids his age."
Many urban school districts have day care centers attached to some schools. In Washington, D.C., five schools have day care facilities, including Bell Multicultural, a bustling high school that serves about 800 students.
Doris Briones credits Bell's day care center with allowing her to graduate last spring. She is now enrolled in a college-prep program.
"When I got pregnant, I was really depressed. I thought that everything was gone already for me," she said. "This day care center helped me through four years of school. By taking care of my child and letting me have the opportunity to study, here I am."
Bell's principal, Maria Tukeva, decided to add the center to the school a few years ago. First, she had to overcome her fear that providing free day care - just off the main corridor, for everybody to see - might make parenting look desirable or easy. To counter that message, she asks the teenage moms to participate in a pregnancy prevention program.
"We have the teen mothers speak to other young ladies to let them know it may look really cute and fun, but it's really not that easy. That's part of the way they give back to the school," Tukeva said.
About 80 day care centers attached to public schools have gone through the rigorous process of earning accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young People. Two are in Vista, Calif., outside San Diego.
Susie Bristow, director of the district's teen-parent program, says the day care workers spend a lot of time teaching mothers the basics of child care. "They're good mammas, but they are babies having babies," Bristow said.
She says pregnant girls often have to be prodded to stay in school, even with the availability of day care. "We do a really good job of going to their houses and getting them off their sofa," Bristow said.
One in four girls who drop out of school does so because she is pregnant or a parent, according to a survey by the nonprofit Gates Foundation. Very few boys who drop out cite that reason.
Studies indicate that when teenage parents go on to earn high-school degrees, the odds increase that their children will finish school.
Research shows children of teenage mothers lag behind other children when it comes to school readiness, language development and communication and interpersonal skills. But studies also show that providing disadvantaged children with high-quality preschool can narrow those differences.
It is 3- and 4-year-olds who attend child care centers attached to public schools in Philadelphia.
Felecia Ward, a spokeswoman for the school district, said there used to be more than a dozen centers for infants at Philadelphia schools. They were underused, she said, and all closed two years ago.
The day care centers attached to New York City's schools also are underused, says Cami Anderson, superintendent of the city's alternative high school and programs.
Teenage pregnancy rates have declined since the early 1990s. Yet an estimated 400,000 teenagers still give birth each year.
In New York City, about 7,000 girls in the school system are either pregnant or are parents. About 500 use the day care centers attached to schools.
The district is conducting a review of the centers to see if improvements are needed and to determine whether the centers are in the right locations and publicized enough.
Full text available at the Charlotte Observer
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CA - State budget deadlock is over
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Wednesday, August 22 @ 09:06:28 EDT by kkurth
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After Republicans lifted a one-vote blockade, the Senate sent the governor a $145 billion budget yesterday that ends a 52-day deadlock and allows the state to pay nearly $3 billion in bills.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to sign the budget late tomorrow or Friday. The state is scrambling to begin making payments to health care providers and others hit by the delay.
Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman, R-Tustin, provided the key vote for a budget supported by the Republican governor and Democrats that passed the Assembly on July 20 with bipartisan backing but was blocked by Senate Republicans.
Senate Republicans, claiming victory, said they obtained a promise of $700 million in spending vetoes by the governor and prevented environmental lawsuits from tying up bond-funded transportation and levee projects.
“This is a responsible budget, but it is not a perfect budget,” Ackerman said in a statement. “Even with the governor's promise to veto hundreds of millions of dollars, California is facing a multimillion dollar deficit next year.”
Democrats said the governor agreed to make the spending vetoes weeks earlier and that the legislation against environmental lawsuits is insignificant. Though Democrats have majorities in both the Assembly and Senate, a handful of Republican votes were needed because a two-thirds vote of the Legislature is required to pass a budget.
Senate President Pro Tempore Don Perata, D-Oakland, said the main result of the Republican holdout was harm to those who depend on government services unfunded because there was no budget.
“Who in their right mind would let children or disabled people suffer?” Perata asked. “And who would do that if they didn't have to – and for what? What greater good was served here today?”
Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, mentioned news reports of the harm caused when state payments were withheld from nursing homes, homes for the developmentally disabled, child care centers and others.
Full text available at The Union Tribune
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TX - Program focuses on child care
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, August 21 @ 09:39:45 EDT by kkurth
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Eighteen children in Texas died last year in unregulated child care, according to a report from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
That’s in addition to 10 in 2005 and eight in 2004.
The state agency urges parents to do their homework before placing children in daycare.
A “Don’t Be in the Dark About Child Care” campaign kicks off for the second year this week, according to a statement released by the department.
The Child Care Licensing division urges parents to “choose legal, regulated child care and do some homework before putting their children in someone else’s hands.”
The goal of the campaign is to educate parents about the dangers of illegal child care and to encourage unlicensed operators to step into the light, get inspected and get licensed.
“Unfortunately, more and more child care operations are going underground,” DFPSD Assistant Commissioner for Child Care Licensing Diana Spiser said.
“Illegal operations may seem attractive,” she noted. “They may be less expensive, but there are no checks and balances to protect children.”
By contrast, she said licensed day care must adhere to state health and safety standards and undergo periodic inspections.
Parents can check an online DFPS database — www.txchildcaresearch.org — to make sure a center or home is legal and to research its record. Those without Internet access can call 1-888-TX-CHILD for assistance.
Child Care Licensing also is sending letters to public libraries and daycare centers urging staff to get the word out.
Full text available at The Paris News
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CA - Lakeport area NCO providers hold breath on budget
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, August 21 @ 09:33:54 EDT by kkurth
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A letter sent out to local child care providers by North Coast Opportunities (NCO) says that 250,000 kids statewide are impacted by the fact that the state's budget is as yet unsigned, meaning providers will have to wait for their July checks.
The state's fiscal year ended June 30, putting the delay at 51 days. According to NCO, 1,699 kids would be affected throughout Lake and Mendocino counties.
Spokesman for State Senator Pat Wiggins' office David Miller told the Record-Bee Monday morning that Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman announced earlier that day that a "tentative deal has been struck." The Assembly was expected to reconvene early Monday evening to discuss the budget, but Miller noted at late announcement that it would remain in recess until 8:30 p.m.
In a recent opinion-editorial piece published in the Record-Bee, Wiggins noted that "Senate Republicans are damanding another $700 million cuts beyond what has been on the table," and notes that the budget has the support of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and failed an early August vote in the Senate by only one vote.
Local provider Cambria Adams said she'd called 15 legislators Monday to push the issue. "Homes are starting to go into foreclosure," said Adams, relating what she knew from talking to other day care providers. Of those in Lake County, she estimated that 80 to 90 percent rely on childcare as their only income or receive state funding through NCO.
Joann Matz, NCO's resource and referral specialist for the Northshore, explained that NCO provides a state subsidies for parents with low incomes or who are on CalWorks, a welfare-to-work program for cash aid recipients. "Without a budget we can't pay the providers who are caring for these children," said Matz. She said a Monday memo said July's payment would be split in half, which local providers told the Record-Bee has been happening for the past few months.
Tina Thompson of Thompson's Teddy Bear Den explained that in general, NCO pays its providers a month behind.
"We haven't received anything for July," said Thompson. "And we will not until the budget is final. That's the policy," she said, addidng that in the eight years she's been a provider, this is only the second time she's seen NCO's funds frozen because of the state's late budget.
And while NCO notes most providers have "continued to provide your valuable service to subsidized families throughout this crisis," Adams noted that it hasn't been easy.
Full text available at the Lake County Record Bee
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IL - Budget blues hit child care?
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Friday, August 17 @ 09:52:52 EDT by kkurth
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Flora Sweeney has worked in child day care in West Dundee for 25 years and estimates she was underfunded by the state in 20 of those years.
Now, having received her government check a few days late and wondering -- as much as or more than anyone in Springfield -- what exactly Gov. Rod Blagojevich is going to do next, Sweeney says she's had enough.
Sweeney owns Early Education Station on Willow Lane, which is funded mostly with state dollars. As per a court order, state paychecks are being delivered, but the budget crisis has prevented other state dollars -- like those that go to Education Station -- from leaving Springfield. With the ongoing impasse and increasing gaps between the subsidies paid per child and costs incurred per child, Sweeney said she's becoming more concerned.
For example, the average day-care rate for a 2-year-old averages out to $42 per day at Education Station, with the state paying about $32 of the cost. For a 3-year-old, the average rate is $37 per day, with about $26 coming from the state.
Legally, she could charge more, but most of her client parents are receiving subsidies themselves and could not afford to pay higher rates, Sweeney said. With 20 employees on the payroll, it's imperative that she receive monthly government checks on time, she said.
Full text available at the Courier News
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IL - Budget crisis delays child-care checks
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Thursday, August 16 @ 10:56:31 EDT by kkurth
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While the governor and Legislature dicker on a new state budget, there are some 70,000 families in Illinois that rely on the child-care assistance program funded by the state.
Nicole Hernandez, 27, is a Zion day-care provider for the program, and she watches three kids for a woman who is attending school and works part time. Hernandez hasn't been paid for July yet, and she is worried that the August paycheck might be held hostage by the budget crisis.
"They said the July check was delayed because of a computer error," she said.
Hernandez is wondering whether she should continue providing the service if they are not going to get paid. "They would have to go back on welfare if they don't have someone to watch their kids," she said.
Thomas Green, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Human Services, said a technical problem is delaying the July checks for day-care providers, but he was not worried that the current budget stalemate was going to jeopardize the program or the 130,000 children across the state who are served by it.
Child Care provides low-income, working families with access to quality, affordable child care that allows them to continue working.
Families are required to cost-share on a sliding scale that takes into account family size, income and number of children in care. Families that are eligible make 50 percent of the state median incomes or less. As an example, Green said a family with two children making $20,000 would qualify.
"The program is to help people work and become self-sufficient," he said. The program increased dramatically with welfare reform in 1997.
Full text available at the Lake County News Sun
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CA - Budget pinch puts the squeeze on kids
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Thursday, August 16 @ 10:51:38 EDT by kkurth
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Teacher Marta Cueva dipped into her wallet this week to buy fabric for costumes that her young students will wear when they perform Mexican folk dances at her Berkeley school's end-of-summer show.
Their school, the Bay Area Hispano Institute for Advancement, normally would have paid for the costumes. But, like scores of other private, publicly funded children's programs in the Bay Area and across California, it hasn't received state funds since July 1 and is struggling to meet expenses as a result of the Legislature's budget standoff, which is in its seventh week.
"They are holding a lot of children, families and seniors hostage," school Director Beatriz Leyva-Cutler said of state legislators. "It should be the biggest thing everyone's talking about -- not Barry Bonds' home run record."
Leyva-Cutler, facing $15,000 in unpaid bills, got an increase in the center's line of credit and is taking out a second loan on the property so she can pay Cueva and other teachers. And parents are helping the school, known as BAHIA, by donating food for its 145 students, most of whom come from poor families. One family offered homegrown plums, while another gave meat for lunch.
Across California, many of the 785 facilities providing care for more than 500,000 poor children could have to cut services or even close unless a budget is approved soon, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said. Last month, the state withheld nearly $300 million from state-funded child care centers for lack of a spending plan for the current fiscal year.
Republican leaders in the state Senate have refused to vote on the proposed $145 billion budget until concessions are made. The Assembly approved the current version in mid-July and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed it. Formal budget negotiations are expected to resume Monday.
"We desperately need to have a state budget in order to keep our state-funded child care programs up and running," O'Connell said during a recent visit to a state-funded child care center in Sacramento.
Dozens of state-funded child care centers in the Bay Area increasingly are feeling the pinch.
In San Mateo, Bay Shore Child Care Services is using a line of credit to pay its 50 employees and keep five centers open to care for 300 children, Executive Director Ann Sims said.
"It's a lot of worry to think about your staff and children," said Sims, who estimated that the state will owe the center $300,000 by the end of this month. "I don't want my staff or my parents to panic. ... We're sort of hanging on, but there's a limit to how long we can go."
In San Francisco, a nonprofit group called the Low Income Investment Fund aims to pool resources with the city to provide emergency no-interest loans to some of the 135 public and private child care centers.
The city's oldest child care center, Holy Family Day Home, plans to apply for a loan if needed to keep serving homeless children, Executive Director Donna Cahill said. She estimated that most of the city's child care centers probably have less than a month's worth of reserves in the bank.
In Berkeley, the BAHIA program has enough cash to pay its teachers for a few more weeks.
Cueva has not been reimbursed for money she spent last month to buy groceries for the children's breakfast, lunch and snacks. But she's more worried about her paycheck.
"If I don't get paid, I will not meet my mortgage," she said this week. "I'll have problems with my credit. It took me 20 years to buy a house. It's really scary."
The nonprofit preschool and elementary-age programs help Spanish-speaking children from immigrant families transition into an English-speaking nation while maintaining their native language and culture. It also has attracted English-speaking parents who want to give their children early immersion in Spanish.
"It is a critical community resource for families who want their children to learn Spanish and have a better sense of Latino culture," said Argentine-born Alina Salganicoff, who heads the school's parent advisory council and has two children in the program. "There's an incredible demand, a waiting list of over 100. They've tried to look at how to expand, but that's tough, especially in a situation like this when you're not sure you can even meet your payroll."
The school has tried to shelter its poor families from the financial crisis, asking full-paying parents who can afford it to pay their tuition a few months in advance, Salganicoff said.
"The kids come first, so we're trying to rally as much as possible," she said. "A lot of child care providers are very exposed: The money's not there but the kids still are and the parents still have to work. And if the schools borrow money with interest, it's going to cost them more."
Full text available at the San Francisco Chronicale
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CA - Local child-care center copes with impasse
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, August 14 @ 12:11:50 EDT by kkurth
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Borrowing on credit and scrambling for money isn't how Peter Ryce usually pays his employees.
But Ryce, program director of Beginnings, Briceland's child-care center, has no other choice.
"We're a child-care center and funded by the state -- without a budget, there's no funding," he said. "Because payroll goes on ... there's no way we can pay them."
The state budget impasse, which has lasted more than a month, is holding up $1 billion in payments to California's 785 state-funded child-care agencies, impeding their ability to operate soundly, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said in a press release.
"The budget stalemate has gone on far too long," he said Tuesday. "The Senate Republican's refusal to agree to a balanced budget is having an impact on the 500,000 children who receive state-funded child-care services."
Because the California Department of Education can't pay early care and education programs until a signed contract is enacted, many agencies are finding themselves in a bind.
"Although agencies with CDE contracts are encouraged to have a reserve, it is difficult for agencies to manage the fiscal burden of operating a program over an extended period of time with no income to cover costs," the release said. "The impact is particularly acute for child development agencies that have a signed contract for 2007-08, because while the CDE has prepared the first payment for these agencies, checks can not be prepared until the budget is signed."
Changing Tides Family Services Executive Director Carol Hill said though the agency doesn't depend entirely on state funds, the impasse has forced it to rely on credit to pay some July and August wages.
"And after that, we don't know," she said. "Hopefully there will be a budget by then."
Full text available at the Times-Standard
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VA - A safe place for kids
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Friday, August 10 @ 09:29:59 EDT by kkurth
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Denise Davila and Patrice Morrison have visited plenty of Peninsula day care centers where they say they would never leave their children.
Their hunt for good day care has brought them face-to-face with centers filled with unsupervised youngsters, overwhelmed staff and unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
At one place, Davila knocked on the door and a child answered.
"We stood for five minutes in the entrance before someone realized we were in the center," said Davila, who went to 12 places before finding a place where she and her son felt comfortable.
Safety and security are priorities for parents seeking a day care provider.
Depending on the age of the child, they may also want an educational climate that prepares their son or daughter for kindergarten.
The result is high demand for quality, flexible day care in an industry that offers employees low pay, long hours and increasing state regulation.
It's a situation that frustrates parents and day care/preschool business owners alike, and one that Preschool Partners of the Virginia Peninsula aims to improve.
Since 2005, the nonprofit organization of businesses, social service and education officials has helped day care operators in Hampton and Newport News strengthen their services through training and mentorships with high-quality child care businesses.
Now the group is reaching out to the community with a child care resource and referral program. Preschool Partners received a $30,000 grant from the city of Newport News to create the program, which parents can use to find state-licensed child care centers and preschools in Newport News and Hampton.
As of July, there were about 300 licensed centers and preschools listed in the Preschool database, available to parents through the group's Web site, www. preschoolpartnersva.org.
"The challenge will be to keep the data current because (child care) providers come and go," said Ivy Mitchell, co-chair of the Board of Directors for Preschool Partners. "The Web site is there, but our real mission is if (parents) need one-on-one contact, they can come here," said Patti Kernodle, Preschool Partners child care specialist.
Because the organization knows child care employees need and want to improve their services, Preschool Partners holds training sessions in the evenings to expand on what's offered through the Newport News department of social services.
Although Preschool doesn't offer child care providers state-required CPR, medication disbursement and first-aid training, staff can refer those who request it to places that do, Kernodle said.
Preschool wants to ensure those entering the profession "are attuned to (offering) educational opportunities for children and not just custodial services," Mitchell said.
Ten years into running a well-respected before-and-after school program in Hampton, Michelle Simpson decided last summer to open a preschool to accommodate parents who wanted all-day care for their younger children.
Despite her child care experience, Simpson said she faced many challenges, from paying to renovate a facility, to meeting social service requirements, making the environment suitable for young children, hiring the right staff and continuing to offer a solid academic curriculum along with field trips.
She had to invest in all these changes while keeping costs reasonable. Parents enrolling their children into Simpson's Inspiring Minds Youth Development Center pay an average of $90 per week.
"It's a lot of out-of-pocket expenses - you can't pay people what they're worth," said Simpson, who makes her staff obtain twice the amount of annual training mandated by the state.
Yet parents who use the center, including Denise Davila and Patrice Morrison, say it's clean, professionally run and very focused on social and academic education. Davila's son, Edwin, 3, and Morrison's son, Yahweh, 2, have been enrolled in Inspiring Minds for more than eight months.
When Elizabeth Chisolm's husband left to serve in Iraq on July 9, Inspiring Minds staff watched for mood changes in her 4-year-old daughter, Chelsea. One day, Chelsea appeared sad at the center and talked about missing her daddy. The staff told Chisolm as soon as she arrived to pick up her daughter, Chisolm said. "You need to be in a place, an environment where people are attuned to your children," she said.
Simpson said the state and localities need to provide greater financial and operational support to daycare and preschool centers, since many lay the educational foundation for success in kindergarten. "If you support day care so you don't have to struggle by yourself and everyone is on the same page," she said, "it makes the school system's job easier."
Full text available at the Daily Press
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NY - Some much needed child care help
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, August 07 @ 10:42:08 EDT by kkurth
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Child care is one of the most costly expenses families have these days. Even middle-class families are feeling the inch. For poor families or those who are making low wages, the slice out of the economic pie marked child care is even bigger and more painful.
But, for poor New York City families, there is some help on the way.
Gov. Spitzer last week signed off on a child care tax credit worth as much as $1,700 to the city's poor and low-wage working families earning less than $30,000 annually with children ages 4 and under.
According to the governor's office, approximately 49,000 city families qualify and thus benefit from the tax relief that takes effect this tax year.
The families can collect a credit of up to $1,700 to offset child care costs, but officials estimate the average household will receive $1,012.
The tax credit is a win for Mayor Bloomberg, whose commission has been studying ways to help the city's low income families lift themselves out of poverty. Mr. Bloomberg had been advocating and lobbying the governor's office to back a child care tax credit for poor working families.
Only one hurdle to the legislation remains -- state approval is required for the city to fund the credit.
Full text available at Staten Island Live
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CA - Child-care costs rising for Cal State parents
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, August 07 @ 10:28:00 EDT by kkurth
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Many parents were eagerly awaiting the debut of a preschool and early child development center at Cal State San Marcos that would offer amenities the old one did not. There would be Web cams so parents could view their children from afar, a one-way mirror to monitor them up close, a mother's room for nursing, and much more space.
But they got sticker shock when tuition increases were recently posted online.
In many cases, rates more than doubled. For example, student parents would go from paying a $16 daily rate for partial-day toddler care to about $34.50 in a Monday-through-Friday plan. Rates jumped from a $23 daily rate for full-day toddler care to about $49.50 in a five-day-a-week plan.
“We have single mothers, single fathers, married students where only one has a job, parents with student loans,” said Mosetta Rodrigues, director of the Early Learning Center, which will be replaced by the new center this fall. “Students cannot afford these rates. For as long as parents have been waiting for this new center, I think it's a huge disappointment.”
Nearly a third of undergraduate students at Cal State San Marcos qualify for some type of financial aid, and the old child-care center hadn't raised its rates in 3 and a half years. Students have also been paying $10 a semester in fees to provide child-care services, and will continue to do so.
Faculty and staff, who pay more than students but also get a discount, face higher rates, as does the community.
Marti Gray, director of the San Marcos University Corp., the auxiliary operating the new center, said parents previously enjoyed unusually low prices, but that business model was not sustainable. Students were told that fees would be raised to the market rate, but part of the problem is that the prices are slightly over market, she said.
While Cal State San Marcos will charge students about $37.75 a day for a preschooler in a five-day-a-week, full-day program, for example, San Diego State charges a daily rate of $35 for preschoolers in its center.
However, Gray said the new center will offer more than the old one, including better adult-to-child ratios that meet standards set by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Tuition had to be raised to accommodate those improved ratios and support a larger center and a contract with a national child-care provider, Childrens' Creative Learning Centers, to run it, she said.
A plan is in the works to use some of the student fees toward scholarships that would fund tuition for student parents using the new center, she said.
Full text available at the San Diego Union-Tribune
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OK - Help available for parents choosing child care
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, August 07 @ 09:54:24 EDT by kkurth
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“Choosing the right child care may be one of the most important decisions a family can make for their child,” said Cheryl Bell, coordinator of East Central’s Child Care Resource & Referral Agency. FREE services are available to every family in Oklahoma that needs help finding and choosing safe, quality child care that fits their needs. Locally, families can phone the ECU Child Care Resource and Referral Agency at (580) 436-5202 or toll-free at 1-800-862-5593 to learn what to look for when choosing child care, get a list of licensed child care providers in their area and discover assistance programs that may help them pay for child care.
In a poll conducted by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral, parents said a safe and healthy environment is their most important goal for choosing child care. It is very hard for working parents to leave their child with someone they don't know. Child Care Resource and Referral Specialists are trained to help parents understand the types of things to look for when selecting safe child care. Such things as low adult-to-child ratios, safety equipment including smoke alarms, fire extinguishers and outlet covers, background checks for caregivers, and training in child development, first aid and CPR can make all the difference between a safe environment and one that is not.
These specialists will also give parents information on how to access the licensing record for any child care center or family child care home that the family is considering. Records are maintained by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) on all licensed child care providers in the state. Our Resource and Referral Specialists tell families how to contact the OKDHS licensing worker, who will either fax the family a summary of a facility's licensing record or help the family review the detailed record in person at the county OKDHS office.
Oklahoma rules require all licensed child care facilities provide parents' access to all areas of the home or center during the hours that children are in care. The Child Care Resource and Referral Specialist reviews that policy with parents who call. “We encourage parents to interview a prospective child care provider at the home or center prior to placing the child in care. We also suggest that parents go back after the interview and observe the provider actually caring for children,” said Bell. Finally, parents are encouraged, once they have placed a child in care, to make unannounced visits to the facility-whether it is a center or family child care home-and to make the visits at different times of the day and week.
Even after placing their child at a facility, parents are advised to periodically review the licensing record again, because records are changed and updated every four to six months. In addition, parents should get to know not only the providers who care for their children but also other parents who have children in the same facility. This will help them learn of potential problems and issues at an early stage.
Parents will always have the primary responsibility for overseeing the safety and development of their children even while the child is in someone else's care. But Child Care Resource and Referral Specialists can help parents with this responsibility by advising them about choosing and remaining involved with their child's care.
Full text available at the Ada Evening News
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TX - State Law Helps Small Businesses Offer Child Care
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, July 31 @ 15:25:21 EDT by kkurth
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A new state law will make it easier for small businesses to operate their own onsite child-care centers for the children of employees.
Signed into law last month, House Bill 1385 simplifies the day-care licensing process for small businesses and doesn't require them to obtain a commercial license.
The new law will apply to companies with fewer than 50 employees and allows workplace care for as many as 12 children. The law takes effect Sept. 1, but rules for implementing it are not expected to be final until March 1.
"This is very important for working moms in particular who have a desire to advance in their chosen career and who also want to be a part of raising their children," said the bill's author, Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio.
While small businesses will face a simplified licensing process, the new rules will likely require background checks for day-care employees and will address health and safety issues, officials said.
The proposal was initiated by the San Antonio advertising firm Guerra DeBerry Coody. The firm ran into problems getting a license for its onsite daycare because it was neither a traditional commercial day-care center nor an in-home daycare.
"The only way to fix it was to get a new law," said Michele Brown, director of promotions and loyalty marketing for the company, who brings two children to work with her.
Firm partner Tess Coody said the process of getting a commercial license -- which the firm completed -- is daunting for companies whose core business is not day care. She hopes other small businesses will consider the model of workplace day care.
"We have a problem with day care availability and affordability in this state," Coody said. "We really do see this as a social mission. ... We are sisters and brothers in that effort."
Full text available at cbs11tv.com
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CA - New Cards Help Parents With Child Care Decisions
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, July 31 @ 15:16:35 EDT by kkurth
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Taking care of children is a fun and sometimes tiring responsibility. Add in the chore of finding child care, and it can be downright frustrating.
Now, Child Action of Sacramento has come up with a new way of helping both new parents and those transitioning their kids to a different type of daycare. It's a deck of playing cards. It outlines questions parents should ask potential day care providers.
At McKinley Park, CBS13 found plenty of parents who were very interested in the topic of child care and thought the deck of cards would be very helpful
Child action is holding two classes to help parents make the decision of which child care is best for them. These cards will be part of their handout. For parents, every bit helps.
Text available at CBS13.com
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