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Showing stories 1 - 15 of 235.
MD - Child care workers to vote
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Monday, August 27 @ 12:16:50 EDT by kkurth
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The state of Maryland certified an election this week that could give collective bargaining rights to thousands of its child care workers.
A mail-in election on whether child care employees whose salaries are subsidized by the state can join a union will be conducted next month, said Merle Cuttitta, president of Service Employees International Union Local 500. The local, based in Gaithersburg, represents some 10,000 workers in education, government and community services throughout Maryland and Washington, D.C.
The issue is opposed by some advocacy organizations such as the Maryland State Family Child Care Association, which says it has represented child care providers since 1983.
The service employees union wants to represent the workers because their union dues could be paid directly by the state, the child care association said in a statement.
‘‘While SEIU has been working to get legislation to be able to collect dues from providers, the rest of the child care advocacy community has been working to get providers the rate increase that will be effective October 1, 2007,” the statement says. ‘‘We need higher rates in Maryland, but we can get them without SEIU, and when we do get the increases, providers will get to keep 100 percent of them.”
The union can work more effectively to increase pay and improve benefits for child care workers, who are ‘‘extremely dedicated people,” Cuttitta said. ‘‘This is about elevating their position,” she said.
The pay for child care employees ‘‘generally is very low,” and benefits ‘‘are minimal for most child care workers,” according to a U.S. Department of Labor report. The median hourly pay of child care workers in Maryland was $9.74 in 2006, more than the national average of $8.48, according to federal figures.
The wage for Maryland child care workers was about 58 percent of the median hourly wage of all occupations in the state, which was $16.74. Child care employees in elementary and secondary schools averaged more at $10.07, compared with $8.23 for those employed at private day care centers. Those in Montgomery and Frederick counties also make more than Baltimore workers.
Thousands of workersare eligible to vote
The union is not sure how many child care workers will be eligible to vote in next month’s election, but it provided about 2,300 child care providers’ authorization cards to the state in applying for certification of its election petition, Cuttitta said. The state Department of Education has an eligibility list of 5,866 names, while a report by the Maryland Committee for Children said there were 7,345 providers who care for children whose care is state subsidized.
There are 10,560 registered child care providers in Maryland, according to a state report in March.
Employees with Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation and the American Arbitration Association, a District organization, verified that all but 19 of the people on the cards were on the state list, for a total of 39 percent of the names on the state list.
That was more than the 30 percent needed, as stated in an executive order signed earlier this month by Gov. Martin O’Malley that paved the way for the election.
In the order, O’Malley (D) said ‘‘there is a need to stabilize the family child care workforce.” But he said the order was not meant to grant workers the right to strike.
Full text available at Gazette.net
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CA - Program encourages education for child-care workers
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Friday, August 24 @ 08:55:58 EDT by kkurth
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Debbie Blumenthal credits a little-known stipend program for child-care professionals with helping her get through college.
The preschool director of Temple Etz Chaim in Thousand Oaks earned a bachelor's degree in childhood development earlier this year.
"It's been such a great program for me personally," Blumenthal said of the Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards (CARES) Project.
The program, sponsored by First 5 Ventura County, pays childcare workers for taking college courses in early childhood development on their way to obtaining a child development permit or bachelor's degree.
Officials for the program said more than 200 people from homeor centerbased facilities throughout the county received a stipend ranging from $600 to $1,200 for college courses this year.
Research shows that a teacher's qualifications are important indicators of how well students perform in school, so helping people get more education helps students, said Jennifer Johnson, director of operations at First 5 Ventura County.
In addition, the stipend is an incentive for workers to improve their education in the child-care field, she said.
Last year, the first year of the three-year program, three people earned an associate degree and six a bachelor's degree, she said. Results for the 2006-07 school year are still being calculated but are expected next month, Johnson said.
The program is entering its final year, and it's too early to know if the state commission, First 5 California, will continue the program beyond 2008, Johnson said. Blumenthal's success with college and the program may have inspired others to sign up.
She said about eight people on her staff now participate in the project and attend college.
Full text available at the Acorn
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NY - Providers of Child Care May Now Vote on Unionizing
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Thursday, August 02 @ 11:26:52 EDT by kkurth
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The state has given the go-ahead for New York City’s 28,000 home-based child care providers to hold an election on whether to unionize.
Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said yesterday that the state’s employment relations board had approved plans for the child care workers to vote on joining the teachers’ union.
The effort would be one of the largest organizing drives in New York since 45,000 teachers joined the city’s teachers’ union in 1960.
Ms. Weingarten said the approval came after her union, working with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as Acorn, collected 12,000 signatures from child care providers saying they supported unionization.
Under state rules, a public employee union needs to collect signatures from 30 percent of the workers in the group for an election to take place.
“The home day care providers deserve a livable wage, and the children in their care deserve a greater educational experience,” Ms. Weingarten said.
She said the election would probably take place late this month, although some details remain to be worked out with the employment relations board.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer signed an executive order in May that gave 60,000 home-based child care providers throughout the state the right to unionize.
His executive order covered providers who care for children of low-income workers whose day care is subsidized by the federal and state governments. If most of the workers vote to unionize, then their union will negotiate with the state over their pay and benefits.
An Acorn survey found that the average annual pay for home-based child care providers in the city was $19,933.
“These providers are professionals, and they should be treated accordingly,” said Bertha Lewis, executive director of Acorn in New York.
Full text available at the New York Times
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MI - Column: Is child care worth more to kids -- or budget-cutters?
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Wednesday, June 27 @ 09:07:51 EDT by kkurth
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A couple-dozen crucial cogs in the state's business and economic policy wheel showed up at a recent hearing on the 2008 state budget.
While such a contingent generally draws the rapt attention of lawmakers, this group's attire -- T-shirts that formed a kelly-green block in the audience at the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Human Services -- signaled they weren't taking that for granted.
Smart move, since they've been overlooked in the past.
How overlooked? Well, it's been 11 years -- longer than similar workers in any other state, they say -- since they got a raise from Michigan taxpayers.
But not so overlooked that lawmakers didn't finger them for cuts in a budget that is at least $1.6 billion short.
So came members of the Child Care Providers Together Michigan union, which represents 40,000 in-home child-care providers statewide. They tend to 200,000 Michigan children whose low-income working parents qualify for state-subsidized child care.
The Michigan Senate wants to save $27 million by cutting back the number of child-care hours the state will help those families cover from 50 to 45 per week.
The union was formed in December with the backing of the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers. Union representatives say they want to improve child care by providing workers with better wages, and health care and vacation benefits.
Pamela Stewart of Benton Harbor, a 29-year veteran of the profession whose home is licensed for 12 children, told lawmakers that when she started in 1979, her state payment was $1.50 an hour. Now it's $1.95.
Hmm, do we have a problem?
Only if you're a working parent trying to find quality child care.
Only if you're a state trying to keep more former welfare moms on the job so you don't get whacked financially by the federal government.
Only if you're a lawmaker representing taxpayers who want to help boost the economy.
"Without child-care providers our communities would suffer," Stewart said, " ... businesses would be unable to operate efficiently."
Full text available at Mlive.com
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Caregivers' low pay hurts quality
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Wednesday, June 13 @ 09:59:05 EDT by kkurth
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As baby boomers age and women with young children return to the work force, families are increasingly turning to paid workers to care for children and elderly parents and grandparents. Yet those direct care and child-care workers receive low wages, change jobs often, lack health insurance, and live in low-income families at a greater rate than all other female workers, according to a new policy brief by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.
"The large-scale movement of women into the paid labor market has brought sweeping change to the structure of family life, affecting who cares for the elderly and children. Today, our society depends, in part, on the caring work of many paid professionals," said Kristin Smith, family demographer at the Carsey Institute and co-author of the brief.
"High turnover in both professions contributes to lower quality care leading to unfavorable outcomes for the elderly and children," Smith said.
Direct-care workers comprise personal-care assistants, home-care aides, home-health aides and certified nursing assistants; child-care workers are preschool and nursery school teachers, center-based child-care providers and home-based family child-care providers.
Analyzing the most recent data from the Current Population Survey, the brief finds that median hourly wages for direct-care workers are higher than those for child-care workers ($9.26 and $7.69, respectively), but both groups earn substantially less than all female workers ($13.46). Direct-care workers, despite their higher median earnings, have lower total family incomes than child-care workers (average total family income of $40,445 for direct-care workers and $56,203 for child-care workers). Both types of workers are more likely to live in low-income families than all female workers.
"One in every two direct-care workers and one in three child-care workers are living in a low-income family, defined as below 200 percent of the federal poverty line," Smith said. "That's striking, because these people are working, but they're struggling to make ends meet."
"Normally, workers get higher returns on higher levels of education," said Smith. "Child-care work seems to fall short in that regard."
Both fields of care-giving are plagued by high turnover, which impedes the provision of quality care and is a cost burden to employers. Among women employed in the direct-care work force in 2005, 60 percent remained in the direct-care occupation a year later in 2006, while 33 percent left the field to work in another occupation and seven percent left the labor force altogether.
A similar proportion, 65 percent, of child-care workers were still employed as child-care workers one year later, in 2006. The brief also finds that retention is linked to wages: direct care workers with higher earnings are more likely to remain in the occupation one year later.
Full text available at the Seacoast Online
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OR - Provider Appreciation Day celebrated
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Thursday, May 31 @ 09:53:14 EDT by kkurth
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Child care organizations and parents across the globe joined together the Friday before Mothers' Day, May 11, to celebrate Provider Appreciation Day. Locally, the Child Care Health Consultation (CCHC) team with Family Care Connection led this effort by delivering potted flowers and bags of chocolate to all child care providers throughout the county. Child care health consultants Donna Boyce, RN, Felecia Todd, health educator, and Dawn Sly, mental health consultant, organized the event as a way to show support and say thank you to the hard working providers in our community.
"Every day, child care providers care for more than 720 children under the age of 5 in Lincoln County, according to recent statistics," Nina Roll, Director of Family Care Connection, said. "The children and parents of Lincoln County depend on our child care providers. May 11 was a day to recognize the hard work and dedication of providers, and to acknowledge their contributions to quality care and toward maintaining a strong work force."
"By applauding the dedication of child care providers, we remind our communities of the importance of high-quality child care, and let providers everywhere know that we recognize and value their important work", Linda K. Smith, executive director of the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA), the lead sponsor of Provider Appreciation Day, added. "It is important that the care a child receives during the first five years of life be of high-quality because 90 percent of brain development occurs during those years.
"It takes a special person to work in the child care field and these individuals are often unrecognized," sAmy Wechter, Family Care Connection Consultant, said. "This day offers an opportunity for the community to show their child care providers their respect and appreciation."
Full text available at the Newport News-Times
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AR - Lawmakers Question Degree Requirement For Early Childhood Teachers
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Thursday, May 31 @ 09:49:22 EDT by kkurth
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A proposed rule requiring classroom teachers in the Arkansas Better Chance Program to hold bachelor's degrees will be rewritten because of concerns raised by state lawmakers, a state Education Department official said Wednesday.
The rule, approved last month by the state Board of Education, was criticized Wednesday by members of the Administrative Rules and Regulations Committee of the Arkansas Legislative Council, which reviews the rules and regulations of all state agencies.
Paul Lazenby, associate director of the Education Department's Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education, told the committee the rule would require preschool teachers to have a bachelor's degree in early childhood education or child development.
"The national standard now, when we look across the country, is a bachelor's degree for the ... teachers in pre-K, and we have sought to move in that direction to be in line with national standard," Lazenby said.
More than 70 percent of the state's preschool teachers already meet the requirement, and those who do not would be given until 2013 to obtain a degree, he said.
Some committee members questioned whether people who have had long, successful careers as preschool teachers should be forced to go back to school or lose their jobs.
"So a 21-year-old person straight out of some college or university that happens to have a sheet of paper is more qualified in these programs than someone that's been doing it for 20 years?" asked Rep. Chris Thyer, D-Jonesboro.
Lazenby admitted having a degree does not necessarily mean a person will be a good teacher, but "if you do look at the national research, overall it does show that one of the biggest indicators of quality is the teacher having a bachelor's degree for preschool."
"Was there any discussion about grandfathering those people in who have done a number of years and who have done an excellent job, rather than just arbitrarily, six years from now, saying, 'You're unable to be employed in your current job?'" Thyer asked.
Full text available at the Morning News
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OH - Voinovich, Brown join forces for early childhood education
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, May 29 @ 09:56:01 EDT by kkurth
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U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and George Voinovich (R-OH) have introduced bipartisan education legislation aimed at bolstering early childhood education.
Brown and Voinovich worked with the National Association for the Education of Young Children to develop the Early Childhood Education Professional Development and Career System Grants Act (S. 1431), which would authorize grants to help states attract, train, and retain high-quality early childhood educators.
“Early education has a significant impact on a child’s overall educational experience, which means quality is important,” Brown said. “This legislation ensures our youngest students start off on the right foot by providing early childhood educators with the tools and resources they need to help our children succeed.”
“As a long-time champion of early childhood education programs, I am committed to recruiting the best and brightest teachers for our children,” Voinovich said. “This vital legislation will help ensure that all of our children have access to quality educational opportunities from the earliest years. We should do all that we can to help recruit and train the best educators available for our children.”
Research confirms that the most effective teachers have specialized knowledge of child development and early-childhood teaching methodologies. Training is essential to teach vital mathematics, literacy, and language skills. However, many early childhood professionals do not have access to the tools necessary to successfully teach in the classroom.
A 2004 Economic Policy Institute study found that 42 percent of early childhood educators did not have any college level education, and less than one in three educators had a bachelor’s degree. In addition, low salaries and lack of benefits make it difficult to attract and retain skilled early childhood education staff. According to the Center for Childcare and the Workforce, child care providers earn an average wage of less than $20,000 a year.
Full text available at the Port Clinton News Herald
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VT - Letter to the Editor: A day to appreciate child-care providers
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Monday, May 14 @ 13:26:20 EDT by kkurth
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Child Care Provider Appreciation Day is Friday, May 11. This is a day that we recognize the unsung heroes who care for our children.
As a parent, I am reminded of the skilled and compassionate teachers, both center-based and home-based, that our family has had the privilege and joy of knowing over the past 12 years.
As a past provider and director, I think of the wonderful and caring professionals who dedicate so much time, energy and love to children every day, often with low pay, long hours and little appreciation, relying instead on the satisfaction of knowing that they are making the difference in the lives of children.
As a staff member at Child Care Resource, I think of the providers who are committed to being lifelong learners in the profession of child care, seeking new knowledge, ideas and skills that will enhance their programs and inspire their time spent with children.
Dedicated and skilled providers who nurture trusting and respectful relationships with children are priceless to families. Please take time on May 11 to join me in thanking and honoring child-care providers for all they do.
MEGHAN FLANDERS
Westford
Available at the Burlington Free Press
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NY - Governor Gives Child Care Workers Union Label
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Monday, May 14 @ 12:37:36 EDT by kkurth
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Gov. Spitzer yesterday granted tens of thousands of home day-care providers the right to unionize - a move Mayor Bloomberg quickly warned "will lead to reductions in affordable child care for working New Yorkers."
Spitzer said his executive order, which requires no legislative action, would allow the workers to negotiate for better pay and benefits, lead to improved working conditions and offer "necessary" protections. It would also, he said, raise standards and expectations for providers throughout the state.
Most, if not all, of the 28,000 eligible home providers in the city would be covered by the city's powerful teachers union.
"Allowing these workers to organize and negotiate is not only fair but smart," said Spitzer, whose order makes New York the seventh state to allow home day-care workers to unionize.
But Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser blasted the order for not providing additional state funds to cover the potential salary increases.
The state regulates certain child-care providers and gives local social-service districts block-grant funding to assist low-income families in paying for child care.
Under Spitzer's order, the state would negotiate the contracts with the providers, with the city required to pay the costs through the funding it receives, the governor's aides said.
Spitzer said the current system's long hours, limited benefits and low pay drives many providers from the market, and as a result, cuts quality care.
But a Bloomberg aide, who requested anonymity, warned that the order will cost the city between $50 million and $90 million in salary increases and benefits - which could force it to cut about 15,000 child-care slots to pay for the boosts.
The aide said many of the workers who will be eligible to unionize are unlicensed relatives of working poor who are authorized by the state and city to watch up to two children each.
Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson called the city's comments "off the mark . . . especially in light of the financial windfall [New York City] received in this year's budget."
Former Gov. George Pataki, at the urging of Bloomberg, vetoed a similar unionization measure that was passed overwhelmingly by the Legislature last year.
A one-time aide to Pataki called the Spitzer order "really outrageous" and a blatant gift to supportive unions.
"[It's] one thing to do legislatively, that would have been bad enough, but unilaterally, as a campaign payback?" the former aide said.
Anderson said there are big differences between the bill Pataki vetoed and the executive order Spitzer issued yesterday.
Unlike last year's bill, which would have classified the workers as public employees, Spitzer's executive order does not guarantee salary hikes and benefits or allow workers to bring unfair labor practices or strike.
Full text available at the New York Post
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WA - Effort launched to raise wages for South Sound child care workers
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Monday, May 14 @ 12:13:18 EDT by kkurth
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Rose Horgdal left her job in a child care center last year to work at Jiffy Lube for $12 an hour. Though passionate about children, she couldn’t pay her bills.
In March, she returned to the child care field as director of the west-side Olympia Child Care Center. She had to take a pay cut, but for her it was worth it.
“I just felt I was punching numbers every day. It wasn’t rewarding. It wasn’t satisfying,” she said of the auto service job. “I get so much out of knowing I’m helping the kids.”
Her dilemma speaks to a demand for quality child care, educators and community leaders say.
Child care providers earn $8.32 an hour, $10 below a living wage, according to a 2005 Bureau of Labor report. Washington state’s minimum wage is $7.93 an hour.
“That’s horrifying, just an embarrassment. It’s not going to draw the best and the brightest” to the field, said Annie Cubberly, executive director of the Child Care Action Council.
She is part of a group of about 80 educators, business leaders and child care and health care providers who make up the Thurston County Early Childhood Coalition. Coalition members have been meeting since January to discuss creating better services for children under age 5.
Members looked at early education research and identified early education priorities. Better quality child care easily rose to the top.
The other priorities the coalition identified were improving bilingual and medical services to parents with young children and researching brain development and readiness to learn.
Coalition members will meet Saturday to discuss solutions and strategies for addressing the three themes, including attracting funding for programs that will bridge the gap between low wages and high turnover in the child care field.
Full text available at the Olympian Online
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NM - Grant program at WNMU helps prepare early-childhood educators
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, April 24 @ 10:56:55 EDT by kkurth
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A new grant program at Western New Mexico University's School of Education will assist 31 assistant teachers earn a bachelor's degree in early-childhood education.
According to a news release, the project develops a more highly skilled work force, while helping teachers in Head Start programs and four local school districts meet quality standards.
Funded by New Mexico's Higher Education Department through a teacher quality improvement grant, El Puente's primary purpose is to help prepare teachers for preschool through third-grade classrooms, said the program's grant writer, Alice Jones.
"Using practices in these classrooms that are appropriate for young children will better align programs with the demands school districts are facing for accountability," Jones said.
The funding is currently in place for a two-year program. Cobre Consolidated Schools, Deming Public Schools, El Grito Head Start, Lordsburg Municipal Schools, Silver Consolidated Schools and WNMU's School of Education are all partners in the project.
"El Puente is the bridge to educational advancement for instructional assistants and early-childhood and elementary teachers in three southwestern New Mexico counties," said Terry
Anderson, director of Early Childhood Programs at WNMU. "There is emerging research in brain development that gives educators new insights into appropriate learning environments for young children and the need for training in the field for professionals."
The program aims at helping overcome the financial, cultural and time-management barriers to continuing education for instructional aides, Anderson said.
The program will provide full scholarships, books and fees, summer living stipends, travel and child-care expenses, academic advising and on-site classroom mentoring.
Full text available at the Silver City Sun-News
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CO - Child-care workers may get college aid
Submitted by emohan. Posted on Wednesday, March 07 @ 13:44:41 EST by emohan
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Can giving child-care workers incentives to earn a degree in early childhood education help solve the child-care dilemma some parents face in Eagle County?
Pitkin County help its child-care workers with education expenses, and Eagle County is planning a similar program in which child-care workers would get grants to attend college. Eagle County Commissioners are expected to vote on the program, along with other initiatives for young children, within the next three weeks.
"We have been doing this program for five years, and we have had about 70 percent of our child care workforce apply and receive this incentive," said Shirley Ritter, director of Kid's First, which serves Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin Counties. "Of those who have or are participating, about 20 percent have been given promotions based on the credits they've earned and their time on the job."
Participants in Pitkin County program can receive as little as $100 for earning six college credits and as much as $3,500 for getting a master's degree. The money is paid to the employee every six months.
The Eagle County program, if approved by the commissioners, would offer the same benefits. Receiving an education and the possibility of advancement is something Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Forinash hopes will translate into better care for kids and new employees for local child-care providers.
"The basic issue is that we want to be able to have quality and consistent care for children, and in order to get that we need to have people get training and education," Forinash said. "Kids do better when they have the same caregiver throughout their early years of their life. It teaches them about relationships, security and how to form bonds."
After 17 years working in child care, Kathy Reed, sub-director of Pooh Corner Preschool in Minturn, said money for college can translate into retaining employees.
"There is quite a shortage of workers," Reed said. "There's a lot of entry-level people but we need more than just baby sitters and more people that can provide children with advanced skills for life."
The financial incentives Pooh Corner offers for education only cover a fraction of the cost for schooling, but the help does keep employees there, Reed said.
"Most people in charge of child-care centers know the need for financial incentives for education," she said.
Seeking a stable workforce
The turnover rate for childcare workers in Eagle County is currently 37 percent, and only 7 percent of caregivers have a degree in early-childhood education, Forinash said.
The county hopes to triple the amount of educated child-care employees in five years, and drastically reduce the turnover rate.
The estimated cost to help child-care workers continue their education's is $168,400 per year, but the benefits are invaluable, Ritter said.
“Not only are the highly-educated the most desired people to take care of our youngest children, but these are workers who are only making $12 an hour to start for doing a job with very long hours, little recognition, difficult tasks and all for very little pay,” she said.
Employers also will build stable work forces if wages are increased, Ritter said.
“If you have someone earning less than $25,000 a year making $12 an hour, it’s unimaginable to think how they can afford to live in this community,” Forinash said. “We pay those who work with our most vulnerable group of citizens the least amount possible. They can’t afford to go to college without the incentive, and we can’t afford to have them keep leaving their jobs.”
State-funded programs often are not available to county residents. There are currently 50 children from 30 families receiving money from the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program. A family of four must earn less than $3,083 per month in gross income to be eligible for the Colorado Child care Assistance Program, or $36,996 a year.
Full text available at the Vail Daily News
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NM - Bill would allow child care workers to organize
Submitted by emohan. Posted on Wednesday, March 07 @ 13:29:10 EST by emohan
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Registered and licensed child-care providers play an important role and should be allowed to collectively bargain for increased benefits, Rep. Miguel Garcia, D-Albuquerque, said.
House Bill 632 would allow the more than 6,700 registered child-care providers to organize and collectively bargain with the state, even though the care providers are not state employees, nor are they associated with the Children, Youth and Families Department.
"By involving these individuals in the collective bargaining process, they can, for the first time ever, create networks of support they can't do now," Garcia said. "That matters. That's a leap forward in terms in improving the quality of care."
Under the bill, which was passed by the House in a 35-31 vote Friday, once a collective bargaining unit is formed, union officials would meet with Children, Youth and Families officials to explore systems for family child care providers to access affordable, comprehensive health insurance coverage.
Exactly what those benefits would cost the state or registered and licensed care providers remains unclear, however.
Garcia said the proposed bill simply sets up the required framework.
"The purpose of this bill is to allow these family child-care providers to be represented by an organization to bargain on their behalf," he said.
Family child care providers are those who provide scheduled care for up to 12 children.
"They are neither state employees for employees of CYFD. They have a gray area what they are," Garcia said, noting the providers most closely resemble independent contractors that can collectively bargain.
Full text available at the Alamogordo Daily News
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NV - Child-care providers to address concerns
Submitted by emohan. Posted on Thursday, February 15 @ 12:35:04 EST by emohan
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A number of county child-care providers have quietly voiced concern that state licensing agents have become intimidating and hostile in the way they enforce their practices.
A meeting will be held tonight with care providers and representatives of Community Care Licensing of Sacramento to address concerns.
The public meeting will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the upstairs conference room at Sierra Nevada Children's Services, 256 Buena Vista St. in Grass Valley, near the Bodyworks Day Spa on South Auburn Street
"There have been issues of overly zealous enforcement and misuse of power by licensing," said Elizabeth MacKenzie, Nevada County Child Care Ombudsperson. A number of county agencies are working together to address the concern that MacKenzie said is threatening the closure of numerous facilities.
Full text available at the Union
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