Early learning a key topic as 2013 legislative session begins

The 2013 Legislature convened this week for a 105-day session, during which they must write a 2013-15 budget. Stay connected on DEL's State Legislature web page, which includes links to reports, presentations, and DEL briefing papers on key programs and services.

Early learning issues likely to be areas of focus this session include:

• How to expand and enhance the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP), our state-funded preschool program. ECEAP is scheduled to become a statutory entitlement for eligible 3- and 4-year-olds beginning in school year 2017-18. Outgoing Gov. Chris Gregoire in her proposed 2013-15 budget added $50 million to ECEAP to fund 5,000 more enrollment slots and program quality improvements.
• How to support children ages birth to 3. A legislatively created birth-to-3 work group delivered recommendations to the Legislature on how to help ensure our very youngest learners and their families have high-quality opportunities that prepare them for school and life. Read those recommendations here. 
• How to help ensure our state offers high-quality service to families seeking Working Connections Child Care subsidies and ensures program integrity.Read the eligibility study here, and the DEL/Department of Social and Health Services response here. DEL is pursuing continued state funding for an electronic subsidy attendance system to help ensure billing accuracy. That system will go live in 2015.
• How to implement the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS), our state's kindergarten readiness process for helping to ensure a successful start to the K-12 experience. WaKIDS is a key component of Washington's Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant. A legislatively created work group has delivered recommendations to the Legislature about how to roll WaKIDS out statewide. Watch a WaKIDS update during a Jan. 17 joint work session of the House Early Learning & Human Services and House Education committees:

Watch a Jan. 17 DEL/Thrive by Five Washington overview to the House Early Learning & Human Services Committee:    

New crib standards take effect today for all child care providers in the United States

Starting today, all child care centers and homes must comply with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) new crib rules.

More than 11 million cribs have been recalled because of safety hazards in the United States since 2007. The CPSC changed federal manufacturing standards for cribs in June 2011. The new rules, which apply to full-size and non-full-size cribs, prohibit the manufacture or sale of traditional drop-side rail cribs, strengthen crib slats and mattress supports, improve the quality of hardware and require more rigorous testing. Read more about the details of the crib manufacturing rules.

Starting today, all cribs in use in child care centers, family homes and places of public accommodation must comply with the June 2011 crib safety standards.

How can I tell if my crib complies with the new standards?

You cannot tell from looking at a crib whether it meets the new standards. If you purchased a crib before July 2011, it is not likely that it meets the new federal standard. You can check the crib itself for the manufacturing date. If it’s after June 28, 2011, the crib meets the standard. To be sure, you can contact the manufacturer to ask if the crib complies with 16 CFR 1219, the new standard for full-size cribs, or 16 CFR 1220, the new standard for non-full-size cribs.

The CPSC recently published guidance on which cribs meet the requirements and how providers can determine if their cribs comply. Read the guidance on CPSC’s cribs webpage.

How will DEL enforce the new standards?

DEL has incorporated the CPSC crib rules into our child care center and family home licensing rules. The rules require licensees to keep a log that shows each crib in use meets the CPSC crib requirements. Child care licensors may ask to see the log at any time, including during monitoring visits.

More information:

• Child care provider guide to new crib standards
• Enforcement guidance for child care providers
• New crib standards questions and answers
• CPSC crib information center
   

Updated school-age licensing rules take effect Dec. 20

Updated rules for licensed school-age child care go into effect on Dec. 20. The revised school-age licensing WAC 170-297 will replace the previous school-age center requirements, WAC 170-151. The revised rules pertain to the 450 licensed school-age programs around the state, which serve up to 20,000 children ages 5 through 12 with before- and after-school care. The rules were last updated in 2001.

The updated rules are better aligned with DEL's other child care licensing rules, and reflect more recent research. Key changes in the updated rules include:

• Updates to water safety requirements, including adding a requirement of minimum staff-to-child ratio of 1:10 during water activities.
• More information about guidance and discipline, including positive options for discipline and ways to help ensure bullying does not occur in the program.
• Allowing use of public transportation, so long as children are supervised at all times and required staff-to-child ratios are maintained.
• Updates to lighting safety requirements, including adding a requirement for either shatter-resistant light bulbs or shatter-resistant light coverings on ceiling-mounted light fixtures.
• Requiring licensees to share more information with families about the program's program philosophy (view of child learning and development).
• Information about use of private wells for water.
• Updated information about smoking in or near the licensed space.
• Updated information about first-aid kits.
• Adding a requirement for ground cover in fall zones near swings and play equipment.
• Adding limitations to screen time.
• New rules regarding satellite kitchens.
• Increasing education requirements for program directors.

The Department of Early Learning (DEL) began the process of updating these rules in 2009, when we contracted with School's Out Washington to create recommendations for the rules. School's Out Washington brought together key stakeholders to deliver these recommendations to DEL.

DEL filed formal proposed rules on Sept. 5, 2012, and held public hearings in Seattle and Yakima. We also accepted comments online.View a list of those comments and how they informed the rules.

View a comparison of the old rules and the updated rules.

School-age providers who have questions should contact their licensor.

Immunization reporting requirements for child care providers and educators

We recently shared some information with licensed child care providers from the state Department of Health (DOH) about immunization reporting that is required by Nov. 1. According to the DOH, “Washington State law requires Early Learning Programs to complete and file an Immunization Status Report each year by November 1. Programs required to report include licensed Child Care centers, Preschools, ECEAP contractors and Head Start programs. Licensed Family Child Care Homes with 12 children or less are exempt for the reporting requirement.”

• Providers who are required to report can do so online or through a downloadable form.
• Parents or providers who are unsure about what the immunization requirements are for children’s attendance from preschool through K-12 school can view the list on DOH’s website.
• DOH has a webpage with links to the state laws and rules that govern immunizations and reporting.
• Child care providers who have questions can contact DOH at OICPSchools@doh.wa.gov or 360-236-3595.

We’ve added links to the immunization schedule and reporting requirements to several of our webpages as a resource for families and child care providers:

• Information for parents and families
• Information for child care providers and educators
• Useful websites
• Childhood disease prevention and health promotion

DEL taking action to address issues identified in child care subsidy audit

The Working Connections Child Care program helps low-income families pay for child care while they work, look for work, or participate in approved job training. The program helps up 30,000 families at any given time with an economic boost they need to find or maintain work.

 

Accountability and program integrity are one of the many areas the Department of Early Learning (DEL) has been focusing attention in the program. The child care subsidy system is an old and largely manual system. Several audits identified ways the subsidy system is not working as well as it should, and DEL has addressed many issues in accountability. For context, DEL is responsible for child care subsidy policy and oversight; the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) is responsible for families’ eligibility to receive subsidized child care and payments to child care providers.

 

Thanks to the funding from the state Legislature, we are working on developing an electronic subsidy system that will replace the old paper and manual entry system. This will be a crucial step in tightening controls over the $280 million in subsidy payments we make each year.

 

Despite some cases of reported fraud in the child care community, which have been turned over to DSHS for investigation and/or prosecution, families who are eligible for services are receiving care and, as of now, the program has room to serve more families.

 

DEL initiated its own child care subsidy audit team to review random, targeted, and complaint-based subsidy payment records from both licensed and license-exempt child care providers. We assembled the audit team to improve accountability over child care providers’ billing practices. The team is responsible for documenting and writing overpayments for collection where errors in billing occur; the team refers potential fraud cases that are identified to DSHS’ Fraud and Accountability at the Department of Social and Health Services for investigation.

 

Based upon the DEL audit team’s results, DEL has asked OFM for permission to add an additional five auditors to the team, using existing federal funding.

Any amount of waste or abuse is too much. DEL has been actively working with DSHS on recovering overpayments. DEL has also modified or added to child care subsidy rules:

• Responsibilities for child care providers who are paid for providing subsidized care.
• The provision that providers may not receive benefits for child care subsidies at the same time as they are themselves are paid for providing care.
• A requirement that providers maintain the last year of attendance records to be immediately available upon request on site.
• Not allowing payments to providers who bill for more children than they are allowed to care for (called overcapacity). 

These are just a few areas where DEL and DSHS have been focusing attention to improve performance and promote responsible practices by people who work in or use the child care subsidy system.

Child care providers have better access to education, more clear career path

Today, DEL and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges announced a project to improve child care providers’ access to continuing education and a clearer path to an early childhood education (ECE) credential.

DEL and the higher education system have been working for several months on building “stackable certificates” that allow early learning professionals to work their way toward a statewide ECE credential, which equals a one-year certificate. We are calling it a statewide credential because all participating colleges will use the same curriculum, course descriptions and course numbers. Three certificates, earned sequentially, will result in the one-year credential.

This fall, there are three participating community colleges: Olympic, Pierce and Yakima Valley. Starting this winter quarter, four more colleges will participate: Highline, Clark, Lower Columbia and Bates Technical. By Fall 2013, all state community and technical colleges will be able to offer this curriculum. That means that any ECE student who studies at a participating college will be able to transfer to another participating college and have their credits and progress toward a certificate or credential seamlessly transfer.

Participating colleges also will offer Early Achievers Opportunity Grants, which are set aside for early learning professionals who work at a child care facility that participates in Early Achievers, Washington’s quality rating and improvement system, and who qualify as a low-income student. The grants help pay for tuition, books and other resources, including tutoring. Students apply for the grants through a participating community college.

We are using funding from the Race to the Top-Early Challenge grant that our state won in December 2011 to pay for the Early Achievers Opportunity Grants because they are directly aligned with the federal government’s goal for this funding: to build a strong, cohesive and consistent professional development system, respond to communities’ unique needs and provide valuable instruction to early learning professionals. In the end, child care professionals, families and children all win in our race to improve the quality of early learning in Washington.

• Read the press release
• Learn more about Early Achievers
• Learn more about Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant

Gov. Gregoire launches ‘Read Early, Read Often’ campaign

Gov. Chris Gregoire today announced a new campaign, “Read Early, Read Often,” encouraging parents to read to their children at least 20 minutes a day. Gregoire joined Department of Early Learning Director Bette Hyde at Denise Louie Education Center in Seattle, where the governor launched the initiative this morning and read one of her favorite books, “What Grandmas Do Best,” to a group of preschoolers. Hyde shared the story, “Preschool Day Hooray!”

“As kids head to school or preschool this month, it’s too easy to think that they’re getting enough education time in the classroom,” Gregoire said. “We know though that when parents get involved at home, our students have a better chance at succeeding in school and in life. Just 20 minutes a day can not only help make your child a more proficient reader, it will strengthen the bond between parents and their kids.”

According to a 2010 report from The Annie E. Casey Foundation, “the ability to read is central to a child’s success in school, lifelong earning potential, and the ability to contribute to the nation’s economy and its security.” Building literacy skills helps children succeed in the long run, and research shows that children who are reading proficiently by the end of third grade are more likely to graduate from high school.

“School readiness means ready schools, ready children, ready families and ready communities,” said Hyde. “Reading to children every day, even as little as 20 minutes, gives them an important boost in being ready for success in school and life.”

For reading ideas to try with children, visit the governor’s Read Early, Read Often webpage.

For more information on Gregoire’s achievements in education, visit: www.governor.wa.gov/priorities/education/education_accomplishments.pdf