New ELAC subcommittee focuses on licensed centers

A new subcommittee will advise the Department of Early Learning (DEL) on issues specific to licensed child care centers in Washington state. This Licensed Center Advisory Subcommittee (LCAS), a subcommittee of the Early Learning Advisory Council (ELAC), will address matters ranging from regulation improvement to staffing challenges, as well as region-specific concerns.

“We decided to support you in a different way by forming this subcommittee primarily out of the recognition that centers deliver the vast majority of our quality early learning service, in particular in service of families that are on the Working Connections Child Care system,” said DEL Assistant Director Frank Ordway at the subcommittee’s first meeting. The meeting was held online in November.

“It’s very exciting to finally see this coming together,” Ordway said.

ELAC has been discussing the formation of this subcommittee for at least two years as a way to give licensed centers more input into proposed policies that affect them, according to Lois Martin, a member of both ELAC and LCAS. This will be particularly important as DEL transitions to the new Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF).

“We want to make sure that all of our voices are still solicited, as well as heard, as we make this transition,” said Martin, who is the director of the Community Day Center for Children in Seattle. “We want to ensure that no one in any of these subgroups (at DCYF) is left behind.”

The new subcommittee will partner with DEL to have conversations about ongoing regulation improvement, rates and rate structures, staffing and professional development, and specific regional challenges, among other topics.

“Overall availability of [licensed centers] in your communities is critical to community health and to economic opportunity for families and so we need more of you,” Ordway told the committee. In particular, he stressed the importance of supporting an environment that is friendly to child care businesses so more providers stay in the market and new providers join.

“We need advice from [licensed centers] on how to do that better,” Ordway said.

For licensed centers, the new subcommittee will give them the opportunity for regular, focused conversations with DEL staff and leadership.

“I represent a lot of centers as well as my own in the Eastern Washington region and also statewide,” said Luc Jasmin, LCAS member and owner and director of Parkview Early Learning Center in Spokane. “It’s a way to really be able to bring thoughts, comments, and concerns to DEL and have that voice.”

Jasmin, who is also president and founder of the Washington Childcare Centers Association, pushed for the formation of the subcommittee to improve communication between licensed centers and DEL.

“My specific goals are to really be able to effectively communicate with the department and also with our membership base in a way that bridges that communication gap so that we’re streamlined and we’re on the same page,” he said.

At the first meeting of the Licensed Center Advisory Subcommittee, members also discussed some of the DEL’s requests for the upcoming 2018 legislative session. Among the DEL’s priorities are to ask for investments in infant and toddler resources and in support for licensed care around the state.

The subcommittee currently has 26 members and 10 unfilled seats. The DEL seeks to find members from underrepresented regions of the state, including north central, southwest, southeast, and Olympic-Kitsap Peninsulas.

The first in-person meeting for the Licensed Center Advisory Subcommittee will take place February 20. If you are interested in becoming a member of the subcommittee, contact slc@del.wa.gov.