REVISED: DEL is Seeking Volunteers to Participate as an Attendance Project Usability Tester

We do not need any more volunteers for usability testing.  Due to the tremendous response to our call for volunteers--all of the usability sessions have been filled. 

Thank you to all of the people that volunteered to test the usability of several of the attendance systems DEL is evaluating for purchase.  Your feedback will help DEL find the best attendance tracking system for our state. 

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The Department of Early Learning (DEL) is currently working through a new attendance system which will track attendance of children participating in Washington’s child care subsidy program. The process is currently done on paper forms, creating a complicated and confusing process for families, providers, and the State. With the federal government now requiring us to improve our child care subsidy attendance records, we are in the process of selecting an electronic attendance system. This new system will track, store, and report on child attendance to support provider billing. The digital system should be easier to use and more accurate. The goals of the Attendance Project are to:  

• Replace the manual paper attendance system used by most providers with a modern, off-the-shelf, cloud-based software.
• Reduce the amount of time that providers and State workers spend tabulating attendance hours.
• Reduce billing inaccuracies and over-payments with internal controls over child care payments.
• Implement the new system in a manner that supports providers’ different comfort levels with technology.

Prior to committing to an attendance system we need your help.  We are seeking volunteers, licensed child care providers and parents using licensed care, to test the usability of systems we are evaluating for purchase and provide feedback. Your feedback will directly contribute to the selection of a system that will improve child care subsidy attendance tracking. 

The usability study is being conducted between May 25 through June 8 in Olympia. Volunteers will commit to approximately 1-1 ½ hours in our Usability Lab interacting with one of the attendance systems while providing feedback about the system to a facilitator. These sessions will be video recorded. 

Volunteers are eligible to receive a $75.00 gift card and travel reimbursements based on current state reimbursement rates and in accordance with the State of Washington Office of Financial Management Travel Regulations (current rates for travel can be accessed at: http://www.ofm.wa.gov/resources/travel.asp). 

If you are interested in participating in this activity, please complete our 3 minute survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/R6GKH83) and a member of the Washington Technology Solutions (WaTech) User Experience Team will contact you within the next two business days to schedule a session.

Please contact communications@del.wa.gov with any questions.

Thank you for your interest in contributing to our state’s progress toward building an early learning system that meets the needs of all Washington children and families!

DEL enhances efforts to help ensure safety in child care

The Department of Early Learning and partners have enhanced our efforts to help ensure registered sex offenders are not living in homes where child care is offered.

The effort comes as the result of a State Auditor's Office performance audit that found 17 instances over 10 years of registered sex offenders living in homes where child care is offered. Two of those homes were licensed family homes. The other 15 were license-exempt child care providers who receive state subsidies to care for children.

As DEL staff testified today at a Joint Legislative Audit Review Committee session on the report, child care providers are good people doing hard work. However, as is highlighted in the audit, very occasionally a provider does not divulge information about a sex offender living on premises. The auditor gave us a new approach for making sure that children in child care are safe.

As a result of this audit, we:

• Will be meeting with the Department of Social and Health Services on a quarterly basis to match up sex offenders’ registered addresses against a list of licensed family home child care providers’ and license-exempt providers’ addresses. If we make a match, we will take quick action on the provider’s license or, for exempt providers, on their ability to be paid state child care subsidies.
• Revoked the license of one of the two licensed family home child care providers identified in the audit. The other provider was no longer licensed, but we have noted the auditor’s finding in that individual's file should that person ever seek a child care license again.
• Are clarifying our rules around background checks for license-exempt child care providers. Our rules are clear that when the provider offers care in the child’s home, the provider must have a background check, and when the child goes to the provider’s home, everyone living there age 16 or older must have a background check. What our rules did not address was the rare instance where a license-exempt child care provider lives in the same home where he or she is providing care to a child. We will clarify that in that instance, only the provider must have a background check.

Watch the JLARC hearing here:

Family home child care rules are a boost for Washington families and child care professionals

More than 170,000 Washington children from newborn through age 12 spend time in licensed child care, about 45,000 of them in family home child care settings. Many of these children spend the majority of their waking hours in care. They deserve care that is not just safe and healthy, but also gets them ready to succeed in school.

On March 31, updated family home child care licensing rules will go into effect for our state’s 5,000 family home child care providers. The updated rules support healthy, safe, nurturing care by:

• Requiring family home providers to have a high school diploma or GED, a child development associate credential or 45 credits of child development. Existing providers have until March 31, 2017, to attain this education.
• Limiting screen time, including video games and movies, to two hours per day.
• Increasing playground safety to reduce injuries caused by falling from climbing equipment and swings.
• Reflecting new federal standards around crib safety.
• Requiring a higher level of communication between providers and parents around child development and child care philosophy.
• Enhancing background checks for those who work or live in the home.

A recent Washington Post article about a baby’s death in a Virginia family home child care illustrates why family home child care rules are so important. Earlier this month, Dateline NBC aired an investigation about background checks for child care providers across the nation. At least 11 states, including Washington, have comprehensive background screening systems—39 states do not. The investigation went on to illustrate case after case of people with criminal backgrounds caring for children and the devastating consequences that have happened in some cases.

These reports illustrate the contrast between Washington’s rules and what other states require – or not. Some states require no criminal background checks, training (including CPR) or even basic inspections. In 2012, the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) ranked Washington ranked second in the nation for strong, thorough family home child care licensing policies. Sixteen states scored zero points out of 150 because they do not regulate family home child care or do not inspect before licensing providers. Washington’s rules are just the basis of what children and families deserve in child care.

Washington started regulation family home child care rules in the 1960s after a fire in a family home child care killed three children. Since the 1960s, we have made great strides to ensure children’s safety in family home child care and child care center settings. In recent years, parents and child development professionals have recognized the need for child care professionals, with whom young children who attend spend the majority of their waking hours, to help prepare children for success in school and life. Our state is one of many around the nation making a push toward increased quality in child care as a key school readiness strategy. The bulk of Washington’s recent $60 million Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant will support child care providers in boosting the quality of their programs through coaching, incentives and professional development. These updated rules help provide the foundation.

Family home child care providers are an integral part of the local economy, offering care for families while parents work, look for work or go to school. The revised family home child care rules are meant to support providers as small business owners. While there is—understandably—anxiety among some providers about meeting these updated rules, DEL is committed to helping them succeed. Families demand and deserve high-quality care, and we must help ensure communities can meet that demand.

The Department of Early Learning wants child care providers to succeed. Their success equals children’s success. And that is good for everyone.

New rules for Working Connections Child Care in effect

The Working Connections Child Care (WCCC) subsidy program rules changed on Oct. 1, 2011. DEL wants to make sure you know about the changes.

 

WCCC basics
WCCC helps eligible families with low incomes pay for child care while they work or meet WorkFirst participation requirements.

 

What changed? The most recent rule changes:

• Made permanent emergency rules about entry caps, waiting lists, income limits and copayments to ensure the WCCC budget meets limits established by legislation and the Governor.
• Addressed compliance with federal and state audit requirements.
• Clarified several rules to streamline applying for and receiving benefits, and qualifying to be paid as an in-home or relative provider.

Some notable changes include:

• Every applicant must go through the WCCC application process, regardless of their participation in other DSHS assistance programs.
• The benefits start date is now the same for TANF and non-TANF recipients. All applicants must complete the application and verification process within 30 days. Applicants who do not meet the deadline must re-apply if they want to receive benefits.
• Rules around verifying income and employment now allow providing a previous year’s income tax return and allow untaxed, in-kind income and taxable corporate compensation to be counted as income.
• DSHS must verify the citizenship or legal residency of all children who participate in the program.
• Benefits are provided only for hours when parents work outside of the home.
• Self-employed applicants or recipients must provide additional verification such as a business license or registration and a self-employment plan.
• An in-home or relative provider who cares for children receiving WCCC benefits may not receive WCCC benefits for his or her own children during those same hours.

 More information is available on DEL’s website at www.del.wa.gov/care/help/connections.aspx.