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

Price of child care in Washington--and nation--is still high

Washington families continue to pay twice as much for child care as they do for college tuition, according to a new report from Child Care Aware of America on national trends in the cost of child care. The report also finds that nationally, many families are moving their children from care regulated to ensure health and safety standards, to unlicensed care to save money.

The 2012 report, called Parents and the High Cost of Child Care, is published annually and reflects what families around the country pay for full-time child care in child care centers and in family homes child care settings. It measures average rates for infants, 4-year-olds and school-age children.
Washington ranked 12th in the nation—tied with Michigan—for least affordable child care for an infant in a center. Infants care is typically the most expensive than care for preschool or school-age children. Washington families with two parents’ income pay an average of 13.2 percent of their median income on infant child care in a center. Single mothers, meanwhile, pay 42.4 percent of their median income for that type of care. Those percentages drop to 10 percent and 32.2 percent respecitvely for a 4-year-old’s center-based care; and 5.6 percent and 18.2 percent respectively for school-age center-based care. Infant care in a child care center costs 15 percent more per child than tuition and fees at a public college.

Washington’s average annual rates for child care:

Child care centers

• Infant: $10,920
• 4-year-old: $8,320
• School-age: $4,680

 Family home child care:

• Infant: $8,424
• 4-year-old: $7,020
• School-age: $3,661

Washington household costs for comparison

• Average annual rent payments: $10,848
•  Average annual mortgage payments: $21,240
•  Average annual public college tuition and fees: $9,484

Child Care Aware is the national organization for more than 600 state and local child care resource and referral networks, which help parents find child care. DEL partners with Child Care Aware Washington—the state branch of the national organization—to help families find the right child care arrangement for their children. We also partner with Child Care Aware Washington to support child care providers in improving quality through Early Achievers, Washington’s quality rating and improvement system.

Some national highlights from the 2012 report:

• In 40 states and the District of Columbia, the average annual cost of center-based care for an infant exceeded 10 percent of the median income for a two-parent family. That was also true for the cost of a 4-year-old’s care in 22 states and DC.
• In 35 states and in DC, the average annual cost for an infant in a child care center was higher than a year’s tuition and fees at a four-year public college. That was also true of the cost for a 4-year-old’s care in 19 states and DC.

Breakdown by state for center-based care:

• Most expensive state for infant care: New York, $14,009
• Least expensive state for infant care: Mississippi, $4,591

Child Care Aware agencies around the nation report that parents are removing their children from licensed child care settings to informal child care settings because of cost. While unlicensed settings may cost less, they are also of unknown quality and do not receive checks for basic health and safety standards that licensed child care facilities are subject to.

The report makes recommendations to the federal government to:

• Define minimally acceptable quality child care for families
• Study the real cost of quality care and to offer recommendations to Congress for financing to support quality options for parents.
• Add safety requirements to federal funding (Child Care Development Block Grant) that improve the quality of care through requiring background checks for people who care for children; training requirements; regular inspections of facilities; investing in resource and referral agencies so they can assist providers in meeting licensing standards and help families find quality care.
• Expand the availability of quality care in low-income areas and areas with a shortage of licensed care.
• Reduce barriers that prevent families from accessing child care assistance.

View the report: Parents and the High Cost of Child Care: 2012
Learn more about child care and child care assistance on DEL’s website.

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:

Sept. 1 marks new approval process to support high-quality training for early learning professionals

Training and education helps early learning professionals offer higher quality care for children. The Department of Early Learning (DEL) and partners are building a professional development system that provides clear pathways for professional development, and brings increased recognition and support to the field of early learning.

Starting Sept. 1, trainers in Washington must be approved by the state to offer trainings that meet state training requirements for child care providers (20 hours of basic STARS training and 10 hours yearly of continuing training). Already, 56 trainers have successfully completed the approval process. We have approved trainers in every county, and more applications come in every day.

The approval process is rigorous: Prospective trainers must complete a series of online modules about topics including adult learning, the state Early Learning and Development Guidelines, and the state core competencies for early education professionals. Then they must submit an application that includes an example of their work. An application is available for conferences or one-time special events, for those who want to offer STARS hours at local conferences without going through the full trainer approval process.

A trainer approval board made up of representatives of higher education, community-based training organizations and state agencies meets throughout the year to review trainer applications.Once approved, trainers can enter their available trainings into MERIT, our state professional development registry, for individuals to sign up.

Also beginning Sept. 1, DEL is offering free online trainings for early learning professionals that will earn them STARS credit. The trainings will cover several topics, including the Early Learning and Development Guidelines and cultural competencies.

As part of our Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant, we are offering incentives to professionals who increase their training and education. Learn more about that here.

We at DEL are excited about ensuring high-quality training opportunities for those who care for and teach young children. For more information, visit the trainer approval page on our website. There you will find a frequently asked document for trainers, and video tutorials on the trainer approval process.

Help all children start school strong at annual conference: Registration closes August 1

Children start stronger when the adults in their lives are working together to help them succeed!

The fourth annual Starting Strong P-3 Institute next month will bring together early learning professionals and K-12 educators to talk about innovative ways to align systems. The Department of Early Learning is proud to be a sponsor of this event.

This year's conference takes place Aug. 14 and 15 in Vancouver, Wash. Registration closes on Aug. 1! Scholarships are available. Visit http://web3.esd112.org/startingstrong to learn more and register.

The three main goals of Starting Strong are:

• Increase connections between early learning and K-12 professionals.
• Apply theory to practice within a preschool through third grade framework.
• Connect to the state Early Learning Plan and 2012 priorities.