Wanted: Copy of Mississippi’s 2015 Quality Needs Assessment
Posted: January 8, 2016 Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, Business Ethics, CCPP-approved Provider, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Mississippi, Consumer Protection, DECCD-MDHS, General, Hechinger Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi Building Blocks, Mississippi Legislature, MS Department of Human Services, QRS Mississippi, Quality Rating System, SECAC Mississippi, Uncategorized | Tags: 2007 Market Survey Rates, Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, Attorney General Jim Hood; Quality Rating System; Quality Star Step; DECCD-MDHS;, CCPP-approved Provider, child care Mississippi, child care quality rating systems Mississippi, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, equal access, Hechinger Report, Hechinger Report; Kellogg Foundation; Quality Rating System; SECAC, Kellogg Foundation, Market Survey Rates, MDHS, Mississippi CCDF State Plan, Mississippi Child Care Quality Steps, Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral, Mississippi State Early Childhood Institute, Quality Rating System, Quality Rating System; DECCD-MDHS; CCDF Quality Improvement, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation 1 Comment
Click here for more on 2014 CCDBG Reauthorization Act.
Click here for definition of Central Planning.
Ignorance or Arrogance? The DECCD 2016 CCDBG State Plan Work
Posted: January 6, 2016 Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, Business Ethics, CCPP-approved Provider, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Mississippi, Consumer Protection, DECCD-MDHS, Head Start, Hechinger Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi Building Blocks, Mississippi Legislature, MS Department of Human Services, Office of the Attorney General, QRS Mississippi, Quality Rating System, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi, Uncategorized | Tags: 2007 Market Survey Rates, Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, CCPP-approved Provider, child care Mississippi, child care quality rating systems Mississippi, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, equal access, Hechinger Report, Kellogg Foundation, Market Survey Rates, MDHS, Mississippi CCDF State Plan, Mississippi Child Care Quality Steps, Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral, QRS Mississippi, Quality Rating System; DECCD-MDHS; CCDF Quality Improvement, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation Leave a comment
UPDATE: CENTRAL PLANNERS AWARD CCDBG FUNDING CONTRACTS WITHOUT CONDUCTING REQUIRED QUALITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT
The Early Years Network contract was awarded to a single agency who serves as the fiscal agent. This agency works with other agency partners to provide high quality services.
| Contract Awardee: | Mississippi State Universtiy Extension Service |
| Contract Partners (alphabetical order): |
Mississippi Center for Education Innovation |
| Mississippi State University Early Childhood Institute | |
| NEW FUNDING | Save the Children (Head Start) |
| NEW FUNDING | University of Mississippi Center for Education Research and Evaluation |
| University of Southern Mississippi | |
| Department of Child and Family Studies | |
| Institute for Disability Studies |
FACT :
Since DECCD took the Certificate Program In-House, approximately 250 Licensed Child Care Facilities have gone out of business. It has not yet been determined if a disproportionate number of those failed businesses were owned and operated by members of a protected class. However, no or few Certificates funding newly enrolled children have been issued by DECCD this fiscal year which began Oct. 1, 2015, (citing lack of funding) so the number of failed businesses serving large numbers of low-income children is expected to rise due to the fact Low-income Providers have not been able to fill vacancies left when children began the new school year last August or aged out of the Program.
Webinar Questions and Answers:
http: //www.mdhs.ms.gov/media/318009/Webinar-1_Questions-and-Polls.pdf
Q: What document will be provided in advance as a basis for development? Anything other than the 2013 Plan?
A: DECCD will not release a draft of the State Plan until such time as the Office of Child Care releases a final version of the State Plan Preprint.
http://www.mdhs.ms.gov/media/318968/Webinar-3_comments.pdf
Question: Is it also the consideration of state policy makers to reduce the assistance such low-income families now receive in order to attempt to serve the same number of children while increasing grants for quality? If so, will you be providing an Economic Impact Statement?
DECCD Response: States have been required by the 2014 Reauthorization to make greater investments in quality activities and program oversight processes such as monitoring providers. At this time, the state’s allocation of funds has not increased. DECCD will make every effort to judiciously allocate limited resources in order to comply with federal regulations and to meet the needs of our clients.
Any future policy changes proposed by DECCD will be presented to the Attorney General’s Office for review. DECCD will follow the instructions provided by legal counsel regarding program performance and the requirement of any Economic Impact Statement.
Operation Rock the Phone for SB 2477
Posted: January 29, 2014 Filed under: Child Care Advisory Council, Child Care Licensing, Child Care Mississippi, Consumer Protection, Mississippi Board of Health, Mississippi Health Department, MS Department of Health, Uncategorized | Tags: child care licensing Mississippi, Mississippi Child Care Licensing, Mississippi Health Department, Mississippi licensed child care, SECAC Mississippi Leave a comment
URGENT: Xerox e-Childcare™ Public Hearing Wednesday!
Posted: January 26, 2014 Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, CCPP-approved Provider, Child Care Development Fund, Consumer Protection, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, Hechinger Foundation, Mississippi Legislature, MS Department of Human Services, SECAC Mississippi, Suel v MDHS, Uncategorized, Xerox | Tags: Administration for Children and Families, CCPP-approved Provider, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, equal access, Hechinger Report, MDHS, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation, Xerox Leave a comment
Click Here To Read the Only Public Notice and Short Form Economic Impact Statement.
Update: Re-measurements & Reduction in Licensed Maximum Capacity
Posted: October 16, 2013 Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, CCPP-approved Provider, Child Care Advisory Council, Child Care Licensing, Child Care Mississippi, Consumer Protection, Delta Licensed Providers, Mississippi Board of Health, Mississippi Health Department, Mississippi Legislature, QRS Mississippi, Quality Rating System, SECAC, SECAC Mississippi, Uncategorized | Tags: Administration for Children and Families, Child Care Licensing, child care licensing Mississippi, child care quality rating systems Mississippi, Mississippi child care, Mississippi licensed child care, proposed amendments to the regulations governing child care, SECAC Mississippi Leave a comment
The “clarification” of the enforcement of maximum capacity of each room for all existing businesses – adopted in July 2013 by the Board of Health – was meant to “make good” an agency practice that began years ago as an internal only Child Care Licensing Bureau application .
It was and has never been a lawfully and openly adopted regulation.
In 2009, a “fine” was the only language inserted into the final adoption of the regulations for a violation of the internal application enforcing maximum capacity by room, but the “fine language” or practice applied was never disclosed in advance of the public hearings of the 2009 proposed amendments, no economic impact statement was ever provided and it was not disclosed to the Secretary of State.
It is likely some licensing officials in some counties, adhering only to written regulations, did not enforce the internal application of maximum capacity by room until just recently, and when they did, the “new application” of fines levied against long existing businesses for exceeding the maximum capacity of a room – absent violations in adult-child ratios – raised immediate questions.
Perhaps that is what triggered the recent need for Child Care Licensure Bureau staff to add to the 2013 proposed regulations what has now become an actual “new rule adoption” for the enforcement of maximum capacity by room which the Licensure staff have explained to the Council and BOH as mere “clarification only”.
The stealth adoption, which I questioned, prompted Council member Judy Prine to request additional information from providers and make a commitment to look deeper into the issue.
In the meantime, I have asked for the “maximum capacity by room clarification” to be rescinded altogether, for that is enforcement of the most stringent and costly square footage standard in the nation in a state receiving the lowest child care fees – not to mention it was not properly adopted.
I have also requested that the Council provide full disclosure of the 50 square feet per child rule (and not 35 sq. ft. as published) which has been long required in actual practice and utilized by licensure staff in the agency’s ongoing conduct of re-measuring and reducing licensed maximum capacity for existing businesses.
These matters may be taken up in old business at Friday’s Child Care Advisory Council.
Please make every effort to attend.
Child Care Facilities Licensure
Child Care Advisory Council
1:00 P.M., October 18, 2013
Waggoner Building
143B Lefleurs Square
Jackson, MS 39211
HYPOCRISY – Enforcement Before Filings and Public Hearing!
Posted: September 22, 2012 Filed under: Allies for Quality Care, CCPP-approved Provider, Child Care Mississippi, Consumer Protection, DECCD-MDHS, Mississippi Legislature, MS Department of Human Services, Office of the Attorney General, SECAC Mississippi, Uncategorized | Tags: Allies for Quality Care, CCPP-approved Provider, child care Mississippi, MDHS, Mississippi CCDF State Plan, Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral, Mississippi State Early Childhood Institute, SECAC, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation Leave a comment 
Information was released to Xerox – without our knowledge – in order for Xerox – NOT MDHS – to send us information concerning the rules of the newly proposed echildcare system.
As we speak, Xerox is now telephoning licensed providers “as a courtesy” to remind us to submit contracts.
Contracts from Xerox include a warning on bright pink paper informing that if we do not submit adverse contracts ASAP, we MAY NOT GET PAID IN A TIMELY FASHION.
Some ALLIES employees, citing their funding from DHS, reiterated and also informed that centers participating in ALLIES programs were expected to PILOT the finger scan equipment or face possible delay in provider reimbursement payments. Many who signed the Xerox contracts felt coerced into compliance as a result of ALLIES Program participation.
September 20th, via email, licensed providers in Regions I & II were provided instructions from Jill Dent on required echildcare trainings for providers scheduled before October 10, 2012.
All of this…prior to any study from the PILOT and prior to the public hearing that had to be requested from providers and legislators to be provided in the first place!
This is not the first time Jill Dent has circumvented the law, apparently with the full blessing of other SECAC members who serve to review and approve Child Care Policy Manuals and CCDF State Plan amendments and proposals.
A suit filed last December by Planning and Development Districts for Breach of Contract suggests that Administration Procedure Law is but a mere nuisance in procedure for MDHS as their intentions are already being carried out.
In this case of this proposed echildcare system, an opinion has been or is planned to be requested by Senator Albert Butler from Attorney General Jim Hood as to the legality of such enforcement.
Contract deadlines and calls from Xerox should be moved back to 30 days after the public hearing is held…considering democratic rule might actually affect the outcome.
In the meantime, if you wish to make a decision as to your submission for adverse contracts to Xerox prior to the public hearing or how failure to comply with rogue agency action might affect the children now in your care and the assignment of their Certificates to CCPP approved providers on October 1, 2012, contact Attorney General Jim Hood at the following number:
Office of the Attorney General (601) 359-3680.
If he can take issue with Governor Haley Barbour’s “narrowly timed” Public Notice for pardons, he can take issue with this much more serious violation in Administrative Procedures Law!
Pack-N-Plays Why Restrict Them?
Posted: July 12, 2012 Filed under: Child Care Licensing, Child Care Mississippi, Consumer Protection, DECCD-MDHS, Mississippi Health Department, Quality Rating System, SECAC Mississippi | Tags: Child Care Licensing, child care licensing Mississippi, equal access, Mississippi child care, Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral, Mississippi licensed child care, Quality Rating System, SECAC Mississippi 12 CommentsI am posting this concern as submitted by a licensed provider.
If you have the rationale for restricting this item from nap time use, please reply.
Thanks!
Hello, I was reading over the proposals and there was something that I saw that really do no understand why they would put it in effect.
I saw where they are going to cut the use of pack-n-plays for rest periods.
In our daycare center we use pack-n-plays for our one year to 2 year old children because they are to big for a crib but really to small to sleep on a mat.
There are no choking or suffocation hazards in the pack-n-play and the caregiver is right there with them at all times.
Can you explain to me a little more in detail why they would change this.
ALABAMA TRANSPARENCY ROCKS!
Posted: June 19, 2012 Filed under: Child Care Licensing, Child Care Mississippi, Consumer Protection, DECCD-MDHS, Delta Licensed Providers, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Early Learning Guidelines (ELG), QRS Mississippi, Quality Rating System, School Readiness, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC, SECAC Mississippi | Tags: Child Care Licensing, child care licensing Mississippi, child care Mississippi, child care quality rating systems Mississippi, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Early Learning Guidelines (ELG), equal access, MDHS, Mississippi CCDF State Plan, Mississippi child care, Mississippi Child Care Licensing, Mississippi Child Care Quality Steps, Mississippi early childhood education, Mississippi early learning system, Mississippi licensed child care, Quality Rating System; DECCD-MDHS; CCDF Quality Improvement, Quality Rating Systems, SECAC Mississippi 2 CommentsWay to go Alabama!
For years I have enjoyed the level of subsidy transparency on the Alabama DHS website. (I do not know why the information is only available through February 2012 this fiscal year and hope that there has not been a change in Director.)
Regardless, this is the basis of my November 2011 Capitol level hearing request presented to Dr. Jill Dent asking that she post our subsidy statistics on-line, county-by-county, by type of care and include the county waiting lists.
She agreed to consider it and with the new E-Ledgers, this should be something that she could begin to do today.
In addition, we also should request written policy explaining how each county’s waiting list is being processed in order to guarantee that parents are being served on a first come, first serve basis and that smaller counties are not being swallowed up by large counties so that we may fairly maintain previously funded amounts per Planning & Development District.
Please review the sample to follow. If you agree that Mississippi should have similar subsidy transparency, request this of Dr. Dent in a letter of encouragement addressed to her at jill.dent@mdhs.ms.gov and register your vote on our poll!
Alabama Subsidized Child Care Statistics
Get the Picture? Quality Stars and Mississippi’s Consumer Protection Law
Posted: May 11, 2012 Filed under: Consumer Protection, DECCD-MDHS, Hechinger Foundation, Quality Rating System | Tags: Attorney General Jim Hood; Quality Rating System; Quality Star Step; DECCD-MDHS; 6 Comments
Miss. Code Ann. § 75-24-5: “…the following unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive trade practices or acts in the conduct of any trade or commerce are hereby prohibited:
(e) Representing that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities that they do not have…
(h) Disparaging the goods, services, or business of another by false or misleading representation of fact…”
Now that you’ve seen the law and seen the new Quality Stars brochure DECCD created to help parents find quality [sic] child care, do you get the picture?
DECCD is deliberately engaging in deceptive trade practices designed to intimidate child care providers into participating in the State’s flawed Quality Rating System.
Will Attorney General Jim Hood insist DECCD-DHS follow the law?
§ 75-24-9. Injunction to restrain or prevent violation: “Whenever the Attorney General has reason to believe that any person is using, has used, or is about to use any method, act or practice prohibited by Section 75-24-5, and that proceedings would be in the public interest, he may bring an action in the name of the state against such person to restrain by temporary or permanent injunction the use of such method, act or practice…”
Contact him and ask – and, while you’re asking, you might want to contact the Governor as well. Read the rest of this entry »
Delta Licensed Providers 
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