What does APL stand for?
Posted: April 30, 2017 Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, CCPP-approved Provider, Child Care Advisory Council, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Mississippi, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, General, HHS ACF Office of Child Care, Mississippi Board of Health, Mississippi Health Department, MLICCI, MS Department of Health, MS Department of Human Services, NAEYC, QRS Mississippi, Quality Rating System, School Readiness, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi, Suel v MDHS, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Uncategorized, Xerox | Tags: Administration for Children and Families, CCPP-approved Provider, child care licensing Mississippi, child care Mississippi, child care quality rating systems Mississippi, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, Early Learning Guidelines (ELG), equal access, Market Survey Rates, MDHS, Mississippi CCDF State Plan, Mississippi child care, Mississippi Health Department, Mississippi School Readiness, Quality Rating System, Quality Rating System; DECCD-MDHS; CCDF Quality Improvement, SECAC Mississippi Leave a comment
How did The Hechinger Report Gain Information Contained in a Child Care Worker’s Personnel File for Publication?
Posted: February 11, 2016 Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, Business Ethics, Child Care Advisory Council, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, Hechinger Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi Board of Health, Mississippi Building Blocks, Mississippi Health Department, Mississippi Legislature, Mississippi's Child Care Crisis, MS Department of Education, MS Department of Health, MS Department of Human Services, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi, Uncategorized | Tags: "Race to the Top", Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, child care licensing Mississippi, child care Mississippi, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Hechinger Report, Kellogg Foundation, MDHS, Mississippi Child Care Quality Steps, Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral, Mississippi Health Department, Mississippi State Early Childhood Institute, Mississippi's Child Care Crisis, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation, Xerox Leave a commentHow did The Hechinger Report Gain Information Contained in a Child Care Worker's Personnel File for Publication?
Is this a preview of the touted (SB2274) Early Childhood Services Interagency Council “character” and does such conduct really validate increased funding for the Early Learning Collaborative?
Freedom of Information Act
The Freedom Of Information Act intends to hold government accountable through transparency and gives the public an opportunity to monitor the functioning of their government.
The Hechinger Report and The Clarion-Ledger requested complaint and inspection reports for every licensed child care facility in District V, which spans a large part of Mississippi, including Jackson, Vicksburg and Yazoo City.
The Mississippi State Department of Health said it would cost $40 an hour to pay someone to pull the records, a fee that was reduced to roughly $20 per hour after The Hechinger Report filed a complaint with the Mississippi Ethics Commission.
Relevant public interest under the FOIA is “the citizens’ right to be informed about what their government is up to.”
Steering “High Quality” (QRIS) is Against the Interest Congress Intended in FOIA
On December 1-4, 2016, on the Facebook page of The Hechinger Report, reporters wrote:
“We want to hear from parents about their experiences finding safe, high quality places to leave their children…” (Click here.)
“Wanted to be sure that everyone knows we’ve got an inspection report from every child care center in the Mississippi Department of Health’s District Five (Claiborne, Cophia, Hinds, Madison, Rankin, Simpson, Sharkey-Issaquena, Warren and Yazoo counties.) Curious about how your center fared? We’re happy to share! Let us know what centers you’re interested in.”
FOIA Exemption 6: It is not enough that the information might aid the requester in lobbying efforts. Hypothetical public benefits cannot outweigh significant invasion of privacy. U.S. Department of Justice
A request for more information as to what was being released to the public yielded the following response from The Hechinger Report:
“Nothing we have is confidential…We have copies of complaint reports that are marked substantiated or unsubstantiated but any reference of those complaints would say clearly if they were substantiated or unsubstantiated.”
Alleged Defamation
On January 31, 2016, The Hechinger Report and the Clarion-Ledger published “Mississippi child care in crisis: State’s weak oversight puts children in harm’s way”. It reveals investigations The Hechinger Report conducted at centers that may have been targeted based on the unsubstantiated complaints and identification of individuals disclosed and received in its FOIA request from the Mississippi State Department of Health.
In one case, although The Hechinger Report did not provide hospital records or lab results from the parent or anything that would hold up in a Court of Law verifying an infant had in fact been given juice or medicine that made him sick, it chastised the Mississippi State Department Health for insufficient investigation and/or for not substantiating that such an incident had indeed taken place.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that such a statement on the part of The Hechinger Report may be defamatory.
The Scoop – “We Want Absolute Power!”
On February 1, 2016, The Hechinger Report teased the question, “Who should fix problems with Mississippi’s early childhood system?”
It went on to report, “The Department of Health has the most control — it’s the only agency that can open or close a center and impose fines — yet there are holes in its monitoring process, according to advocates and legislators.
That narrow approach limits how effectively the state can monitor centers, said Cathy Grace, co-director of the Graduate Center for the Study of Early Learning at the University of Mississippi.
Some lawmakers have suggested the Department of Education should take a larger role in regulating centers.”
On February 2, 2016, Hechinger tweeted: “A few legislators have prioritized child care in Mississippi including @Brice Wiggins.”
§ 25-61-11 Personnel Files Not Public Record
On February 7, 2016, The Hechinger Report and The Clarion-Ledger published “Turnover, low pay may undermine child care in state”. On the same day Hallmark premiered “Kitten Bowl III” in support of shelter and rescue adoption, The Hechinger Report revealed the work history portion of a personnel file as follows:
“On a Wednesday morning in June 2014, xxxxxxxx, director of xxxxxxx Center sat in her office as a parent accused a worker of grabbing her son’s neck. The worker had been hired five months earlier, with no experience in child care. Her background included 10 months as a vet assistant, two months as a sales associate at an art gallery and one month at an animal shelter where she “took care of the cats,” according to records from the Department of Health’s Division of Child Care Licensure.
The point was to demonstrate that the accused had no former experience as a caregiver, a violation of the Regulations, and The Hechinger Report could have just said that but then, that might not have been adequate to be highly offensive to a reasonable person.
Instead, it set work at the Humane Society/shelter apart in dramatic quotations as though this employment is unworthy and allegedly violated both the Privacy Act and Mississippi Code which prohibits disclosure and release of personnel records or any part of such record in the agency’s possession. (Click here.)
Child Care Small Business Discrimination
Limiting the Pool of Talent! Snubbing Most Stakeholders!
On February 9, 2016, Bill 2274, Education, was posted. The Bill seeks to establish full control of all financial resources and authority over all Programs for preschool aged children. It would eliminate the Governor’s State Early Childhood Advisory Council and with that, remove the following stakeholders from the early learning policy making table: child care providers from each Congressional District; Building Blocks, Excel by Five, The Center for Education Innovation, nSpark, Mississippi State Extension Service, and more.
Adversity is the rule for child care and working families when law gives some state actors the upper hand, so we wisely prefer and support a balance of power. Technology and the State Early Childhood Advisory Council make that possible.
So, we think we will keep our seats, and ask the Hechinger reporters to kindly have one.
The private child care industry is Mississippi’s workforce support system and we congratulate Governor Bryant on the creation of 2,500 new jobs in Clinton!
“Can we talk?” How About “Quality Implementation” of the Child Care Certificate Program?
Posted: September 10, 2014 Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, Child Care Development Fund, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, Mississippi Legislature, MS Department of Human Services, Uncategorized, Xerox | Tags: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, CCPP-approved Provider, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, Mississippi CCDF State Plan, Mississippi Child Care Quality Steps, Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral, Quality Rating System; DECCD-MDHS; CCDF Quality Improvement, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation, Xerox 4 Comments“Can we talk?” How About “Quality Implementation” of the Child Care Certificate Program?
When the Certificate Program was taken from the Planning and Development Districts in 2012, support was split among providers because we did not know then what we know now…MDHS had already executed a contract with XEROX for e-childcare.
Regardless, the MDHS in-house administration of child care assistance distribution known as the Certificate Program demonstrated first steps in bringing an automated process online through the development of the ledger reimbursement system. Basically, the transition was a smooth one and MDHS should be commended for that.
However, the new statewide online process only for the child care assistance application and issuance of new Certificates and the process for the recent period of rollover – particularly the relentless Notices of Termination – have been and continue to be chaotic, very work intensive and incomplete.
Policy and system failures along with too little, if any, advance explanation from DECCD have left parents and providers in a lurch as to how to even proceed this academic year and have adversely impacted statewide work force support systems fueling local economic development, early learning and entry-level jobs in every community!
Forget Quality Stars for now – do you even know how many children age four you will be serving this school year? Age three? Can you even remotely finalize an overall school roster?
That is the important message providers have tried to convey when attending the recent MDHS Quality Road Shows.
That is the message MOST OFTEN SUPPRESSED by policy makers and the Quality funded when providers have attended Road Shows.
That is the most heavily weighted finding documented in the Q.R.I.S. research conducted by the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative which was recently released; LOW-INCOME PROVIDERS JUST CANNOT PROVIDE QUALITY WITHOUT ADEQUATE FUNDING AND CERTIFICATES, so, for them, there is little reason to attend Road Shows or participate in quality initiatives at this time.
Most of the issues frustrating Mississippians, harming employability, denying access or limiting resource capacity are simply managerial. Primarily, I have come to opine MDHS Case Managers are doing their best to process all families but are completely overwhelmed by what is being expected of them. I think it is very reasonable to conclude that one DECCD Case Manager may be trying desperately to complete the work-load formerly done by an entire Planning Development District Office of four to eight staff members. That work environment has only been exasperated further by sudden staff vacancies (DUH!) and new DHS hires unfamiliar with the work or with little experience and little time for DECCD to train them during the period of rollover!
MDHS had planned to outsource all of this to XEROX. We objected to that and still do object to eventual, less child care assistance to parents as a “savings” to the state rather than continued (already insufficient) reimbursement of full-time fees for full-time slots to support rising, full-time operating costs supporting early learning.
Even still, what we are seeing now may be a glimpse of what customer service might have looked like through XEROX e-childcare…limited staff and diminished customer service for increased profits.
MDHS is asking for our input on the administration of the Certificate Program.
Please provide documentation of issues via email to MDHS – telephone calls to your assigned MDHS Case Managers often bring an unacceptable period of being placed on hold for up to forty-five minutes or longer and would further overwhelm Case Mangers already “buried” in messages. Faxes are sent to a separate MDHS location, logged in and scanned before ever delivered to Case Managers and many are lost in the shuffle. (You may also leave comments below.)
Encourage MDHS to fill all staff positions quickly, stay true to the CCDF State Plan and encourage Quality through “QUALITY Implementation” of the Child Care Certificate Program by clearly conveying to MDHS that automation and a paperless system will never eliminate the need for dedicated and sufficient MDHS employees any more than XEROX DID NOT eliminate the need for county eligibility workers determining SNAP benefits or county TANF Case Managers.
Mississippi does not save or fully prosper when there is no effort from MDHS to give up attitudes against welfare recipients and recognize child care assistance as an important local economic development tool in more ways than early learning for future success. The Certificate Program is an economic development tool local employers and communities have come to rely on in the maintenance of a stable, productive, successful work force today! The Certificate Program puts a “fair share” of chased federal dollars into each local economy today! All socio-economic groups benefit from such local economic stimulus each and every day…today!
Therefore, MDHS Road Shows only touting quality technical services while suppressing needed public discussion of the problematic economic issues arising out of the current Certificate Program administration simply puts the “cart before the quality horse”.
Forgive me for saying so, but it is a classic example of “Nero fiddled while Rome burned.”
“Can we talk?”
Yet bet we can! If not at a MDHS sponsored Road Show, we can talk here… starting with the late Joan Rivers (Phi Beta Kappa) and what she might have said of the current implementation:
Joan Rivers 1933-2014
“How many times can you go, ‘And the cow goes moo and the pig goes oink’? It’s like talking to a supermodel.”
“I succeeded by saying what everyone else is thinking.”
“Don’t follow any advice, no matter how good, until you feel as deeply in your spirit as you think in your mind that the counsel is wise.”
Some MDHS priority must be given to improving the management and implementation of the Child Care Certificate Program.
Talk to members of your local Chamber of Commerce. I am sure they would agree. Perhaps you can get them involved as well!
MLICCI to Present Findings of First Such QRIS Study in the Nation!
Posted: July 19, 2014 Filed under: "Race to the Top", Allies for Quality Care, CCPP-approved Provider, Child Care Advisory Council, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Licensing, Child Care Mississippi, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Early Learning Guidelines (ELG), General, Hechinger Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi Board of Health, Mississippi Building Blocks, Mississippi First, Mississippi Health Department, Mississippi Legislature, MS Department of Education, MS Department of Health, MS Department of Human Services, QRS Mississippi, Quality Rating System, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi, Suel v MDHS, T.E.A.C.H., Uncategorized, Xerox | Tags: "Race to the Top", 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 licensing Mississippi, child care quality rating systems Mississippi, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Early Learning Guidelines (ELG), equal access, Hechinger Report; Kellogg Foundation; Quality Rating System; SECAC, Kellogg Foundation, Market Survey Rates, MDHS, Mississippi CCDF State Plan, Mississippi Child Care Licensing, Mississippi Child Care Quality Steps, Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral, Mississippi early learning system, Mississippi First, Mississippi Health Department, Mississippi licensed child care, Mississippi State Early Childhood Institute, proposed amendments to the regulations governing child care, QRS Mississippi, Quality Rating System, Quality Rating System; DECCD-MDHS; CCDF Quality Improvement, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation, Xerox Leave a comment
cwelchlin@mschildcare.org
Post of 7 Years Still Relevant in 2021: Little or No Recognized Child Care Leadership Appointments to SECAC
Posted: May 28, 2014 Filed under: "Race to the Top", Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, Child Care Advisory Council, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Mississippi, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Early Learning Guidelines (ELG), Head Start, Hechinger Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi Building Blocks, Mississippi Legislature, MS Department of Education, MS Department of Health, MS Department of Human Services, Quality Rating System, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi, Uncategorized, Xerox | Tags: "Race to the Top", 2007 Market Survey Rates, Allies for Quality Care, CCPP-approved Provider, child care Mississippi, child care quality rating systems Mississippi, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Early Learning Guidelines (ELG), equal access, Hechinger Report; Kellogg Foundation; Quality Rating System; SECAC, Mississippi CCDF State Plan, Mississippi Child Care Quality Steps, Mississippi early childhood education, Mississippi early learning system, Mississippi Health Department, Mississippi School Readiness, Mississippi State Early Childhood Institute, proposed amendments to the regulations governing child care, Quality Rating System, Quality Rating System; DECCD-MDHS; CCDF Quality Improvement, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation, Xerox Leave a commentPost of 7 Years Still Relevant in 2021: Little or No Recognized Child Care Leadership Appointments to SECAC
The Definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
When we aired legitimate concerns to members of SECAC during a period of time which has revealed 97,000,000 dollars embezzled from programs serving low-income children and the MSDH failure to provide new enrollment for child care assistance for five consecutive years, NOT ONE member ever cared enough to reach out to us in concern.
In fact, SECAC members enabled the adoption of a quality program with the authority to eliminate our participation without ever requesting the rules – and there were none. Not one member of SECAC – including the appointed representation of the child care industry – ever, ever questioned such violation of Administrative Procedures Law and Racial Discrimination as determined for Mississippi’s QRIS by the US Commission on Civil Rights.
As some SECAC members received their program funding and budgets as sub-grantees, they ignored Ethics rules and child care providers struggling to serve low-income children through the CCDF.
And here we go again.
We do not know how newly appointed child care providers were selected to represent us on SECAC. In fact, we do not even know who some of them are.
SECAC should take the lead from the Mississippi Department of Health Child Care Licensing Division. When vacancies become available on the Child Care Advisory Board, all licensed providers are notified and invited to apply.
Mississippi will never thrive or address learning loss with the same leadership, however distributed now or with whatever agency they are with now, until state actors actually value and seek the best work of the most capable and involved child care provider leadership.
One More Time, y’all :
There is a rule in Mississippi Child Care: School aged children and entry-level toddlers may not co-exist. You simply do not mix the babies in with the big kids on the playground, or someone may get hurt!
That is the health and safety measure provider members throughout the state had hoped for when the Mississippi Association of Licensed Child Care Providers successfully lobbied for positions of one licensed provider from each Congressional District to be appointed to the State Early Childhood Advisory Council as a requirement of the Early Learning Collaborative Act of 2013.
Among MALCCP child care providers (operating licensed child care) in positions of top leadership are an ivy league graduate WITH THE COVETED Early Childhood Degree who also studied and trained in the system where kindergarten began – Germany; another who has professionally evaluated the Q.R.I.S. (results soon to be released), worked to advance early learning curriculum in an east Mississippi school district and has been recognized nationally for work to empower low-income families; and a provider who serves on the Jackson State University Pre-K Planning Committee and the Pre-K Common Core Alignment Committee in Jackson Public Schools.
Such accomplished child care leaders also have experience opposing SECAC “Big Kids” such as: MDHS Executive Director Ricky Berry in the adoption of Xerox e-Childcare™ designed to pay less reimbursement (as a savings to the state) for the preschool environments low-income children attend; Child Care Licensing Supervisor Vickey Berryman in the re-measurements and maximum capacity reductions of Existing (old) child care facilities and alleged Constitutional violation of Due Process of Law; Allies and Excel by 5 in proposals to require poorly performing ITERS/ECERS ONLY (from which many such quasi-agencies around the SECAC table draw millions in CCDF funds to offer technical assistance) on licensed child care programs wishing to participate in Mississippi’s universal pre-school.
Unfortunately, peer vetted, strong representation of child care appears to be precisely the work early learning policy-makers continue to isolate.
LITTLE or No recognized child care leadership appointments were made to SECAC.
For our effort and to my knowledge, MALCCP leadership was not even invited to make recommendations as an organization for appointments to SECAC!
We are invited to give comment from the gallery…without a vote.
Have we been robbed of our work to have knowledgeable and highly visible child care leadership at the policy making table?
Was it the intent of legislators to lure our organization into a “false sense of security” that child care leadership would be invited to participate in the development and planning of early learning?
You need to ask your legislators to answer that question, but only time will truly tell.
For now, actions speak louder than words – we little Mississippi child care providers are at high risk of being trampled outside…some more.
Of course, if my goals might possibly include continued unfunded mandates and disproportionate “adverse impact” on licensed child care, I wouldn’t give practiced opposition a vote either! 🙂
No recess here!
We must continue to work for quality and equality in early learning through other venues.
DHS Sued A Third Time
Posted: March 16, 2014 Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, CCPP-approved Provider, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Mississippi, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, MS Department of Human Services, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi, Suel v MDHS, Uncategorized, Xerox | Tags: 2007 Market Survey Rates, Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, CCPP-approved Provider, child care Mississippi, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, equal access, Market Survey Rates, MDHS, Mississippi CCDF State Plan, Mississippi Child Care Quality Steps, Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral, Mississippi State Early Childhood Institute, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation, Xerox Leave a comment
Separation of Corporation and State
Posted: February 25, 2014 Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, CCPP-approved Provider, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Mississippi, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, MS Department of Human Services, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi, Suel v MDHS, Xerox | Tags: Administration for Children and Families, CCPP-approved Provider, child care licensing Mississippi, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, Early Learning Guidelines (ELG), equal access, Market Survey Rates, Mississippi CCDF State Plan, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation, Xerox 5 CommentsSeparation of Corporation and State
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