SSNs are NOT required for Orientation Registration.

SSNs are NOT required for Orientation Registration.

The DHS and/or yet unidentified sub-grantee collection of your employees’ social security numbers for Standard Application Orientation is not required on the on-line form you must complete, but you wouldn’t know that unless you have the conviction NOT to provide it in the first place.

Disclosure of agency use and your employees’ privacy rights requires another click on that tiny little circle to the upper right of that box.

Date of birth, also protected by privacy law, however, IS required in order to get through to the final registration screen…but what choice do you or your employees have if you have commercial loans to be paid or families to feed and need the opportunity to continue to serve low-income children?

I have raised this gross violation of your rights on your behalf no less than four times…but they apparently don’t care. They want this data and they have designed the registration process to collect it in the most deceptive way, in my opinion.

So, in the future, rather than to contact child care leadership to air your complaints, contact your legislators and the Office of the Governor, contact your members of Congress or hire an attorney.

That is all I can advise, for nothing else has worked and I do not have the power or influence to correct.  I have nothing to even compare this to!  It is the most openly egregious agency behavior I have seen in a long, long time.

Perhaps we are just witnessing a power trip.

We all allege abuse of power, so just calm down, take a deep breath and do your best – YOU also speak out!

In the meantime, be advised that you cannot provide your employees’ social security numbers – even the last four digits – or their dates of birth without written permission from them and written notice to them that it has been shared. (They are NOT your property – they just work for you.)

You, too, are liable for any such breach and/or intimidation you may feel compelled to apply in order to force submission so that you may participate in this federally funded program. You can also be sued, so keep good documents/paperwork. (You cannot lawfully terminate any employee who does not wish to be tracked by DHS or NSparc by social security number and therefore, does not allow you to share such data.)

Last May, MDHS adopted the words, Standard and Comprehensive, without meaningful definition and without the rules or policies which govern them.

At the following SECAC meeting, former MDHS Deputy Director Cathy Sykes announced that the agency had not adhered fully to Administrative Procedures Law and that a new APL process would begin.

The only APL to take place, however, has been to remove the representation of any attorney in the beginning steps of many requested administrative hearings that have not yet been scheduled by DECCD for months now – more violation of law.

It seems the agency may have now just gone full on rogue.

Regardless, no matter how insulting and defeating their actions may be, I advise that you may be able to glean some of what will be expected of you by attending the upcoming Standard Application Orientation. Click here to see the place and time of such trainings in your area.

Because it is only offered during normal weekday hours for most of us, you may also need to secure a qualified substitute to cover and maintain health and safety rules.

You are also responsible for paying the drive time, mileage and transportation expenses of the staff you send to this training… a hard thing to do in FFY 2018 on 2003 market rates, the most draconian client redetermination policies in our history and no new funded enrollment provided to fill vacancies in going on five years now.

Whatever the registration process or unfunded costs, I do encourage you to attend if you can, for I simply cannot answer all of your questions – I don’t have the information or understanding either.

For that reason, I will be attending.