Child Care Advisory Committee

Catholic Charities

June 14, 2017

Members Present:

Members not Present:  

Others Present:

• Meeting Notices:
• The Agenda and Meeting Notice were posted on 06/12/2017 on publisher@ecapitol.net  with a list of all CCAC meetings for 2017 previously submitted to the Secretary of State on 12/15/2016.
• The Meeting Notice was posted at Catholic Charities on 06/13/2017.

• Call to Order:
• Eloise Locust called meeting to order at 10:03 am.

• Reflection:
• Eloise Locust provided words of reflection.

• Introductions

• Approval of Minutes:  
• March 8, 2017 minutes approved.

• Standing Membership Subcommittee Report:
• Eloise Locust provided report
• Subcommittee members met via email on May 26
• There are currently no vacancies but do recommend the reappointment of the following members for a 2^nd term:
• Rachel Proper – September 2017 to August 31, 2020
• Midge Woodard – September 2017 to August 31, 2020
• DHS Director Ed Lake approved the addition of a slot on the Child Care Advisory Committee representing the Licensed Child Care Association of Oklahoma. The subcommittee recommends Rikki Cosper as a member and Tammy Maus as a designee.
• Diane Bell, Rikki Cosper, and Tammy Maus attended orientation today.
• Vote to accept the recommendations of the membership subcommittee
• All recommendations passed.

• Standing Subcommittee Reports:
• Child Care Facilities (centers) Standing Subcommittee
• A chair for this subcommittee has not been appointed yet and has not met since last meeting.
• QRIS Standing Subcommittee
• Rachel Proper provided report.
• Subcommittee met March 8, 2017.
• Child Care Services adopted all of the recommended changes with the exception of two and should go into effect November 2018.
• Their next meeting will be today after CCAC meeting.
• Residential Standing Subcommittee
• Jason Charles provided report.
• Subcommittee met May 5, 2017. Topic of discussion:
• Update to the residential licensing standards which includes the Family Style license, which is a new addendum to the requirements. Next steps are the legal process and then a public hearing. Effective date should be November 2018.
• Family Child Care Home Standing Subcommittee
• Kami McManus did not attend today but provided report read by Lesli Blazer.
• Subcommittee members met by phone conference on Monday, June 12, 2017 6:00 pm.
• Topics of discussion were the age of subs in large homes (21) vs. small homes (18), issues with how licensing workers monitor the new disaster plan requirements, state fire marshal regulations, and difficulty doing the 15 minute checks.

• Legislative Update:
• Linda Whaley provided a legislative summary handout.

• Licensing Sanctions Report:
• Kristi Simpson provided report and handout.

• Old Business:

• Office of Background Investigations update provided by Kimberly McLeod.
• Currently working within a 24 hour turn-around for Child Care and Child Welfare background checks.
• OBI sends out updates for their processes through the Child Care ListServ. An email recently went out about a new background check email address for Child Care Background Checks. The old email address will be redirected for several months.
• Adding notifications for "Completes" and "Prelim's" – an email will be sent out on ListServ with more information and the date these will become active.
• There will be some slight changes to the electronic form.
• Currently there are 5 vacancies in the Child Care background check unit. Due to these vacancies the mobile unit will not be able to visit as many counties; however they will still do mobile events if there are 10 or more people that need to be fingerprinted.
• Two of the mandates in SB 723 relate to background checks:
• The 5 year reassessments – at this time fingerprints will not have to be done every 5 years; however, they will have to apply for a new background check every 5 years. Effective date is still to be determined, because at this time we are still working through issues related to receiving National Rap Back.
• Adding the ability to restrict someone if they deliberately provide materially false information on their background check – happens often – there are no set procedures on this yet.
• If programs are receiving Rap Back's for people that no longer work there please notify OBI.

• New Business:

• None

• Public Comments:

• Tammy Maus, Licensed Child Care Association
• Child care programs of all classifications are struggling and they are continuing to hear reports of centers closing their business throughout the state. They are worried these children are moving into unlicensed care and specifically in remote rural areas of the state. This does not raise the level of quality of care; it actually lowers it if children are going into unlicensed care. There have been many unintended consequences of the new requirements and they will be sending in a letter to the committee members and DHS staff, but primarily the reduction in the Bronze Level has had an unintended consequence of several directors that were Bronze Level are now not and therefore centers are having problems finding people to run their centers when they were able to do it before.
• There has been an increase in requirements in the number of Master Teachers because of the elimination of adding back in school-age. That has put a burden on centers because the resources that were available with the reward program that even though they still have scholars programs they are having a hard time recruiting people to fill those Master Teachers positions.
• There is still a significant burden that is being placed on centers by requiring all of their employees to be on the registry when licensed child care homes are not required. They believe if it's good enough for those children, they're being cared for in those homes without multiple people there, it's good enough for all children in Oklahoma and they should have the same rule about the registry. They recommend that it be optional and not a requirement, it takes time and money they simply don't have.
• They urge the committee and DHS to take a hard look at this feedback and work with them to make changes that will strengthen our industry for children, families, and Oklahoma businesses that they support and their board would like to remind the committee that they make it possible for Oklahoma to work.

• Meeting adjourned at 10:43 am

• Next Meetings:
• Wednesday, September 13, 2017
• Wednesday, December 13, 2017 – Sunbeam Family Services