End-June 2008
Archived Public Policy Reports and Alerts:

Federal | Maryland | MDAEYC
This Web page consists of MDAEYC’s public policy alerts and reports issued
since this Web site was established in 2007.
Archived Reports: August 2008 | June 2008 | January 2008 | December 2007 | October 2007

Federal:

Washington, DC, is in campaign mode now, so relatively little can be expected from Congress and President Bush on the issues we care about until next year. President Bush has threatened to veto any Congressional increases in his proposed budget, which flat-funded the Child Care Block Grant and gave Head Start a pittance of an increase, far below what Head Start needs to maintain its student numbers. Congress would like to increase these numbers, but lacks the votes in the Senate to override a veto. So we're likely to see this Congress passing on to its successors next year the job of deciding how much funding child care and Head Start get for the Fiscal Year beginning October 1, 2008.

Meanwhile, Congress is working on a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which could possibly include provision for forgiveness of student loans for preschool or child care teachers. Stay tuned, and contact your Senators to advocate eligibility for loan forgiveness for child care and Head Start professionals.

The Presidential election in November will set the tone on Federal activities for at least the next 4 years. Please make sure that you're registered to vote, and please do vote in November. The Presidential candidates' websites have some indications of their views on early childhood care and education. For instance, see http://www.barackobama.com/issues/education/#early-childhood and http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/19ce50b5-daa8-4795-b92d-92bd0d985bca.htm

Maryland:

It looks like early childhood was spared in the latest round of budget cuts announced on June 25. While only the Maryland Infants and Toddlers' Program had budget increases this year, child care was flat funded, while most other government programs had to be cut substantially. We are working to improve the reimbursement and co-payment rates for Purchase of Care in future budgets, but the general outlook is far from rosy.

In May MSDE, in partnership with Friends of The Family and a large number of other organizations, foundations, and individuals, produced Maryland's Birth Through Three Business Plan, which should be available soon for download from MSDE's website, http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/divisions/child_care/. The Office of Child Care's new Playground and Water Safety Guidelines are now available for download from that website as well.

The Office of Child Care is in the process of rewriting the family, center, and letter of compliance regulations in a more logical, understandable format. They plan to publish these revised regulations in the Maryland Register and on their website for public comment in the next month or two. See http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/divisions/child_care/regulat

The already-approved regulations upgrading the preservice and continuing training requirements for anyone hired or promoted beginning July 1, 2008 (next Tuesday, as of this writing) will go into effect then. If you want to hire or promote someone who doesn't meet the new standards, you'd better do it by Monday. Also effective July 1, the child passenger safety seat regulations have changed to require booster seats for anyone under 8, unless the child's height exceeds 57 inches or weight exceeds 65 pounds.

OCC's Carroll County and Frederick County Regional Offices will merge administratively but not physically. Anne Webster, Althea Franklin, Debbie Metzger, and Rosemary King Johnson of MSDE all are retiring at the end of June. The OCC Central Office will be holding more outreach meetings throughout the State, and Regions will be encouraged to increase the frequency of meetings such as roundtables with local providers. The invoices and payments, but not the eligibility determinations or vouchers, for child care subsidies will be centralized in Baltimore at OCC, rather than being handled by local DSS staff as they are now. Payments will be processed daily instead of twice a week. The CCATS computer system is under review, and an independent evaluator will report on it to the Department of Budget and Management, which will decide what to do about it. MSDE is continuing to discuss with the Service Employees' International Union how they should deal with each other.

The OCC Advisory Council has established a committee, on which MDAEYC is well represented, to work toward establishing a formal Quality Rating and Improvement System in Maryland. This system would produce a 5-star progression of ratings for child care providers, and would educate the public to look for and use higher-quality child care. The current tiered reimbursement system would be incorporated into the ratings, with some modifications.

The Early Childhood Division's Three Year Strategic Plan is moving toward complete implementation, with only a few areas not meeting their targets, mostly from lack of funding. This is an amazing accomplishment, as the Plan was very ambitious, and the environment for its implementation was not always favorable (e.g., funding).

The recent national Head Start Reauthorization requires Maryland to establish a State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education, which the Governor is about to do. Evidently this new Council will incorporate the group that established and implemented the subcabinet's early childhood strategic plan, and MSDE's OCC Advisory Council and Judy Hoyer/Head Start Advisory Council will report to it. The membership of the new Council is determined by Federal Statute and the Governor's discretion. Paul Pittman of Hagerstown is the new President of the Maryland Head Start Association.

The Judy Hoyer Program/Head Start Advisory Council has established a committee, on which MD AEYC expects to be represented, to work on ways to remove roadblocks from child care providers who want to pursue part-time a B.A. and teacher certification in early childhood. Currently the online resources are sparse and most 4-year colleges require full-time school, especially during practice teaching.

MDAEYC:

MDAEYC's new Web site, www.mdaeyc.org, is a wonder to behold. Its public policy pages provide much information about where we stand and what we're doing about it. You may join the list serve that sends out these public policy reports to MDAEYC members with an e-mail request to surr@his.com.