Committee Meeting Information

July 28, 2006

Game & Fish Commission (3030 Energy Lane)

Casper, Wyoming

 

Committee Members Present

Senator Charles Scott, Co-Chairman

Representative Elaine Harvey, Co-Chairman

Senator Mike Massie

Senator Tony Ross

Representative Rosie Berger

Representative Edward Buchanan

Representative Debbie Hammons

 

 

 

Committee Members Absent

Senator Kathryn Sessions

 

Legislative Service Office Staff

Joseph A. Rodriguez, Staff Attorney

 

Others Present at Meeting

Please refer to Appendix 1 to review the Committee Sign-in Sheet
for a list of other individuals who attended the meeting.

Executive Summary

The Quality Child Care Oversight Committee met on the 28th day of July in Casper, Wyoming.  The Committee heard a presentation from the Governor's Task Force on Quality Child Care regarding their work to date.  The task force is developing a five (5) tiered quality rating system for child care providers.  The task force is also looking at and was strongly urged by the Committee to provide an income based or need based scholarship to assist parents with child care. 

 

The next meeting of the Committee will be held on November 1st, 2006 in Casper.

 

Call To Order

Co-Chair Harvey called the meeting to order at 9:07 a.m..  The following sections summarize the Committee proceedings by topic.  Please refer to Appendix 2 to review the Committee Meeting Agenda.

 

Remarks from the Co-Chairs

Representative Harvey, Co-chair, welcomed everyone to the meeting.   Co-chair Harvey indicated that it was necessary to approve the minutes of the 4/25/06 meeting.  Upon motion made by Senator Massie and seconded by Representative Berger the minutes of the 4/25/06 meeting were approved as presented.  The Committee also spent time discussing what children are to be considered "at risk" and how "at risk" should be defined. 

 

Presentation by Governor's Task Force

A presentation was made by Director Emmons and other members of the task force.  The task force presented the Committee with Appendix 3.  The task force is looking at a quality rating system and quality incentive payments.  The two main goals are to increase child care capacity around the state and to increase quality in the child care system.  This is an incremental process.  The task force met with an advisory group with representation from all counties in the state who made recommendations.  The task force and the advisory committee looked at child care systems from a lot of states and have tried to come up with a hybrid. 

 

The quality rating system the task force is developing has 5 components.  Each child care businesses will be ranked somewhere on the scale.  The task force is still having discussions regarding the scoring mechanism, staff to child ratios, and maximum group size components.  Participation in the Quality Rating System is purely voluntary. 

 

In regard to quality incentive pay the task force is leaning toward using income based guidelines.  They have a question as to how this will be viewed either as a scholarship or an incentive payment.  A discussion of at risk factors ensued and how that affected the quality incentive pay.  The income method is simpler and less intrusive.  The quality child care study will be completed by October 1, 2006 and the Quantity study will be completed by November 1, 2006.  These studies will show the quality and quantity of child care available in the state.  The task force indicated that approximately 130 providers will be assessed.  The Committee had questions about the validity of the study with such a low sampling but the task force indicated that many facilities/providers are closed in the summer when the studies are being conducted. 

 

Technical assistance for child care facilities is critical and would begin the first year of the program.  This assistance would be provided across the state by regional systems already available statewide.  This would necessitate one additional employee per each of the five (5) existing regions.

 

The task force also anticipates that parental education and public awareness programs regarding the child care system would also be critical and should be in place by July 1, 2007.

 

The task force is also looking at a grievance board.  They have asked the Committee for more guidance in this area.  They envision a child care provider or a parent being able to go to the grievance board to address certain types of grievances.  This is not intended to be a replacement to the Administrative Procedures Act but merely a pre-cursor to action under the APA, to see if the issue can be resolved prior to going through the APA.  The grievance board would deal only with quality rating system issues such as licensure and certification.

 

Work Session with Governor’s Task Force

The task force indicated that they have gotten enough information to proceed.  The Legislative intent is to increase capacity and quality of child care in Wyoming.  The Committee felt like the task force should be tying the money to the individual and tracking it through the system by the individual and not the provider, perhaps through a scholarship.  A means test will help with the constitutional argument and the Committee feels strong that this is the direction the task force needs to go. 

 

A motion was made by Representative Hammons to advise the task force to move forward with a need based scholarship system.  The motion was seconded by Senator Ross and after discussion the motion carried. 

 

There was a discussion of what is "at risk."  The task force is recommending that the "at risk" factors be dropped from the original bill and then base what is "at risk" on income.  "At risk" would be determined by the Federal Poverty Indicator Scale or the Wyoming Self Sufficiency Standard. 

 

There are some things that will need to be changed in the bill.  The Department of Family Services is already doing a market analysis therefore the information should be shared and there should be no need for the Department of Workforce Services do another one.  In regard to tracking individuals within the child care system the task force may need legislative authority regarding identifiers for children.  It would certainly be helpful for the Department of Education to have authority to share information.

 

The task force has not addressed the fiscal portion of the bill.  They feel like they will be in a position to do so after the meeting.  The Committee did indicate that a mechanism to stay within the funding levels needs to be addressed by the task force. 

 

 

Public Comment

Jan Lawrence of Basic Beginnings in Laramie addressed the Committee.  She was a member of the advisory work group.  She urged the Committee to consider that using the Wyoming Self Sufficiency Standard for "at risk" would take into account the cost of child care but not the quality of child care.  She thinks the scholarship approach is problematic and that people will not take the time to fill out the application form.  She wants the Committee to consider that persons in the child care field with bachelor degrees are not readily available for hire and also individuals with those degrees will be seeking work in the public schools and trying to compete with the schools on salary would be cost prohibitive.  Ms. Lawrence stated that the biggest fear of providers is roller coaster funding. 

 

Committee Directives

The next meeting of the Committee will be November 1, 2006 in Casper.

 

Meeting Adjournment

There being no further business, Co-Chair Harvey adjourned the meeting at 3:20 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Representative Harvey, Co-Chair

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