Child Care Communique - Early Learning Coalition of Broward

N U M B E R
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M A R C H
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-Anne Bradstreet, The Works of Anne Bradstreet
Welcome Spring by: Samantha Wass de Czege, Director
Y
ou could say our jobs relate to the above quote….we have our good days and our bad
days - and the bad days make us appreciate the good. A bad day can quickly change to a good day by
getting a smile from a child in a child care program or a provider who expresses appreciation for our
guidance. Moments like these make experiencing a bad day a distant memory.
As things start ramping up for the legislative session, we anticipate changes to our program.
Fortunately, these changes will propel our program priorities in a positive direction. We will continue to
develop and enhance our system while taking on rule changes, inspecting new entities and providing
professional development opportunities for all staff to gain credentials and certification for personal as
well as career growth.
In order to get to spring, we have to face the winter. When we
feel overwhelmed and have bad days, we must stop and reflect on
the impact that our work has in ensuring the protection of so
many children in Florida. Together, as a team, we will
welcome spring and appreciate the good days!
1
.
Coming soon: Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse
Spring Pre-Service Training
by: Dinah Davis, Operations &
Management Consultant Manager
The final series of
pre-service training for this fiscal
year has been scheduled as follows:
Week 1:
March 9-13 (Monday – Friday),
Tallahassee, Florida
Week 2:
April 14-17 (Tuesday – Friday),
Tallahassee, Florida
Week 3:
May 12-15 (Tuesday – Friday),
Tallahassee, Florida
Pre-service is required training for
all new licensing counselors. Please
work closely with new staff to ensure
the corresponding supplemental
activities are underway before
attending the first week of training,
if possible. These activities provide
some independent study as well as
opportunities to observe various
provider interactions and the
inspection process. Licensing staff
that need to make up a week of
training are welcome to attend as
necessary.
Please email the names of staff that
plan on attending to
[email protected].
For questions about travel
arrangements, hotel
accommodations, and travel
reimbursements, please contact the
program office at (850) 488-4900.
We look forward to working with
the new Child Care Regulation &
Background Screening team.
by: Diane Harris, Supervisor of Background Screening
The Department of Children and Families is one of seven state agencies that
will join the Clearninghouse, a new statewide screening database,
"The Clearinghouse." The purpose of the Clearinghouse is to provide a single
data source for background screening results for individuals who apply
for employment or licensure and provide services to children, the elderly,
and disabled individuals. The Clearinghouse will enable specific agencies
to share the results of criminal history checks when a person has applied
to volunteer, be employed, be licensed (including foster parents), or enter
into a contract that requires a state and national fingerprint-based criminal
history check. The Department has worked with the Agency for Health Care
Administration to establish the necessary requirements for the Department
to join the Clearinghouse.
The Department will begin utilizing the Clearinghouse in March for summer
camp providers. There will be a phased implementation for programs, with
child care onboarding later this summer. Information on the Clearinghouse,
including training information, is now on the Department's Background
Screening website. You can access this information at
.
www.myflfamilies.com/backgroundscreening.
New Training Courses Coming Soon
by: Ron Cox, Senior Management Analyst Supervisor
In an ongoing effort to provide child care professionals in Florida with
high-quality training, the Office of Child Care Regulation and Background
Screening has developed five new online training courses for release in
the Summer of 2015. All of these courses can be used to meet part of the
10-hour annual in-service training requirement. Students will be able to
earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs) that can be used for credential
renewals.
The five new courses include:
w Water Safety in Child Care Programs (2 hours - .2 CEUs)
w Trauma-Informed Care for Child Care Professionals (2 hours - .2 CEUs)
w Mentoring 101 for Child Care Professionals (1 hour - .1 CEU)
w Performance Reviews: A Tool for Professional Development (1 hour - .1 CEU)
wTips for Selecting the Right Staff (1 hour - .1 CEU)
Please follow “What’s New” on the Office of Child Care Regulation &
Background Screening website at www.myflfamilies.com/childcare
for more information and the release date of the courses.
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CARES Update by: Jeremy Lewis, Operations & Management Consultant
Over the past few months, we have made significant strides in CARES. The largest of these modules include the provider
and personnel records pages. The completion percentages of each module under development, along with the additional
modules that will be developed in the coming months, are listed below.
Modules in Progress or Completed:
w Provider Page: 50%
w Person Page: 50%
w Provider Change Log: 100%
w Smart Search: 100% but ongoing
w Public Search: 70%
w Account Creation: 100%
Future Tasks:
w Gold Seal
w VPK
w Progressive Enforcement/Admin Actions
w User Dashboards
w Statistical Reports
Initial procedures to bring CARES online for testing by our CCRA group has begun. Once this testing environment is
established, we will begin requesting field staff to conduct testing sessions and participate in feedback sessions.
Legislative Update by: Ellen Geeker, Operations Review Specialist
The beginning of the 60-day legislative session is right around the corner, running
March 3- May 1. The Program Office has been busy conducting bill analyses and
providing information on all pieces of legislation that impact child care or background
screening. Thus far, the highlighted bills include:
w SB 7006 / EDC 15-01 Relating to Early Learning: This bill increases health and safety
requirements for all early learning programs accepting Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK)
or School Readiness (SR) dollars.
w SB 210 / HB 119 Relating to Licensing of Facilities that offer Health & Human
Services: This bill requires family day care homes to post their license in a conspicuous
location and defines “advertisement,” requiring that all licensed, registered
and license exempt providers use their license/registration/
exemption number for identification purposes on their
advertisements.
w SB 326 / HB 21 Relating to Substance Abuse Services:
This bill creates a voluntary certification program for
recovery residences and requires the Department to approve
credentialing entities to administer this certification program.
The bill also requires Level 2 background screening of all
recovery residence employees.
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Annual Religious
Exempt Meeting
by: Diana McKenzie,
Operations Review Specialist
Each year, the Office of Child Care
Regulation and Background Screening
hosts the Religious Exempt Accrediting
Agency meeting in Tallahassee. The
meeting's purpose is to share information
that impacts or may impact the operation
of exempt from licensure child care
programs which are accredited
and/or approved by a religious exempt
accrediting agency.
This year's meeting was held on January
29, 2015 and included 13 representatives
from 8 religious exempt accrediting
agencies and 8 representatives from our
partner agencies (Child Development
Education Alliance, Florida Catholic
Conference, Florida Council of
Independent Schools, the Children's
Forum, Association of Early Learning
Coalitions and the Office of Early
Learning). Employees from the Office of
Child Care Regulation and Background
Screening were also in attendance.
Religious exempt accrediting
agencies will be notified when
Clearinghouse training is available.
For more information on the
Clearinghouse and training,
please visit http://www.
dcf.state.fl.us/programs/
backgroundscreening/
clearinghouse/.
Gold Seal Rule Update
Updates on the proposed Gold Seal
rule, outlining the impact on license
exempt child care programs, were
facilitated by Dinah Davis. Currently,
Gold Seal programs exempt from
licensure are not subject to DCF
inspections, and therefore the
provisions of 402.281(4), F.S. cannot
be properly implemented for these
programs. The proposed rule would
require license exempt Gold Seal
providers to submit an application,
whereby the applicant would agree
to periodic DCF inspections.
School-Age Exemptions
Some of the religious exempt
accrediting agency representatives
in attendance wondered how they
can determine if a school-age
program requires an exemption
from licensure. Dinah provided
copies of the Child Care Licensure
Questionnaire" which references s.
402.302(1), F.S., and the exemptions
listed in Ch. 65C-22.008(2)(c) F.A.C.,
which may or may not require
programs to be licensed.
Legislative Committees began
meeting at the beginning of
January in preparation for the 2015
Legislative Session. Ellen Geeker
provided a review of the bills
which may potentially impact child
care and background screening
programs. Copies of the Office of
Child Care Regulation & Background
Screening's Legislative Tracking
Chart were distributed to attendees.
In addition, weekly legislative
updates will be sent to attendees
during session.
Clearinghouse
Diane Harris provided information on
the Clearinghouse, a single data source
for background screening results for
individuals who apply for employment or
licensure and provide services to children,
the elderly, and disabled individuals. The
Department is projecting utilization of the
Clearinghouse to begin in March of 2015,
beginning with summer camps. Child
care programs will be phased in over the
following few months.
Inspections conducted for Gold Seal
license exempt facilities would be
consistent with inspections that are
conducted for currently licensed
facilities. Creating a uniform system
of procedures for the issuance or
removal of a provider's Gold Seal
Quality Care designation accounts
for the program's inspection
violation history.
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A question and answer session
concluded the 2015 Religious
Exempt Accrediting Agency
meeting. Overall, the meeting was
well attended and received positive
feedback. We look forward to next
year's meeting.
Office of Child Care Regulation and Background Screening Budget FY 2014-2015
by: Mike Boland, Senior Management Analyst Supervisor
For the past year, each issue of Communique has included a short article on the program’s budget. After a number of
such articles, it is evident that there is only so much that one can say about the budget, very little of which is actually of
interest to staff. To summarize, each year we are given an appropriation by the Legislature for the next 12 months, we
work hard to live within that budget. End of story. Well maybe there is a little more to this story…
A review of previous articles reflects a history of addressing bits and pieces of the budget, but we have never focused
on the overall budget and how it supports the different components within the program. To that end, the following
information is offered for the FY 2014-2015 budget, which has basically remained unchanged over the past several
years.
Child Care Regulation-$16,889,275 statewide that includes Federal Grants Trust Funds (from the Office of Early
Learning’s Child Care & Development Funds), Social Services Block Grant Funds (federal), General Revenue
(state funding), and Operation & Maintenance Trust Funding (child care fees and fines)
w Salaries $6,962,026 (provides salary and benefits for 123.5 FTEs statewide)
w OPS $1,537,870 (supports 55.5 full and part-time positions statewide)
w Expense $1,398,509 (pays for travel, per diem, equipment, supplies, collocated costs, etc., for 123.5 FTEs, 55.5 OPS and
an unknown number of Temp Agency staff statewide)
w Contracted Services $736,020 (supports some collocated costs such as janitorial, security, etc., in addition to other
services such as temp agency staff, Fed Ex, confidential shredding, Florida Administrative Weekly, maintenance
agreements, etc.)
w G/A Child Protection $6,054,151 (funds contracts for 13 training coordination agencies, child care information system
maintenance and development for both licensing and training, the Children’s Forum, Florida Center for Interactive
Media, 5 Local Licensing Agencies, as well as equipment purchases such as toughbooks, printers and other related IT
expenditures) Lease/Purchase/Equipment $49,134 (used to lease equipment such as high volume copiers)
Background Screening-$2,275,720 statewide that includes General Revenue and Administrative Trust funds,
which are both state funding streams.
wSalary $1,670,370 (provides salary and benefits for 21 FTEs statewide
w Expense $219,1699 (pays for travel, per diem, equipment, supplies, collocated
costs, etc., for 21 FTEs, and 16 Temp Agency staff statewide)
w Contracted Services $904,451 (supports some collocated costs such as
janitorial, security, etc., as well as other services such as temp agency staff, Fed
Ex, confidential shredding, maintenance agreements and live scan screenings for
relative and non-relative placements statewide)
w Lease/Purchase/Equipment $9,578 (used to lease equipment such as copiers)
In summary, the Child Care Regulation & Background Screening program provides
an exceptional value with their total allocation of $19,164,995. And that folks, is the
budget story for this edition of Communique.
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P.R.E.V.E.N.T. Obesity Spring Outlook
" Put Some Latitude
in Your Attitude !”
by: Alina Soto, Statewide Quality Liaison
Does this sound like a typical morning to you: get up early, leave the house with your breakfast in hand, return
phone calls on the way to school drop off (don't forget to pay for the field trip this week), and arrive at the office
early to make copies of that report that you finished late last night?
How do you keep going at that pace while resisting unhealthy food options? How about putting a little latitude
in your attitude? You'll need to take a few minutes (yes, you can) to care for yourself. In the next few newsletters,
we will share simple pointers on wellness and obesity.
P.R.E.V.E.N.T.ion Tips
w Self affirmation is the key to finding your personal strength. When you
are feeling tempted, remind yourself of your greatest accomplishments.
w Get your Zzzzzs! A lack of sleep can lead to bad choices. People who get less
than six hours of sleep each night are more likely to consume extra calories,
especially from fatty foods.
w At meal time, put down the IPad and smart phone, close the book, and
turn off the TV. Savor every bite of food and give your body time to enjoy
and digest the meal. The slower you eat, the fuller you feel.
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News from around the State
Southern Region Updates by: Cyntheria Martin,
Administrative Assistant to Suzette Frazier
Branching Out of the Office
And the Winners are..... Congratulations to Omauri Marksman and
Cyntheria Martin from the the Southern Region Child Care Regulation
office. They both won the Davis Productivity Award!
The Parent Outreach Specialist for Dr. William A. Chapman
Head Start and Our Little Ones Learning Center hosted a
workshop on child abuse awareness for families. Omauri
Marksman, a representative from the Department
of Children and Families, discussed the standards on
prevention and abuse reporting. Through the workshop,
families gained a new perspective and learned more about
DCF's role in suspected abuse reports.
Northwest Region Update by: Jeanne Martin,
Regional Safety Program Manager
The Northwest Region employees remained very busy, completing a
total of 27 training hours to providers in five cities across the region.
Nine provider meetings were held in Tallahassee, Panama City, Chipley,
Niceville (Fort Walton Beach), and Pensacola to provide updates
and refresher training in child care topics. Jeanna Olson, Wendy
Fletcher-Altman, and Phyllis Gonzalez, DCF Community Development
Administrators, presented the Child Fatality Prevention Initiative at each
meeting, while Millie Tizol, Early Education and Care's Training Director,
presented training and exam information.
Licensing Supervisors and Counselors presented many topics including:
w “Do You Know Your License Number?” (advertising and social media)
w “What Is A Matrix?” (understanding progressive enforcement)
w “I Can’t Stand Paperwork” (new forms and samples)
w “How to Avoid Class I Violations” (self-explanatory)
w“DCF and What’s a Clearinghouse?” (background screening and coming attraction)
The meetings were a lot of work, covered serious topics and were very successful. Congratulations to all on a job well done!
Meet the Northwest Team!
Supervisors: Roger Thompson & Linda Halpin. Counselors: Stacy Higdon, Shacondra Primm, Stephanie Bosso, Donna Woodard, Angie
Strumeyer, LeeAnne Case, Yvonne Goss, Crystal Higgins, Libby Provost, Miatta Jalaber, and Suzanne Green. Lynoros Williams, Stephanie Avitia,
Kimberly Newby and Glen Roberts.
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IACET Application by: Diana McKenzie, Operations Review Specialist
The Office of Child Care Regulation and Background Screening is an accredited Authorized Provider of IACET CEU's.
Every five years, the Office of Child Care Regulation and Background Screening must renew their accreditation to
continue issuing IACET CEU's. The current expiration date is September 30, 2015. The application process includes
the submission of an extensive IACET application packet and an on-site visit. Our goal is to have the application
completed by July to allow sufficient time for feedback from and to prepare for the on-site visit prior to the
expiration date. Daphine Harvey, Central Region Program Analyst, will be providing assistance on this project.
Years of Service Recognition
Daphine Harvey, Central Region Program Analyst
5 Years
Mike Boland, Program Office Supervisor
5 Years
Jason Kesterman, Northwest Region Program Analyst 10 Years
Dinah Davis, Program Office Supervisor
15 Years
Diane Harris, Supervisor of Background Screening
15 Years
Eduardo Rivera, Southern Region Program Analyst
30 Years
Kudos to you ALL for your dedication and service. We appreciate you more than you know!
Welcome Aboard
ultant Manager
by: Dinah Davis, Operations & Management Cons
The Office of Child Care Regulation and Background Screening welcomes Timothy
“Tim” Lewis to the policy unit. Tim earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Trinity
College in Deerfield, Illinois and is also a proud graduate of Florida State University where
he earned a Master’s degree in Social Work. Tim has over 20 years experience with the
Department working primarily in the family safety program, including foster care licensing,
independent living programming, and technical support for the Florida Safe Families
Network. Welcome to the team!
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cipe
Communique Re
e
Easter Bunny Caiaklist
perations Review
by: Holly Clark, O
Spec
w Prep Time: 30 min
w Total Time: 2 hr 10 min
w Servings: 12
From: Betty Crocker.com
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/easter-bunny-cake/b8af0f55-67d5-4fb0-aaec-ab11ff5df7e3
Ingredients
1 Box Betty Crocker SuperMoist Carrot Cake Mix (Mix as directed with water, oil and eggs)
1 Container Betty Crocker Whipped Fluffy white frosting
2 Cups shredded Coconut
Jelly Beans, as desired
Green Food Coloring
Tray or cardboard covered with wrapping paper and plastic food wrap or foil
Construction Paper
Directions
1
2
3
Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Make, bake and
cool cake as directed on box for two 8-inch or 9-inch round pans.
Reserve 1 layer for another use or to make a second bunny. Cut 1 layer
in half as shown in diagram. Put halves together with frosting to make
body. Place cake upright on cut edge on tray.
Cut out a notch about one-third of the way up one end of body to
form head (small end) as shown in diagram. Attach half of cutout
piece from tail with toothpicks. Frost with remaining frosting,
rounding body on sides. Sprinkle with 1 cup coconut. Cut ears from
construction paper; wrap ends that will be inserted into cake with
plastic food wrap. Press into notch on top. Use jelly beans for eyes and
nose.
4 Shake 1 cup coconut and 3 drops food color in tightly covered
jar until evenly tinted. Surround bunny with tinted coconut. Add
additional jelly beans if desired. Remove ears, plastic wrap and
toothpicks before serving. Store loosely covered.
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EXPERT TIP!
No need to fuss over frosting. Freeze cut cake
pieces uncovered for about 1 hour; this will
make frosting easier.