6/28/13
The legislative session in Albany is always an interesting and
exciting time, with this year proving no different. Many different issue
were brought to the table and despite the atmosphere and budgetary constraints,
there was forward progress made for early care and learning. There is also the
possibility of additional legislation passing if a special session is convened
later this fall.
Child Care
Legislative Victory
S.5743(Grisanti)/A.3498A
(Peoples-Stokes), the 60 day notification bill, passed both houses of the
legislature. If signed into law by the Governor, this law will give
parents and providers time to prepare for an increase in co-pay for child care
assistance or an altogether a loss of subsidy.The legislation requires local social service districts to notify the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) at least 60 days before the effective date of a planned reduction in eligibility or increase in co-payments for child care assistance. OCFS will in turn notify key community organizations, including CCR&Rs, as well as providers. Currently, affected families only receive 10 days notice in this situation.
This bill will provide families with much more time to plan how they might be able to
continue to work without a subsidy and will allow child care providers more
time to adjust accordingly when parents withdraw children from care because of
the loss or reduction of a subsidy.
Members of the Winning Beginning NY Child Care Subsidy Committee worked hard to achieve passage of this bill. It is currently being opposed by the New York Public Welfare Association, so there is a bit more advocacy to be done to ensure the Governor signs the bill into law.
Members of the Winning Beginning NY Child Care Subsidy Committee worked hard to achieve passage of this bill. It is currently being opposed by the New York Public Welfare Association, so there is a bit more advocacy to be done to ensure the Governor signs the bill into law.
Information on reaching out
to the Governor’s Office will be coming and thank you to everyone for all their
hard work thus far!
Expand Full-Day Pre-Kindergarten
The 2013-2014 NYS budget provided a victory
for early learning though $25 million in competitive grant funds to school
districts across the state to establish new full-day pre-kindergarten
placements and to convert existing half-day slots into full-day ones. The
competitive grant sponsors programs that adopt quality indicators and
offer instruction consistent with the state’s common core standards. The
pre-kindergarten competitive grant targets high-need school districts and
students. The RFP is set to be released in the coming days. Again, thank
you to all who advocated tirelessly on this issue, particularly the commitment
to quality.
Stay
tuned for more updates and have a great weekend.
Sincerely,
Jessica
Senior
Policy Associate
(518)
690-4217 ex. 32
No comments:
Post a Comment