Contact: Jessica Klos Shapiro

Public Policy and Communications Coordinator

518-690-4217 ext 32

jklos@earlycareandlearning.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

8/14/13

Early Care & Learning Council Welcomes New Executive Director

Since his arrival on the job in June, David Voegele has traveled much of New York State, met with many key stakeholders and begun to form relationships that will advance the vision and goals of the Early Care & Learning Council to flourish for many years to come.

The Early Care & Learning Council has been working to make quality, affordable child care available to New York’s families since 1975. Rooted in a statewide network of child care resource and referral agencies, the support of the Early Care & Learning Council includes wide representation from child care providers, parents, businesses, community organizations, and other individuals.

A native of Connecticut, David’s career began with a volunteer position at a local Community Action child care center. This led to a child care teaching position and then a counselor role with at-risk teens. His non-profit management career began when hired at age 28 as the new Executive Director of the Leominster Multi-Service Center in North Central MA. Over the next few decades, David served in a variety of executive leadership roles in Central and Western MA, including: Director of a Springfield nutrition program for low-income women, infants, and children (WIC); Director of First Call for Help in Hampshire County; founding Executive Director of Worcester Community Loan Fund, Worcester Common Ground (a community land trust and developer of housing cooperatives), and Mass211 (the statewide 2-1-1 Information and Referral system for MA).

Just before joining the Early Care & Learning Council, David served for nearly 12 years as the Executive Director of DIAL/SELF Youth and Community Services, where he initiated a number of new programs and greatly expanded services for at-risk youth in rural Western MA.

Reflecting on these past couple of months, David reports, “I am delighted to be working for such a diverse network of agencies with the support of a talented and enthusiastic staff.”

Board Chair and Child Care Council of Westchester Executive Director Kathleen Halas is thrilled that the Board was able to find such a qualified leader with impressive nonprofit sector experience. “David brings energy, knowledge and skills to the organization and the state CCR&R network that strengthen our collective capacity to effectively serve children and families in communities all across New York State.”

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Early Care & Learning Council: For more than thirty-five years, the Early Care & Learning Council has been a leading voice for early care and education in New York State.  With its statewide network of child care resource and referral agencies, the Council has successfully fought for increases in funding to support early childhood programs and for the reform of child care laws, regulations and policies to improve safety and quality in child care settings. The Council and partners work to increase the quality, affordability and capacity of the early care and learning field and does so through training and technical assistance, data management and advocacy initiatives. For more information, please call (518) 690-4217 or visit www.earlycareandlearning.org.

Senator Schumer introduces background check legislation

POLICY and ADVOCACY ALERT

7/26/13 Child Protection Improvements and Electronic Life and Safety Security Systems Act On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer unveiled legislation to close a gaping hole in the federal law that prevents summer camps, children’s groups and other not-for-profit organizations that work with children from gaining access to federal criminal background checks on new employees and volunteers. Under current law, most children’s organizations only have access to the New York State database, and lack access to FBI databases, which are widely considered the most accurate and complete criminal databases. New York State’s criminal database – which is the only resource most local groups have access to – lack records of criminal activity committed out of state, when the offense is not federal. As of 2010, over 40% of the individuals with criminal records had committed an offense in a state other than where they were applying to volunteer, meaning that a state-only search would not have found relevant criminal records. Schumer’s legislation would grant youth-serving organizations access to FBI background checks for volunteers and new employees, so they would be able to check for any violent or sex crime committed anywhere in the country, regardless of where it is committed and whether it is a state or federal crime. The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. It has not yet been introduced in the House of Representatives but will be sponsored by Rep. Adam Schiff (CA-29) and Rep. Mike Rogers (MI-8). The bi-partisan legislation has already been endorsed by a variety of groups including the American Camp Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and YMCA of the USA. Stay tuned for more updates. Sincerely, Jessica Jessica Klos Shapiro Senior Policy Associate (518) 690-4217 ex. 32

Do you have a story to share with the Governor?

As you know, 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 to adapt to a change in subsidy assistance. Such a short notification period often forces parents to quit their jobs or place their children in questionable care until a better solution can be found. Do you have examples from local child care providers and parents that illustrate the need for this legislation? Please forward these stories (1-2 paragraphs) for use by the Winning Beginning NY Subsidy Committee by July 17^th in asking the Governor to sign this legislation into law.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Best,

Jessica

Jessica Klos Shapiro

Senior Policy Associate

www.earlycareandlearning.org

230 Washington Ave. Ext.

Albany, NY  12203

518.690.4217 ext 32

518-690-2887 (fax)

www.facebook.com/earlycareandlearning

http://twitter.com/#!/NYS_ECLC

https://www.rebelmouse.com/NYS_ECLC/

POLICY and ADVOCACY ALERT: Recap of This Year's Legislative Session

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.

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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.  

Information on reaching out to the Governor’s Office will be coming and thank you to everyone for all their hard work thus far!

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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

Jessica Klos Shapiro

Senior Policy Associate

(518) 690-4217 ex. 32

POLICY and ADVOCACY ALERT

6/11/13 CCDBG Reauthorization Bill Introduced through Bi-Partisan Effort in US Senate Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) have introduced a bill to reauthorize the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), the primary federal grant program that provides child care assistance for families and funds child care quality initiatives. The legislation, “The Child Care Development and Block Grant Act of 2013,” would reauthorize the program for the first time since 1996. Under the Reauthorization Bill, states would be required to ensure that all child care providers who care for CCDBG funded children: • Receive health and safety training in specific areas • Receive comprehensive background checks (including fingerprints, checks of the sex offender and child abuse registries) • Receive on-site monitoring This bill includes many measures to improve the quality of child care and ensure that all children in child care settings are safe. Currently, more than 500,000 providers serve about 1.6 million low-income children through this funding nationwide.  The bill is currently being considered by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Early Learning Days of Action Last week, advocates across the country participated in the Strong Start for Children Campaign’s Early Learning Day of Action which included a tweet chat using the hashtag #PreKforAll.  This chat and usage of the hashtag resulted in 1.3K unique participants and a reach of 4.5 million people! To compliment this, many CCR&Rs are participating in Winning Beginning NY’s Early Learning Days of Action to support President Obama's Early Learning Initiative which calls for an investment of $75 billion in early childhood education. The President's bold plan includes investments in supporting early learning and healthy development from the prenatal period, through school age!  The plan also includes critical investments in quality improvement, including better compensation for the early childhood workforce.  To see pictures and media from the NY events as well as our partners, visit https://www.rebelmouse.com/NY4EarlyLearning/. To support the President’s Early Learning Plan: Click Here to Contact your Member of Congress today. Stay tuned for more updates. Sincerely, Jessica Jessica Klos Shapiro Senior Policy Associate (518) 690-4217 ex. 32

Early Care & Learning Council demonstrates Commitment to Quality

Contact: Bonnie Primus

Early Care & Learning Council

518-690-4217 ext 27

bcohen@earlycareandlearning.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

6/4/13

 

Early Care & Learning Council demonstrates Commitment to Quality

The 2013 Annual Meeting and Luncheon will highlight the many ways the Early Care & Learning Council and its Child Care Resource and Referral Network agencies are connecting parents, providers, employers and government officials to the child care information they need. At every level this work is driven by a shared commitment to quality.  In 2012,

Penelope Andrews, President and Dean of the Albany Law School will be the keynote speaker at the Early Care & Learning Council’s Annual Meeting & Luncheon.  Three “Excellence in Leadership” Award honorees will be recognized.  This year’s recipients are:

·         Marcia Brogan, Niagara National Insurance, Inc.

·         Robin Beller, New York State Office of Children and Family Services

·         Subrina Dhammi and Isabel Lim, WNYT News 13 Live at Noon

WHEN:                  Wednesday, June 5, 2013 12:00 pm

WHERE:               Albany Country Club

300 Wormer Road

Voorheesville, NY 12186

WHO:                     (bios attached)

Penelope Andrews, President and Dean of the Albany Law School

Marcia Brogan, Niagara National Insurance, Inc.

Robin Beller, New York State Office of Children and Family Services

Subrina Dhammi and Isabel Lim, WNYT News 13 Live at Noon

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Early Care & Learning Council: For more than thirty-five years, the Early Care & Learning Council has been a leading voice for early care and education in New York State.  With its statewide network of child care resource and referral agencies, the Council has successfully fought for increases in funding to support early childhood programs and for the reform of child care laws, regulations and policies to improve safety and quality in child care settings.  The Council was a founder and convener of both the Child Care that Works Campaign and Winning Beginning NY, both statewide advocacy coalitions.  The Council and partners work to increase the quality, affordability and capacity of the early care and learning field and does so through training and technical assistance, data management and advocacy initiatives. For more information, please call (518) 690-4217 or visit www.earlycareandlearning.org

Take Action on Sequestration

As you know, federal sequestration that went into effect March 1, 2013 will have an effect on child care in New York State that is yet to be determined.

At this time we know that approximately $5 million will be reduced from the NYS Office of Children and Family Services discretionary portion of the CCDF grant, but exactly which programs will be cut and to what extent are still unknown.  

If any money is to be restored our federal Representatives and Senators really have the power at this moment, as proven by the legislation to ease the air-traffic delays that sailed through both houses of Congress late last week.

Find your member of Congress and contact information for our U.S. Senators here: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

In addition, advocacy to state representatives should still be ongoing. State representatives can discuss the issue with all departments of government.

Thank you for your attention to this issue and please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Jessica

Jessica Klos Shapiro

Senior Policy Associate

(518) 690-4217 ex. 32