8.4 Public-Private Partnerships

Lead Agencies must demonstrate how they encourage partnerships among other public agencies, Tribal organizations, private entities, faith-based organizations, businesses, or organizations that promote business involvement, and/or community-based organizations to leverage existing service delivery (i.e., cooperative agreement among providers to pool resources to pay for shared fixed costs and operation) to leverage existing child care and early education service delivery systems and to increase the supply and quality of child care services for children younger than age 13. 8.4.1 Lead Agency public-private partnerships Identify and describe any public-private partnerships encouraged by the Lead Agency to leverage public and private resources to further the goals of CCDF: CHFS has committed to ongoing endeavors to encourage the private sector to meet employee needs for child care. DCC, through subcontracts with Kentucky's Child Care Resource and Referral Network, has conducted several outreach activities targeted at local businesses, inclusive of a marketing plan with material and information to employers on the importance of high quality child care to the business community. CCDF-funded programs regularly meet with private, faith based, and community-based organization to strategize ways to collaborate and minimize duplication of service delivery. During the 2000 legislative session, House Bill 706 unanimously passed in both chambers of the Kentucky Legislature. At that time, it was the most comprehensive package of early childhood legislation in the nation addressing the needs of children. State and local partnerships were created to meet the locally identified needs of children and set the foundation for the Community Early Childhood Councils. In 2019, the Early Childhood Advisory Council voted to merge the councils based upon geographical location and in alignment with the 10 workforce areas. Today, this network of local partnerships is referred to as Regional Collaboratives and is led by the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood. Regional Collaboratives are tasked with uniting organizations in local communities to address critical early years of a child’s life. The Kentucky Regional Collaborative Network: -Aligns birth-5 programs and strategies, reduces duplication and leverages additional resources to ensure children in their community have a strong start. -Collaborates with the Kentucky Center for Statistics (KYSTATS) on Early Childhood Profile to connect prevention services along the birth-5 pathway to increase access and opportunity. -Invests in data-driven solutions through local innovation and decision-making to grow Kentucky’s Bright Spots. -Effects change to make measurable progress toward locally defined community-wide goals. The Division of Child Care has implemented the Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership (ECCAP) Program from House Bill 499 from the 2022 Regular Session. ECCAP is a state-funded workforce initiative and does not utilize CCDBG funding as it serves families who exceed CCDF income eligibility thresholds. Through ECCAP, the cost of child care is shared by the employee, employer and Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS). The amount contributed by the Cabinet is based upon your family’s size and income level. This means your child care expense could be significantly reduced. Citation: https://kyecac.ky.gov/community/Pages/Regional-Collaboratives.aspx Citation: Website Eligibility/Information: https://kynect.ky.gov/benefits/s/eccap- program?language=en_US Regulations: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/kar/titles/922/002/165/