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: The collaboration between Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) and public and private community organizations is crucial in advancing the goals of the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF). These partnerships aim to build and support capacity, improve coordination between state and local agencies, and engage the business and philanthropic communities in early care and education. MSDE works with public and private community organizations to enhance capacity and foster coordination. These efforts connect state agencies with local early childhood councils, promoting the importance of early care and education. The collaboration with businesses and philanthropic entities helps identify service delivery needs and additional resources to support CCDF goals. Through these partnerships, MSDE identifies gaps in the current delivery systems for children birth to five years old and develops programs to address these gaps. MSDE partners with five community organizations to provide medically based child care and early education services for children with medical diagnoses, developmental delays, physical disabilities, and behavioral issues requiring specialized care. These organizations include: 1) PACT: Helping Children with Special Needs World of Care 2) PACT: Helping Children with Special Needs Therapeutic Nursery 3) The Arc of Montgomery County 4) The Lourie Center for Children’s Social & Emotional Wellness 5) The Arc of Prince George’s County These programs offer early intervention therapies, including speech, occupational, and physical therapies, mental health services, social-emotional support, medical/healthcare services, and family support in an inclusive, high-quality early learning environment. MSDE partners with Ready at Five, a private organization dedicated to comprehensive school readiness for all Maryland children. This partnership disseminates early education and kindergarten readiness information, fosters community engagement, and raises awareness of early care and education. MSDE collaborates with higher education institutes to meet CCDF goals. A notable partnership is with Johns Hopkins University (JHU), which administers the Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS) Maryland EXCELS. This system recognizes and supports child care programs in achieving and maintaining quality standards. To support parents seeking quality early child care and education programs, and to build capacity among child care professionals, MSDE partners with Maryland Family Network (MFN), the Statewide Coordinating Entity for Maryland’s Child Care Resource Network (MCCRN). This partnership provides: 1) Resource and referral services for families seeking child care 2) Training and technical assistance for child care providers 3) Parenting skill development through Patty Centers Family Support Services These unique public-private partnerships work together to advance an integrated early childhood system and leverage existing services to improve outcomes for children and families. MSDE has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Regional Economic Studies Institute (RESI) at Towson University to provide data research and technical services. This state-agency-to- academic-institution relationship leverage’s RESI’s expertise to support CCDF goals by providing necessary data for the State Plan, Quality Progress Report, expenditure forecasting, legislative requests, and other tasks outlined in the MOU. MSDE is developing an MOU with Maryland Philanthropy Network on a statewide suppy and demand study, birth to age five. In addition, MSDE has a longstanding partnership with Child Trends to conduct various studies and analyses to support implementation improvements.