8.1 Coordination with Partners to Expand Accessibility and Continuity of Care

Lead Agencies must coordinate child care services supported by CCDF with other federal, State/Territory, and local level programs. This includes programs for the benefit of Indian children, infants and toddlers, children with disabilities, children experiencing homelessness, and children in foster care. 8.1.1 Coordination with required and optional partners Describe how the Lead Agency coordinates and the results of this coordination of the provision of child care services with the organizations and agencies to expand accessibility and continuity of care and to assist children enrolled in early childhood programs in receiving full-day services that meet the needs of working families. The Lead Agency must coordinate with the following agencies: a. State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care or similar coordinating body (pursuant to 642B(b)(I)(A)(i) of the Head Start Act). Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Children's Cabinet Early Childhood Advisory Council (CCECAC) operates as the State Advisory Council on Early Education and Care. Coordination between the Lead Agency’s CCDF Plan and the CCECAC’s strategic plan, occurs through the ongoing monthly meeting to ensure alignment on increasing access to affordable quality early care and to recruit, prepare, and retain a diverse early childhood workforce. Members of the council have provided feedback and recommendations to the Lead Agency on the implementation and expansion of the Child Care Affordability Program, Child Care Employment Awards, the Early Childhood Consultation Partnership (ECCP) Program, Help Me Grow Maine, First4ME pilots, the work of MRTQ PDN, and the connected work on the Preschool Development Grant. Feedback led to revised implementation of quality improvement awards and the addition of quality bumps to the state's child care stability grants. b. Indian Tribe(s) and/or Tribal organization(s), at the option of the Tribe or Tribal organization. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination, including which Tribe(s) was (were) involved: Each of the five Maine Tribal CCDF administrators are contacted on a regular basis by the State Administrator with updates to and invitations concerning child care policies and rules in Maine. The five CCDF tribes recognized in Maine are the Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Penobscot Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township and Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point. In May of 2023, the CCDF Administrator was invited to meet with the five CCDF Tribal Administrators during the Onsite Visit for Tribal Nationals in Maine along with ACF representatives. The goal was to share updates and barriers/successes from all. Communication between individual administrators continues based on the Tribal goals. The CCDF Administrator also met individually with a Tribal CCDF Administrator to discuss any updates or concerns regarding their tribe’s early care and education systems. Several topics of discussion included data management systems, health and safety standards and training, and other programs available. As a result of connection and collaboration, the Lead Agency is working to expand the state-funded Head Start grants to Tribal Head Starts and to fund a home visiting project through PDG funds. [ ] Not applicable. Check here if there are no Indian Tribes and/or Tribal organizations in the State/Territory. c. State/Territory agency(ies) responsible for programs for children with disabilities, including early intervention programs authorized under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency and Child Development Services (CDS) through Maine’s Department of Education, coordinate on several cross departmental efforts including the Children’s Cabinet and Children's Cabinet Early Childhood Advisory Council (CCECAC). The results of our coordination is currently focused on transitioning Part B special education Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) responsibility to school districts through a mixed delivery model of implementation where children can attend their preschool programming in family child care programs, child care centers, Head Starts, and school district classrooms. In partnership with the Lead Agency, MRTQ PDN and the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies (CCDIS) support the Lead Agency’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). Maine has the Inclusion Credential, an advanced credential for practitioners serving children with special needs. Maine also has the Early Childhood Consultation Partnership (ECCP) Program supporting early childhood practitioners with early childhood mental health consultation and inclusive practices. The Lead Agency, Maine DOE, MRTQ PDN and CCDIS work together to ensure providers get needed support around serving children with special needs. Our coordination has led to efforts to expand access to the Inclusion Credential and ECCP. d. State/Territory office/director for Head Start State collaboration. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency holds contracts with the 11 Head Start grantees for state-funded Head Start grants. Maine’s DOE Head Start (HS) Collaboration Director facilitates the use of federal funds with the 11 Head Start grantees throughout the State by providing resources and clarifications of State policies. The Lead Agency and HS Collaboration Director meet regularly to discuss and strategize topics and goals on accessibility and continuity of care and changes of policies that are impacting areas throughout the State and are on several cross-agency groups. MRTQ PDN and the HS Collaboration director also coordinate services through the Maine Head Start State Collaboration Office. The HS Collaboration Director holds a seat as a member on the Children's Cabinet Early Childhood Advisory Council (CCECAC). In addition, the Lead Agency attends Head Start Directors meeting every other month to address the early care and education goals of the State, policies, and services provided through Head Start. Through our Head Start collaboration efforts, both Maine DOE and DHHS are working on how to best support mixed delivery preschool expansion with Head Stars and child care and how potential updates to the Salary Supplement system could best work with Head Start policies and practices. e. State/Territory agency responsible for public health, including the agency responsible for immunizations. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency houses Maine’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is the office responsible for public health and immunizations. Collaboration is ongoing between the CDC and OCFS through several cross-agency groups including the Children's Cabinet Early Childhood Advisory Council (CCECAC), and emergency preparedness. The coordination between offices helps the Lead Agency provide the most up to date public health and immunization information to child care programs. f. State/Territory agency responsible for employment services/workforce development. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency collaboration with the Maine Department of Labor (DOL) and Office of Family Independence (OFI) provides access to families by linking the services through Maine's Career Center. The Career Centers offer resources on job seeking, child care needs, and financial needs online, at Career Center events, and locations. DOL offers grant funding to Maine residents and assist workers to learn new skills. Maine businesses gain access to a qualified workforce to succeed in the changing economy with the Competitive Skills Scholarship Program. Grant money can be used to pay for child care. The Lead Agency and DOL communicate with each other on funding, rules, and child care options for grant recipients. As well as attending an annual DOL Employer Summit to provide information on Maine’s Child Care Employer Toolkit and CCAP. One result of our office's coordination is the development of the Early Childhood Apprenticeships through MRTQ PDN and ongoing work to coordinate and expand apprenticeships across the state. g. State/Territory agency responsible for public education, including pre-Kindergarten. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency and Maine Department of Education (DOE) meet regularly to discuss the goals of both departments and to collaborate on many aspects of early care and education in the state. Additionally, collaboration crosses over between the two departments with attendance of several committees, projects, and meeting State goals. The results of the cross-agency coordination include several successful and ongoing collaborative projects: - partnering on revisions to the Maine Early Learning and Development Standards, - coordinating work of First4ME at DHHS and First 10 at DOE, - working together on building a mixed delivery preschool system, - and the joint implementation of Maine's PDG B-5 grant. h. State/Territory agency responsible for child care licensing. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Children's Licensing and Investigation Services Unit (CLIS) is a division at OCFS. The CCDF Administrator and CLIS work closely together on coordinating goals and policies for child care, rulemaking, and meeting guidelines for CCDF Rules, and other Lead Agency activities. A recent result of the coordination between our divisions is centered on outdoor and nature based early care and education. Staff across divisions have shared information and collaborated on ways to expand training and adapt practices to better support outdoor and nature based programming. This has led to new resources, training and Communities of Practice at MRTQ PDN, training for child care licensors, and work to develop policies for licensing outdoor and nature based programs. i. State/Territory agency responsible for the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and other relevant nutrition programs. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: DOE is responsible for the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and School Nutrition program. Resource information to the Child and Adult Food Program is provided in the form of links on the CCAP web page as well on our consumer education statement. Resources for families has links for physical activity and nutrition and to USDA chose My Plate web site. CCAP offers to disseminate information to Child Care Providers about CACFP with inserts accompanying paper billing. CCAP Supervisor contacts the Child Nutrition Director at DOE at a minimum once per year for inserts. License-exempt Child Care Providers who care for children receiving child care subsidy may also participate in CACFP. CCAP staff coordinate with CACFP staff so they may keep Sponsor up to date on rules regarding CCAP and the number of children Unlicensed Providers may care for and in turn claim for meals. The results of this coordination in 2024 include contracts with sponsoring agencies to increase FCC providers participating in CACFP. j. McKinney-Vento State coordinators for homeless education and other agencies providing services for children experiencing homelessness and, to the extent practicable, local McKinney-Vento liaisons. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency and DOE's Homeless Education Consultant (McKinney-Vento state coordinator) continue to have interdepartmental exchanges that require updates and coordination between the two departments including work on the PDG B-5 grant. Results of coordination include the development of an on demand training at MRTQ PDN and support for building policies and practices that support children experiencing homelessness, including Child Care Affordability Program rules. k. State/Territory agency responsible for the TANF program. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Office for Family Independence (OFI) is within the Lead Agency which determines a family's financial eligibility for a wide range of public assistance program that include TANF, MaineCare, Food Supplement, and Emergency Assistance. The Lead Agency and OFI's substantial coordination on policy and practice increases the assurance that families seeking assistance needs are met. This coordination includes involving CLIS to keep the Licensing Specialists updated on the programs OFI has. In addition, members of both offices sit on several committees and projects together. A result of coordination between offices has been updates to policies and practices with market rates and child care reimbursement, including decisions to pay the state rate through TANF. l. State/Territory agency responsible for Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency is responsible for MaineCare and coordination within the Lead Agency's offices continues to ensure the accessibility of the Department is consumer friendly. OFI is responsible for Medicaid and the state Children's Health Insurance Program. The collaboration between offices has helped OCFS to share current and accurate health insurance information with families through child care provider outreach and to ensure Help Me Grow Maine has accurate information for parents and families. m. State/Territory agency responsible for mental health services. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency is responsible for mental health services with the Office of Aging and Disability Services (OADS) and the Office of Behavioral Health (OBH). High levels of coordination occur between all offices in order to align the Lead Agency’s goals. OCFS meets with staff from Children's Behavioral Health services at OBH as part of sharing information about the statewide Early Childhood Consultation Partnership (ECCP) at OCFS and resources available to families through OBH. This ensures that OCFS staff and Help Me Grow Maine have current and accurate information for parents and families seeking support for their children. n. Child care resource and referral agencies, child care consumer education organizations, and providers of early childhood education training and professional development. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: Maine does not have a resource and referral agency. The Lead Agency is in constant coordination and partnership with Maine Roads to Quality Professional Development Network (MRTQ PDN) around early childhood education training and professional development, child care consumer education, and support for families to find and access child care. MRTQ PDN helps set goals for the Child Care Choices website for locating Child Care Providers in Maine and for training and technical assistance. Recent goals have been to develop and provide access to trainings on Homelessness, Health and Safety topics, and access to statewide technical assistance. The Lead Agency also houses Help ME Grow Maine linking families and professionals to information about child development, pregnancy, and community resources for children all over Maine up to the age of eight years old. Coordination with Help Me Grow Maine has led to a focus on updating information on the Child Care Choices Maine website, including accurate listings of child care openings. o. Statewide afterschool network or other coordinating entity for out-of-school time care (if applicable). Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency is affiliated with Maine's After School Network (MASN) through MRTQ PDN and the University of Southern Maine as a primary collaborator as supports for trainings, technical assistance, and advocacy of out-of- school time programs across the State. Coordination between Maine’s CCDF administrator and MASN takes place regularly with meetings with MRTQ PDN to achieve the Lead Agency’s goals regarding the school age population in Maine. One of the main focuses is on supporting recreation al programs to become Child Care Affordability Program providers and/or licensed facilities. In the coming year we will be evaluating data to look at the results of this coordination and how many programs have joined CCAP and/or became licensed. p. Agency responsible for emergency management and response. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency is responsible for emergency management and response for the State with coordination taking place between divisions of the Department that include the Division of Environmental and Community Health (DECH), Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), Division of Support Enforcement and Recovery (DSER), Maine Center for Disease Control (MeCDC), Office of MaineCare Services, and the Office of Behavioral Health (OBH). Coordination continues to take place with regular meetings with the Emergency Preparedness Work Group (EPWG) having representation from each of the above departments to ensure in the event of an emergency or disaster, service would continue or be implemented for those that are newly in need of services. This coordination has helped OCFS to create and update the Child Care Emergency Plan in Maine and to create and update the YIKES guide that support child care programs to create their own emergency plans. q. The following are examples of optional partners a Lead Agency might coordinate with to provide services. Check which optional partners the Lead Agency coordinates with and describe the coordination and results of the coordination. i. [x] State/Territory/local agencies with Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership grants. Describe: The Lead Agency is overseeing a pilot program built on the Early Head Start Child Care Partnership model with 4 sites in Maine that are implementing child care partnerships that bring access to full wrap around Head Start supports, but where the coordinating agency may be a Head Start or may be another nonprofit. OCFS is currently evaluating the results of this coordination. In the first year, the pilot has led to the Lead Agency being more connected to local challenges and the different needs being experienced by region in the state. For example, in one area there is more support needed for multilingual children and children experiencing homelessness and in another area there is more support needed for child care business practices and opening new child care programs. ii. [x] State/Territory institutions for higher education, including community colleges. Describe: The Lead Agency contracts with the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children to deliver the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood Maine Scholarship Program. This program coordinates with community colleges and the University of Maine system. The scholarship program and resulting higher education collaborations have led to the expansion of online course offerings and a model where students can attend classes nights and weekends at a local community college working toward their 4-year degree with the UMaine system. iii. [ ] Other federal, State, local, and/or private agencies providing early childhood and school-age/youth-serving developmental services. Describe: iv. [ ] State/Territory agency responsible for implementing the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) programs grant. Describe: v. [x] Agency responsible for Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment Program. Describe: The Lead Agency is responsible for child developmental monitoring and screening at Maine CDC. The result of this collaboration has been work between Maine CDC and Help Me Grow Maine to develop strategies to increase access to developmental screening in Maine. vi. [x] State/Territory agency responsible for child welfare. Describe: The Lead Agency is responsible for Child Welfare. The result of ongoing internal office collaboration is reflected in new connections and strategies being developed between Child Welfare and Help Me Grow Maine and the Early Childhood Consultation Partnership (ECCP) Program. OCFS is working to increase referrals to Help Me Grow and ECCP from Child Welfare. We will be analyzing the results of this coordination in the coming year. vii. [x] Child care provider groups or associations. Describe: Representation from the Family Child Care Association of Maine (FCCAM) and the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children (MaineAEYC) are on the Children's Cabinet Early Childhood Advisory Council (CCECAC). The Lead Agency works to have high levels of outreach and communication with both groups, as well as the Maine Head Start Directors Association, the YMCA Alliance of Northern New England, and the Maine Afterschool Network regarding key CCDF topics and OCFS updates, conferences, and the PDG grant activities. One result of the collaboration between groups, association, and OCFS is an annual statewide conference planned and funded by ECE partners, including MaineAEYC, FCCAM, Maine Head Start Directors, Educare Central Maine, YMCAs, Maine DOE, and the Lead Agency. viii. [x] Parent groups or organizations. Describe: The Lead Agency partners with Educare Central Maine, which is a Head Start housed at Kennebec Valley Community Action Program (KVCAP), to support statewide Parent Ambassador groups. As a result of this collaboration, OCFS and KVCAP identified a need to expand parent leadership programs beyond Head Start parents and with targeted support for New American families in Maine. New cohorts are being developed and piloted for parents in Maine. ix. [ ] Title IV B 21st Century Community Learning Center Coordinators. Describe: x. [x] Other. Describe: OCFS is represented at the Physical Activity and Nutrition in Early Care and Education (PAN in ECE) Committee that is made up of members of early care and education stakeholders and State agencies. The result of this coordination was updated physical health and nutrition guidelines in the Maine's Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) revision to create Rising Stars for ME.