4.5 Supply Building

Building a supply of high-quality child care that meets the needs and preferences of parents participating in CCDF is necessary to meet CCDF’s core purposes. Lead Agencies must support parent choice by providing some portion of direct services via grants or contracts, including at a minimum for children in underserved geographic areas, infants and toddlers, and children with disabilities. 4.5.1 Child care services available through grants or contracts Does the Lead Agency provide direct child care services through grants or contracts for child care slots? [ ] Yes, statewide. Describe how the Lead Agency ensures that parents who enroll with a provider who has a grant or contract have choices when selecting a provider: [ ] Yes, in some jurisdictions, but not statewide. Describe how many jurisdictions use grants or contracts for child care slots and how the Lead Agency ensures that parents who enroll with a provider who has a grant or contract have choices when selecting a provider: [x] No. If no, describe any Lead Agency plans to provide direct child care services through grants and contracts for child care slots: The Lead Agency intends to submit a waiver for services through grants and contracts. The Lead Agency intends to request technical assistance on how to utilize grants or contracts to expand child care service offerings to families. If no, skip to question 4.5.2. i. If yes, identify the populations of children served through grants or contracts for child care slots (check all that apply). For each population selected, identify the number of slots allocated through grants or contracts for direct service of children receiving CCDF. [ ] Children with disabilities. Number of slots allocated through grants or contracts: [ ] Infants and toddlers. Number of slots allocated through grants or contracts: [ ] Children in underserved geographic areas. Number of slots allocated through grants or contracts: [ ] Children needing non-traditional hour care. Number of slots allocated through grants or contracts: [ ] School-age children. Number of slots allocated through grants or contracts: [ ] Children experiencing homelessness. Number of slots allocated through grants or contracts: [ ] Children in urban areas. Percent of CCDF children served in an average month: [ ] Children in rural areas. Percent of CCDF children served in an average month: [ ] Other populations. If checked, describe: ii. If yes, how are rates for slots funded by grants and contracts determined by the Lead Agency? 4.5.2 Care in the child’s home (in-home care) The Lead Agency must allow for in-home care (i.e., care provided in the child’s own home) but may limit its use. Will the Lead Agency limit the use of in-home care in any way? [x] Yes. [ ] No. If yes, what limits will the Lead Agency set on the use of in-home care? Check all that apply. i. [ ] Restricted based on the minimum number of children in the care of the in- home provider to meet the Fair Labor Standards Act (minimum wage) requirements. Describe: ii. [x] Restricted based on the in-home provider meeting a minimum age requirement. Describe: The child’s age may not exceed 19 years of age which is in alignment with our subsidy policy for children with special needs. iii. [ ] Restricted based on the hours of care (i.e., certain number of hours, non- traditional work hours). Describe: iv. [ ] Restricted to care by relatives. (A relative provider must be at least 18 years of age based on the definition of eligible child care provider.) Describe: v. [x] Restricted to care for children with special needs or a medical condition. Describe: Only children identified as having special needs will be eligible for in- home care subsidy. vi. [ ] Restricted to in-home providers that meet additional health and safety requirements beyond those required by CCDF. Describe: vii. [ ] Other. Describe: 4.5.3 Shortages in the supply of child care Lead Agencies must identify shortages in the supply of child care providers that meet parents’ needs and preferences. What child care shortages has the Lead Agency identified in the State or Territory, and what is the plan to address the child care shortages? a. In infant and toddler programs: i. Data sources used to identify shortages: MDHS 2021 Market Rate Survey, Mississippi Early Childhood Advisory Council System Asset Map, Mississippi’s Preschool Development Birth to Five Renewal Grant Needs Assessment, the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi 2024 Factbook, Children’s Foundation of Mississippi 2023 Factbook, the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi 2021 Risk and Reach Report. ii. Method of tracking progress: The Lead Agency is working with multiple partners to track the progress of several programs that have been implemented to address shortages in child care. The Lead Agency has partnered with the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University, the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi who has also subcontracted with Elucidata, who all are working with the Lead Agency on the Preschool Development Grant Renewal Grant to determine where shortages of child care are, how to build up supply in those areas, and track the progress of building supply in those areas. iii. What is the plan to address the child care shortages using family child care homes The Lead Agency reinstituted the Nurturing Homes Initiative in 2021 to build up the capacity of family home providers. This program provides holistic training and onsite technical assistance to family home providers covering every aspect of owning and operating a family home child care (i.e., business management, sustainability, marketing to families, curriculum, learning materials, family engagement, etc.) iv. What is the plan to address the child care shortages using child care centers? Using American Rescue Plan Act funds, the Lead Agency has contracted with Wonderschool to offer business startup and sustainability training to new child care providers, as well as a statewide substitute teacher pool program. The Lead Agency has also implemented the Mississippi Early Child Care Development Initiative (ECCDI), which consists of programs that provide targeted support to new and existing child care programs (e.g., teacher bonus incentives, scholarships for CDA and AA degree programs, start-up grants, curriculum and learning materials grants). b. In different regions of the State or Territory: i. Data sources used to identify shortages: MDHS 2021 Market Rate Survey, Mississippi Early Childhood Advisory Council System Asset Map, Mississippi’s Preschool Development Birth to Five Renewal Grant Needs Assessment, the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi 2024 Factbook, Children’s Foundation of Mississippi 2023 Factbook, the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi 2021 Risk and Reach Report. ii. Method of tracking progress: The Lead Agency is working with multiple partners to track the progress of several programs that have been implemented to address shortages in child care. The Lead Agency has partnered with the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University, the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi who has also subcontracted with Elucidata, who all are working with the Lead Agency on the Preschool Development Grant Renewal Grant to determine where shortages of child care are, how to build up supply in those areas, and track the progress of building supply in those areas. iii. What is the plan to address the child care shortages using family child care homes? The Lead Agency reinstituted the Nurturing Homes Initiative in 2021 to build up the capacity of family home providers. This program provides holistic training and onsite technical assistance to family home providers covering every aspect of owning and operating a family home child care (i.e., business management, sustainability, marketing to families, curriculum, learning materials, family engagement, etc.) NHI is working to build up family child care programs in areas of the state that are more rural and remote where traditional, licensed child care may not be as viable or sustainable. iv. What is the plan to address the child care shortages using child care centers? Using American Rescue Plan Act funds, the Lead Agency has contracted with Wonderschool to offer business startup and sustainability training to new child care providers, as well as a statewide substitute teacher pool program. The Lead Agency has also implemented the Mississippi Early Child Care Development Initiative (ECCDI), which consists of programs that provide targeted support to new and existing child care programs (e.g., teacher bonus incentives, scholarships for CDA and AA degree programs, start-up grants, curriculum and learning materials grants). c. In care for special populations: i. Data sources used to identify shortages: MDHS 2021 Market Rate Survey, Mississippi Early Childhood Advisory Council System Asset Map, Mississippi’s Preschool Development Birth to Five Renewal Grant Needs Assessment, the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi 2024 Factbook, Children’s Foundation of Mississippi 2023 Factbook, the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi 2021 Risk and Reach Report. ii. Method of tracking progress: The Lead Agency is working with multiple partners to track the progress of several programs that have been implemented to address shortages in child care. The Lead Agency has partnered with the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University, the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi who has also subcontracted with Elucidata, who all are working with the Lead Agency on the Preschool Development Grant Renewal Grant to determine where shortages of child care are, how to build up supply in those areas, and track the progress of building supply in those areas. iii. What is the plan to address the child care shortages using family child care homes? The Lead Agency reinstituted the Nurturing Homes Initiative in 2021 to build up the capacity of family home providers. This program provides holistic training and onsite technical assistance to family home providers covering every aspect of owning and operating a family home child care (i.e., business management, sustainability, marketing to families, curriculum, learning materials, family engagement etc.) The Mississippi Early Childhood Inclusion Center is Lead Agency partner that will work with NHI staff when needed to support family home providers in serving children that have special needs. iv. What is the plan to address the child care shortages using child care centers? The Lead Agency partners with the Mississippi Early Childhood Inclusion Center to offer training and onsite technical assistance to child care programs statewide on how to serve children with special needs and their families. These services are offered to all child care programs (new programs and existing programs who want to expand services). 4.5.4 Strategies to increase the supply of and improve quality of child care Lead Agencies must develop and implement strategies to increase the supply of and improve the quality of child care services. These strategies must address child care in underserved geographic areas; infants and toddlers; children with disabilities, as defined by the Lead Agency; and children who receive care during non-traditional hours. How does the Lead Agency identify any gaps in the supply and quality of child care services and what strategies are used to address those gaps for: a. Underserved geographic areas. Describe: Using Preschool Development Grant Birth to Five Renewal Grant funds, the Lead Agency has partnered with the Children's Foundation of Mississippi (CFM), Elucidata, and the Social Science Research Center (SSRC) at Mississippi State University to conduct a needs assessment of the child care industry in Mississippi. Through this work, certain counties have been identified as child care deserts, which means that there are fewer child care, Head Start, Early Head Start, and Prekindergarten collaborative slots than the number of children in the county that would be eligible for these programs. In an effort to build both non-residential child care and family home child care, the Lead Agency has partnered with Wonderschool (using American Rescue Plan funds) and the Nurturing Homes Initiative (using CCDF quality funds). Wonderschool is a company that offers recruitment and business stabilization training and technical assistance to prospective child care providers. Wonderschool has worked to recruit providers statewide and has opened 49 new licensed child care programs. The Nurturing Homes Initiative is a program that focuses on recruiting family home child care providers and supports those programs with training and technical assistance that includes business sustainability, curriculum, room arrangement, health and safety, etc. Nurturing Homes has successfully recruited 150 new family child care providers and continues to work to recruit more. Both Wonderschool and Nurturing Homes recruited statewide, but have made attempts to recruit in child care desert counties especially to increase infant/toddler services and extended care services. The Lead Agency continues to work to build capacity statewide, but is focusing on those areas where child care options are more scarce. b. Infants and toddlers. Describe: The Lead Agency has begun a redesign of Mississippi’s quality improvement system. The new system is being reconfigured as a Quality Support System (QSS) that will use a combination of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) tool and high quality indicators (e.g., professional development, learning and curriculum, social/emotional support, and best practice in health and safety) to support high quality teacher/child interactions and early childhood programming to serve children. The QSS will utilize a badging system to assess and recognize child care programs who achieve specific quality markers. Infant and Toddler high quality programming will be badges that can be earned as part of this new system. These badges will focus on proficiencies and indicators of high-quality early childhood education that pertains to serving infants and toddlers. Using Preschool Development Grant Birth to Five Renewal Grant funds, the Lead Agency has partnered with the Children's Foundation of Mississippi (CFM), Elucidata, and the Social Science Research Center (SSRC) at Mississippi State University to conduct a needs assessment of the child care industry in Mississippi. Through this work, certain counties have been identified as child care deserts, which means that there are fewer child care, Head Start, Early Head Start, and Prekindergarten collaborative slots than the number of children in the county that would be eligible for these programs. In an effort to build both non-residential child care and family home child care, the Lead Agency has partnered with Wonderschool (using American Rescue Plan funds) and the Nurturing Homes Initiative (using CCDF quality funds). Wonderschool is a company that offers recruitment and business stabilization training and technical assistance to prospective child care providers. Wonderschool has worked to recruit providers statewide and has opened 49 new licensed child care programs. The Nurturing Homes Initiative is a program that focuses on recruiting family home child care providers and supports those programs with training and technical assistance that includes business sustainability, curriculum, room arrangement, health and safety, etc. Nurturing Homes has successfully recruited 150 new family child care providers and continues to work to recruit more. Both Wonderschool and Nurturing Homes recruited statewide, but have made attempts to recruit in child care desert counties especially to increase infant/toddler services, children that have special needs, and extended care services. The Lead Agency continues to work to build capacity statewide, but is focusing on those areas where child care options are more scarce. The Lead Agency also offers training through the Resource and Referral Network on conducting needs assessments, budgeting, and restructuring programming to meet differing needs of families. This includes assessing the need for infant/toddler care and making program/fiscal changes that might help a program successfully build capacity for infant/toddler services in their child care. Finally, the Lead Agency will be offering incentives to child care programs that provide infant/toddler services. Child care programs that accept subsidy will receive a higher rate of pay if they have earned an infant and toddler badge or may opt to receive classroom/teaching materials in lieu of the increased rate. The goal is to incentive more child care programs to build capacity to serve more infants and toddlers. c. Children with disabilities. Describe: The Lead Agency has begun a redesign of Mississippi’s quality improvement system. The new system is being reconfigured as a Quality Support System (QSS) that will use a combination of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) tool and high-quality indicators (e.g., professional development, learning and curriculum, social/emotional support, and best practice in health and safety) to support high quality teacher/child interactions and early childhood programming to serve children. The QSS will utilize a badging system to assess and recognize child care programs who achieve specific quality markers. Serving children that have special needs/inclusion will be a badge that can be earned as part of this new system. This badge will focus on proficiencies and indicators of high-quality early childhood education that pertains to serving children that have special needs/inclusion services. Using Preschool Development Grant Birth to Five Renewal Grant funds, the Lead Agency has partnered with the Children's Foundation of Mississippi (CFM), Elucidata, and the Social Science Research Center (SSRC) at Mississippi State University to conduct a needs assessment of the child care industry in Mississippi. Through this work, certain counties have been identified as child care deserts, which means that there are fewer child care, Head Start, Early Head Start, and Prekindergarten collaborative slots than the number of children in the county that would be eligible for these programs. In an effort to build both non-residential child care and family home child care, the Lead Agency has partnered with Wonderschool (using American Rescue Plan funds) and the Nurturing Homes Initiative (using CCDF quality funds). Wonderschool is a company that offers recruitment and business stabilization training and technical assistance to prospective child care providers. Wonderschool has worked to recruit providers statewide and has opened 49 new licensed child care programs. The Nurturing Homes Initiative is a program that focuses on recruiting family home child care providers and supports those programs with training and technical assistance that includes business sustainability, curriculum, room arrangement, health and safety, etc. Nurturing Homes has successfully recruited 150 new family child care providers and continues to work to recruit more. Both Wonderschool and Nurturing Homes recruited statewide, but have made attempts to recruit in child care desert counties especially to increase infant/toddler services, children that have special needs, and extended care services. The Lead Agency continues to work to build capacity statewide, but is focusing on those areas where child care options are more scarce. The Lead Agency also offers training through the Mississippi Early Childhood Inclusion Center (MECIC) on serving children that have special needs and their families. Training includes how to make accommodations for children with disabilities and how to facilitate proper early inclusion in the child care setting. Resource and referral sites statewide also have materials that support teaching children with special needs in all age categories. These materials are available to all child care providers and families. Finally, the Lead Agency will be offering incentives to child care programs that provide services to children with special needs. Child care programs that accept subsidy will receive a higher rate of pay if they have earned an infant and toddler badge or may opt to receive classroom/teaching materials in lieu of the increased rate. The goal is to incentive more child care programs to build capacity to serve more children with special needs. d. Children who receive care during non-traditional hours. Describe: The Lead Agency has begun a redesign of Mississippi’s quality improvement system. The new system is being reconfigured as a Quality Support System (QSS) that will use a combination of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) tool and high-quality indicators (e.g., professional development, learning and curriculum, social/emotional support, and best practice in health and safety) to support high quality teacher/child interactions and early childhood programming to serve children. The QSS will utilize a badging system to assess and recognize child care programs who achieve specific quality markers. Extended hours/non-traditional hours care will be a badge that can be earned as part of this new system. This badge will focus on proficiencies and indicators of high-quality early childhood education pertaining to the needs of extended hours/non-traditional hours care. Using Preschool Development Grant Birth to Five Renewal Grant funds, the Lead Agency has partnered with the Children's Foundation of Mississippi (CFM), Elucidata, and the Social Science Research Center (SSRC) at Mississippi State University to conduct a needs assessment of the child care industry in Mississippi. Through this work, certain counties have been identified as child care deserts, which means that there are fewer child care, Head Start, Early Head Start, and Prekindergarten collaborative slots than the number of children in the county that would be eligible for these programs. In an effort to build both non-residential child care and family home child care, the Lead Agency has partnered with Wonderschool (using American Rescue Plan funds) and the Nurturing Homes Initiative (using CCDF quality funds). Wonderschool is a company that offers recruitment and business stabilization training and technical assistance to prospective child care providers. Wonderschool has worked to recruit providers statewide and has opened 49 new licensed child care programs. The Nurturing Homes Initiative is a program that focuses on recruiting family home child care providers and supports those programs with training and technical assistance that includes business sustainability, curriculum, room arrangement, health and safety, etc. Nurturing Homes has successfully recruited 150 new family child care providers and continues to work to recruit more. Both Wonderschool and Nurturing Homes recruited statewide, but have made attempts to recruit in child care desert counties especially to increase infant/toddler services, children that have special needs, and extended care services. The Lead Agency continues to work to build capacity statewide, but is focusing on those areas where child care options are more scarce. The Lead Agency offers training through the Resource and Referral Network on conducting needs assessments, budgeting, and restructuring programming to meet differing needs of families. This includes assessing the need for extended hour care and making program/fiscal changes that might help a program successfully build capacity for extended hour care services in their child care. e. Other. Specify what population is being focused on to increase supply or improve quality. Describe: N/A 4.5.5 Prioritization of investments in areas of concentrated poverty and unemployment Lead Agencies must prioritize investments for increasing access to high-quality child care and development services for children of families in areas that have significant concentrations of poverty and unemployment and do not currently have sufficient numbers of such programs. Describe how the Lead Agency prioritizes increasing access to high-quality child care and development services for children of families in areas that have significant concentrations of poverty and unemployment and that do not have access to high-quality programs. Through the blending of American Rescue Plan Act funds, Preschool Development Grant Birth to Five Renewal Grant funds, and CCDF funds Mississippi has identified child care deserts and is using multiple programs to build up the capacity of child care services in these deserts and state-wide along with sustainability and quality improvement activities. These supports include a reimbursement program for start-up costs for new providers, classroom supply grants, a state-wide substitute pool, business sustainability coaching, a family support program to navigate families to services in their communities, targeted training to providers with serving children from non-English speaking families, children with special needs, extended hour care, and the benefits of participating in the child care subsidy program. The Nurturing Homes Initiative works specifically with family home providers to set up new child care services and provide quality support, business sustainability support, and enrollment in the child care subsidy program to family home providers which can more easily serve families in rural locations and families living in higher poverty areas. 5 Health and Safety of Child Care Settings Child care health and safety standards and enforcement practices are essential to protect the health and safety of children while out of their parents’ care. CCDF provides a minimum threshold for child care health and safety policies and practices but leaves authority to Lead Agencies to design standards that appropriately protect children’s safety and promote nurturing environments that support their healthy growth and development. Lead Agencies should set standards for ratios, group size limits, and provider qualifications that help ensure that the child care environment is conducive to safety and learning and enable caregivers to promote all domains of children’s development. CCDF health and safety standards help set clear expectations for CCDF providers, form the foundation for health and safety training for child care workers, and establish the baseline for monitoring to ensure compliance with health and safety requirements. These health and safety requirements apply to all providers serving children receiving CCDF services – whether the providers are licensed or license-exempt, must be appropriate to the provider setting and age of the children served, must include specific topics and training on those topics, and are subject to monitoring and enforcement procedures by the Lead Agency. CCDF-required annual monitoring and enforcement actions help ensure that CCDF providers are adopting and implementing health and safety requirements. Through child care licensing, Lead Agencies set minimum requirements, including health and safety requirements, that child care providers must meet to legally operate in that State or Territory. In some cases, CCDF health and safety requirements may be integrated within the licensing system for licensed providers and may be separate for CCDF providers who are license- exempt. This section addresses CCDF health and safety requirements, Lead Agency licensing requirements and exemptions, and comprehensive background checks. When responding to questions in this section, OCC recognizes that each Lead Agency identifies and defines its own categories of care. OCC does not expect Lead Agencies to change their definitions to fit the CCDF-defined categories of care. For these questions, provide responses that best match the CCDF categories of care.