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 Lead Agency's Office of Child Care Advisory Committee meets every other month to counsel and advises the Lead Agency in fulfilling its statutory obligations, including reviewing and providing recommendations on the office’s annual budget, providing recommendations on how the office might best respond to child care needs throughout the state and providing recommendations on the use of money that is provided to the office for the purpose of addressing child care needs. The committee provides feedback and suggestions around the Lead Agency’s initiatives, programming and policies. The Committee will review any relevant reports and discuss issues and potential solutions around expanding accessibility and continuity of care as applicable. Discussing these topics and receiving feedback leads to coordinated changes to improve services and support systems. 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: The Lead Agency has reached out to ensure Tribal administrators know the Lead Agency is available as a resource to the Tribal organizations. Whenever substantial policy changes are made, tribal CCDF partners are notified. Additionally, the Lead Agency has memorandums in place with the Shoshone, Paiute and Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation and with Child Care Licensing to administer background checks and verify health and safety requirements, if requested. The Tribal Administrators were all invited as representatives to participate in the State Plan Steering Committee meetings to advise on any changes to the State Plan and the Ute and Paiute administrators participated in some of the meetings. The Lead Agency has a good working relationship with each of the CCDF Tribal Administrators and assists them on a case by case basis as policy questions arise or coordination is needed. The Lead Agency is in the process of working with CCDF Tribal Administration to gather and possibly share information on tribal child care assistance eligibility and contact information with customers on our state website so that families who may be eligible for both can make an informed decision around which program will best fit their family’s needs. [ ] 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 has a representative of children with disabilities on its Office of Child Care Advisory Committee. The Lead Agency also serves on the Early Childhood Utah Advisory Council with members responsible for programs around children with special needs. Specifically, members of the State Advisory Council include those representing programs authorized under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part B and Part C. An ad hoc subcommittee is currently reviewing services available to families of children with special needs and completing an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the early childhood system as a whole to determine possible next steps for improvements in supporting this population’s access to care and services. In coordination with Early Childhood Utah, the Lead Agency and Utah Department of Health and Human Services has developed and implemented a coordinated system to increase developmental screenings for children. Utah adopted the Ages and Stages Questionnaire as the universal screening tool and has made significant steps on the data integration project across settings to make screening data available to those who interact directly with children and parents. This will increase the number of screenings performed, identify potential development delays and provide more opportunities for program referrals to support children and families. d. State/Territory office/director for Head Start State collaboration. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Head Start Collaboration Office is located within the Lead Agency and is a member of the Lead Agency’s staff. As a result, the Head Start Collaboration Office works closely with the Lead Agency on efforts around accessibility and full-day services. The Head Start Collaboration Office and the Lead Agency are exploring potential collaboration opportunities with private child care providers and Head Start programs to work toward improving full-day services for families and for child care partnerships. Discussions continue to be had around more Head Start programs becoming licensed and increased participation in the Child Care Quality System as well (Utah’s QRIS). The state’s Kindergarten Transition Toolkit was published and made publicly available in order to improve continuity of care for children and families in transitions into school. This was a collaborative effort between the Head Start Collaboration Office, the Utah State Board of Education and the Lead Agency. A pilot program of the utilization of the toolkit is underway with participation from Head Start programs, public preschools, private child care providers and a local education agency. Revisions will be made based on the outcomes of the pilot, and the coordinating agencies and organizations will work together to promote the toolkit and provide training. The Lead Agency, the Utah State Board of Education and the Head Start Collaboration Office meet together around professional development opportunities in the early care and education space on a regular basis and are working on efforts to align where possible. For example, this group coordinated on the development and implementation of training on the Early Childhood Standards: Ages 3-5. 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 coordinates with the Utah Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Office of Early Childhood (OEC) to improve early childhood programs across settings. The Lead Agency is assisting with funding the director position with DHHS/OEC to help facilitate the collaboration around identified priorities across state agencies and partners. The OEC oversees the Baby Watch Early Intervention Program, Child Health Advanced Records Management (CHARM) Program, Early Childhood Utah Advisory Council and Home Visiting. The Lead Agency has a representative on the Early Childhood Utah (ECU) Advisory Council staffed by this office. The purpose of the ECU Advisory Council is to organize early care and education stakeholders in the state to improve coordination and alignment.The Office of Early Childhood is responsible for facilitating and maintaining the coordinated efforts outlined in the Early Childhood Statewide Needs Assessment and Strategic Plan developed through the Preschool Development Grant: Birth to Five. Coordinated efforts will increase the use of developmental screeners in organizations that interact with children, including primary care providers and child care providers. There will be an increase in developmental screenings, identify developmental delays among children attending child care programs and, when necessary, provide resources to families to ensure that any delays are addressed through the Department of Health and Human Services programs and partnerships. Brooke’s Enterprise ASQ-3 and ASQ SE-2 developmental screening tool is utilized across several state agencies and partners such as the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Department of Workforce Services Office of Childcare (DWS-OCC), Help Me Grow Utah, and the Head Start Association. The results of these screening will be integrated through the Child Health Advance Record Management (CHARM) system and shared with healthcare providers and early care educators that use: 1) Utah Statewide Immunization Information System (USIIS), 2) the Baby Watch Early Intervention Program (BWEIP) and Baby and Toddler Online Tracking System (BTOTS) database, 3) the CHARM Web Portal, and 4) select Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). In addition, coordination takes place through Child Care Licensing within the Department of Health and Human Services. This coordination ensures that the health needs of children in child care are met through the establishment of licensing policy that ensures child care settings are healthy and safe. This coordination also allows the development of policies relating to immunizations that meet the needs of vulnerable children, including children experiencing homelessness and living in foster care. f. State/Territory agency responsible for employment services/workforce development. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency also serves as the agency responsible for employment services and workforce development. This includes unemployment, re-employment, administration of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families grant, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, and Wagner-Peyser programs. As a result, there is close coordination between the Lead Agency's division responsible for employment services and workforce development and the Office of Child Care. Specifically, the Lead Agency operates over twenty-five employment centers throughout Utah. In each of the centers, staff works with families with child care needs to assist them in enrolling in child care, as well as providing resources to parents to locate child care programs throughout Utah. Additionally, the Lead Agency has an internal working group devoted to coordination across employment, workforce development and child care. Twice per month, this group evaluates policies, statutes and rules related to the programs. This close coordination ensures that Utahns receiving employment services are connected to quality child care and child care customers who lose employment are directly connected to the Lead Agency's re-employment services. This close coordination not only improves service delivery to eligible families, it also ensures that the requirements of CCDF have been implemented in an effective way while meeting the intent of the Act to expand accessibility throughout Utah. The coordination also ensures continuity of care through implementation of policies that promote that continuity. The goal of this close coordination is to expand access to high-quality child care to parents receiving employment services. It also serves to align and coordinate services for these families and links comprehensive services to families. g. State/Territory agency responsible for public education, including pre-Kindergarten. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency collaborates with The Utah State Board of Education (USBE) in several areas, which include: - USBE participating as a representative on the Lead Agency’s Advisory Committee on a bi- monthly basis; - Supporting prekindergarten students in their transition to kindergarten through various School Readiness Grants funded by the Lead Agency that support both private child care centers and preschools at Local Education Agencies (public school). This is a state-led initiative that establishes a school readiness team consisting of both Lead Agency and USBE staff that meet on a regular, ongoing, basis to develop and review outputs and outcomes of supported programs; - The development and implementation of the state's Early Learning Standards, used by both private and public programs, to provide a framework for understanding developmentally appropriate expectations for preschoolers. - USBE is responsible for the development and implementation of the state’s preschool entry and exit assessments to measure student progress and growth, but the usage of the assessment to prove quality is guided by the school readiness team. - Meeting as a cooperative on a bi-monthly basis to establish benchmarks for high-quality early care and youth programs by coordinating alignment around observation tools and threshold scores to guide the improvement of quality in programs, and - As funding opportunities arise, collaborating on different grant opportunities for both prekindergarten and out-of-school time programs and aligning both agency expectations for these programs to ensure the alleviation of high burden on program reporting. - The Early Childhood Utah Advisory Council where both the Lead Agency and USBE have a representative. h. State/Territory agency responsible for child care licensing. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency coordinates with the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Licensing and Background Checks, Child Care Licensing Program (CCL) on an ongoing and regular basis. This close coordination ensures that all child care programs receiving CCDF are meeting all licensing requirements. One goal of CCL is to conduct local and national background screenings in accordance with State and Federal laws. A dedicated team has been established to process background checks, resulting in most background checks being processed within five business days. Additionally, CCL provides technical assistance to providers failing to meet licensing requirements, which includes the development and delivery of training on the child care rules and CCDF requirements for providers. Training processes have been implemented to educate and assist providers on administrative rules changes and offer technical assistance. This results in all regulated providers being in compliance with CCDF requirements and thereby improving the health and safety of the children in their care. The CCL data system communicates directly with the Lead Agency's data system to ensure that providers receiving subsidy payments are meeting all CCDF health and safety requirements, monitoring requirements and background check requirements. The close coordination also includes the director of CCL serving as a member on the Lead Agency's Advisory Committee. The goal of all coordination efforts between the Lead Agency and CCL is to ensure that all families utilizing child care have access to child care settings that are meeting the health and safety needs of children. 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: The Lead Agency coordinates with the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) administered through the Utah State Board of Education to ensure that child care programs participate in the program. The representative for the Utah State Board of Education on the Lead Agency’s Advisory Committee shares updates and information about the program and training at the bi-monthly meetings. This program has expanded to afterschool programs to ensure eligible programs receive resources to provide snacks and dinner to children. In addition, through Care About Childcare, the Lead Agency shares information with families and providers regarding the availability of food during the summer when children are not in school. The goal of the coordination is to ensure all eligible child care providers and out-of-school time programs are participating in the CACFP so children have their nutritional needs met and programs have additional resources available to provide high-quality child care. In 2023, the community program sites totaled 160 centers, 1,098 family and in-home providers and 160 at-risk afterschool programs. Coordination efforts will increase the programs that participate in CACFP, ensuring children have their nutritional needs met. 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 coordinates with the McKinney-Vento state coordinators through the Utah State Board of Education's involvement on the OCC Advisory Committee. The McKinney- Vento Education Coordinator was included as a representative on the State Plan Steering Committee as well. In addition, the Lead Agency includes the state's Office of Homeless Services. This Lead Agency’s Office of Homeless Services is engaged in serving Utah's homeless population and supporting homeless service providers. As a result, child care is incorporated in discussions with serving the needs of families experiencing homelessness. Homeless families may receive Homeless Child Care Assistance when referred by a homeless agency. The Homeless Child Care program is available to families who are in sheltered care and do not meet the Employment Support Child Care work requirements or qualify for TANF. A referral must be provided by the recognized homeless agency to approve the Homeless Child Care program. Families may receive up to twelve months of child care to support activities including, but not limited to, employment, job search, training, shelter search, or working through a crisis situation. In addition, the Lead Agency has homeless outreach workers located in shelters and housing sites throughout the State to assist families who are homeless or facing eviction. The workers are trained to assist families in obtaining employment and applying for various types of assistance. Connecting families to child care assistance, Child Care Resource and Referral agencies and other childcare services is an important component of this homeless outreach initiative. Additionally, the Utah Office of Child Care presents child care assistance and resource information at homeless conferences and coordinates with the outreach teams located at the shelters. The goal of the coordination across these agencies is to ensure children experiencing homelessness have access to high-quality child care and education programs. In 2023, 17 children participated in the homeless child care program and 139 children received child care assistance who reported themselves as homeless or marked homeless when reporting utility expenses for other support services on our multi-program application. k. State/Territory agency responsible for the TANF program. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency is responsible for the TANF program. As with the division responsible for employment and workforce development, there is close coordination between the Lead Agency divisions responsible for TANF and child care. Specifically, the Lead Agency operates over twenty-five employment centers throughout Utah. In each of those centers, TANF caseworkers work with families with child care needs to assist them in enrolling in child care, as well as providing resources to parents to locate child care programs throughout Utah. Additionally, the Lead Agency has an internal working group devoted to coordination across TANF and child care. Monthly, this group staffs cases and evaluates policies, statutes and rules related to the programs. This close coordination ensures that Utahns receiving TANF, as well as programs serving TANF- eligible families are connected to quality child care. The goal of this coordination is to expand access to high-quality child care to TANF-eligible families. Coordination results are achieved through coordinated policies, procedures, and access to high quality child care programs. It also ensures alignment and coordination of services for these families, including linking them to comprehensive services. In 2023, 584 families with 1,043 children received TANF child care. l. State/Territory agency responsible for Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: In addition to serving as the Lead Agency for CCDF, it is responsible for determining eligibility for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. As a result, there is close coordination between the child care program and these public health insurance programs. Similar to workforce, employment and TANF, the Lead Agency has an internal working group devoted to coordination across child care and medical care. Twice per month, this group evaluates policies, statutes and rules related to the eligibility requirements of these programs. In addition, the CCDF Administrator and the director of the Eligibility Services Division meet monthly to discuss eligibility policies and coordination across programs. The goal of the coordination is to ensure that families with young children are receiving the healthcare needed to support the child's healthy development and also ensure the parents' health care needs are met. The Lead Agency meets this goal through a coordinated eligibility system that includes a common application for all public support services programs. In 2023, about 75% of children receiving child care assistance also received medical assistance. m. State/Territory agency responsible for mental health services. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency coordinates with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the state agency responsible for mental health services. The Lead Agency’s Advisory Committee includes a member representing DHHS. Additionally, the Lead Agency has a representative on the Early Childhood Utah Advisory Council along with DHHS’ Office of Substance Use and Mental Health. The social/emotional subcommittee of this council is exploring possible projects to reduce suspensions and expulsions. Both agencies coordinate with the Children’s Center Utah on infant and early childhood mental health initiatives. The Lead Agency promotes the infant and early childhood mental health teleconsultation services to child care providers that the Department of Health and Human Services funds through the Children’s Center Utah. In 2023, over 1,000 child care providers participated in the webinars and consultation offered through this program, which was about 24% of the total attendees. 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: Utah's network of Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) agencies and the Utah Registry of Professional Development are all directed by the Lead Agency through contractual relationships. The Lead Agency funds six CCR&Rs, referred to as Care About Childcare (CAC) that are directly involved in the child care program. The agencies provide consumer education for parents; training classes for providers to align with Utah's Career Ladder; provide extensive resources to parents and providers regarding the importance of high-quality child care; and assist providers to become licensed. Through its coordination with the CACs, the Lead Agency meets several of its responsibilities under CCDF. There are several goals associated with this coordination, including the following: providing quality child care across a variety of settings; providing comprehensive training to child care providers regarding quality child care including care to vulnerable populations; and enhancing and aligning quality services by ensuring a well trained workforce. All of the activities of the CACs ultimately expand access to quality child care throughout Utah. The primary goal of coordinating with the CAC agencies is to ensure that all providers have access to consistent information related to training, the Child Care Quality System (CCQS), and child care referral information. The results of these efforts will include increasing the number of providers that participate in CCQS, increasing the rating of providers that participate in intensive coaching services, and increasing the number of providers that participate in training provided by CAC. In March 2024, 42 licensed centers met the high quality threshold and an additional 79 licensed centers participated in CCQs by receiving a certified quality rating. 21 licensed family child care providers met the high quality threshold and an additional 42 licensed family child care participated in CCQS by receiving a certified quality rating. 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 coordinates with the Utah Afterschool Network (UAN) through a contractual agreement that ensures afterschool programs are high quality through ongoing technical assistance and professional development opportunities. The Lead Agency and UAN attend various meetings together on a monthly basis to coordinate the delivery of these services to programs receiving CCDF to improve the quality of their programs. The goal and ongoing results of the coordination includes ensuring out-of-school time programs are high-quality through providing deliberate prevention, enrichment, and academic programming to children as well as the utilization of UAN's quality improvement model which consists of the UAN Quality and Improvement Tool. The Lead Agency also contracts UAN Program Specialists to provide evidence-based observations and technical assistance to programs, both in the Child Care Quality System for private child care and in the out-of-school time (OST) community and LEA based grant-funded programs, utilizing the Weikart Program Quality Assessment tool. UAN ensures the growth of our OST professional development through their developed Professional Learning System which includes conferences, a Well- Being Institute, eLearning Institute, leadership development, webinar training and professional development incentives and credentialing. Through their efforts, the lead agency can track metrics to validate levels of quality within the OST programs, by reviewing progress of self assessments, external assessments, creation and completion of program-specific SMART goals, training hours of staff, enrollment versus attendance, technical assistance touch points throughout the year, and number of staff that receive professional development incentives and credentials each year. p. Agency responsible for emergency management and response. Describe the coordination and results of the coordination: The Lead Agency coordinates with the state's Emergency Management division. This division worked closely with the Lead Agency to develop its CCDF Emergency Preparedness plan. Additionally, the division and the Lead Agency have coordinated to ensure that the Lead Agency’s emergency preparedness plan and the child care program is included in the state's Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP). As part of regular coordination, a representative of the Lead Agency attends quarterly COOP meetings hosted by the Division of Emergency Management. The goal of the coordination is to ensure that in the case of an emergency, the needs of families receiving childcare and child care providers are part of the emergency response. 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. [ ] State/Territory/local agencies with Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership grants. Describe: ii. [x] State/Territory institutions for higher education, including community colleges. Describe: The OST team works in partnership with the University of Utah - Utah Education Policy Center (UofU-UEPC), to create ongoing engagement training with out-of-school time (OST) providers receiving grant-funded support from the Lead Agency. For current grants, this engagement is family oriented to train providers in best practices in Family Engagement. The training includes the creation of logic models to guide the work of each program, monthly check-ins, and where requested surveys for families with data evaluation provided by UEPC. UEPC is also currently engaged in the Utah OST Needs Assessment, with the final report due August 2024. The purpose of this needs assessment is evaluating the OST landscape in Utah, the role that OST programs play in supporting working families, the successes and gaps in current OST programs, as well as identifying OST program deserts to create growth opportunities in those underserved areas and using all data collected to strengthen the OST field. The Lead Agency also partners with the University of Utah - Department of Economics to conduct our Market Rate Study and our Narrow Cost Analysis, which includes a cost of care estimation model that provides information on the cost of high quality care. This helps the lead agency set subsidy rates and inform other quality initiatives. The EarlyEdU Collaboration group has members from several institutes of higher education as part of the team. This group works to offer affordable, online college credit courses for professionals in the early care and education field. These credits are offered through the continuing education department at Southern Utah University. This program offers three courses and then aims to connect those professionals interested in continuing their higher education with one of the degree programs that might best meet their needs in the state. There have also been efforts made to ensure the best articulation for these courses across institutions so that it is easier for students to transfer their credits into a degree program. 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. [ ] Agency responsible for Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment Program. Describe: vi. [x] State/Territory agency responsible for child welfare. Describe: The Lead Agency coordinates with the Utah DHHS, Division of Child and Family Services to consider ways to connect with foster families who may be eligible for child care assistance. The agencies meet at least twice per year to review subsidy data on the number of foster families receiving child care. As a result of this coordination, a form was created to share with foster families to make it easier for eligibility staff to identify and verify foster care status when applying for child care. The Lead Agency is also exploring ways to allow more foster families to qualify for child care. vii. [x] Child care provider groups or associations. Describe: The Lead Agency coordinates with both the Utah Private Child Care Association and the Professional Family Child Care Association. Both associations have representatives on the Lead Agency's Advisory Committee. Coordination efforts provide an opportunity for the Lead Agency to provide updates on policies and procedures affecting child care providers as well as gather feedback from the associations to consider when developing or amending programs. The Lead Agency meets with the leadership of the Utah Private Child Care Association on a regular basis and meets with the Professional Family Child Care Association on an as needed basis. Both associations were asked to participate in the State Plan Steering Committee with the Utah Private Child Care Association sending a representative to participate. Listening to provider associations’ feedback on programs and including provider voices in the development and revisions of policies will support smoother implementation and a more unified child care system. viii. [ ] Parent groups or organizations. Describe: ix. [ ] Title IV B 21st Century Community Learning Center Coordinators. Describe: x. [ ] Other. Describe: