9.3 Increasing Engagement and Access to Information

Lead Agencies must collect and disseminate information about the full range of child care services to promote parental choice to parents of children eligible for CCDF, the general public, and child care providers. 9.3.1 Information about CCDF availability and eligibility Describe how the Lead Agency shares information with eligible parents, the general public, and child care providers about the availability of child care services provided through CCDF and other programs for which the family may be eligible. The description should include, at a minimum, what is provided (e.g., written materials, the website, and direct communications) and what approaches are used to tailor information to parents, the general public, and child care providers. The Lead Agency shares information with eligible parents, the general public and child care providers through a variety of communication mechanisms, including written and online materials that target specific audiences. Https://jobs.utah.gov/occ has resource sections that are easily accessible and has tailored web pages specifically for parents, providers and anyone in the general public who is interested in topics such as child care eligibility requirements (for parents and providers), child development, safety, family resources, school readiness, nutrition and more. A parent resource page includes links to the services listed in section 9.3.2. There are links to the Lead Agency’s search for child care, https://careaboutchildcare.utah.gov, and its partner agency, Child Care Licensing (https://childcarelicensing.utah.gov). 9.3.2 Information about child care and other services available for parents Does the Lead Agency certify that it provides information described in 9.3.1 for the following required programs? • Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. • Head Start and Early Head Start programs. • Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). • Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC) program. • Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). • Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). • Programs carried out under IDEA Part B, Section 619 and Part C. [x] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: 9.3.3 Consumer statement for parents receiving CCDF services Lead Agencies must provide parents receiving CCDF services with a consumer statement in hard copy or electronically that contains general information about the CCDF program and specific information about the child care provider they select. Please certify if the Lead Agency provides parents receiving CCDF services a consumer statement that contains the following 8 requirements: 1. Health and safety requirements met by the provider 2. Licensing or regulatory requirements met by the provider 3. Date the provider was last inspected 4. Any history of violations of these requirements 5. Any voluntary quality standards met by the provider 6. How CCDF subsidies are designed to promote equal access 7. How to submit a complaint through the hotline 8. How to contact a local resource and referral agency or other community-based organization to receive assistance in finding and enrolling in quality child care Does the Lead Agency provide to families, either in hard copy or electronically, a consumer statement that contains the required information about the provider they have selected, including the eight required elements above? [x] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: 9.3.4 Informing families about best practices on child development Describe how the Lead Agency makes information available to parents, providers, and the general public on research and best practices concerning children’s development, including physical health and development, and information about successful parent and family engagement. At a minimum, the description should include what information is provided; how the information is provided; any distinct activities for sharing this information with parents, providers, the general public; and any partners in providing this information. The Lead Agency makes information about research and best practices in child development available to parents, providers and the public primarily through the Office of Child Care website and the Care about Childcare (CAC) Agencies. A number of resources are available on the OCC website that address children’s physical development and healthy habits. The individual CAC agencies also provide information to parents, providers and the public through the work they do in the community. For providers, this information is largely disseminated through training classes, resource nights, CDA consultation, and other outreach performed by the CAC agencies and its qualified coaches and technical assistance consultants. Some training offerings focus on physical development, healthy eating and physical activity. One such class that is offered in the community through the Department of Health and Human Services is called Teaching Obesity Prevention in Child Care settings (TOP Star). This six- to ten-hour course is targeted to child care providers and focuses on teaching children healthy physical habits and addressing the issue of childhood obesity. Providers may use the clock hours completed to take this course for career ladder credit in the Lead Agency’s Career Ladder System. Additionally, the Lead Agency publishes and distributes Utah's Early Learning Standards and Guidelines statewide to parents, early childhood professionals and other individuals working with parents and families. The Lead Agency provides information regarding research and best practices in child development through the following methods: written materials, direct communication through training classes and conferences, and the Office of Child Care website. The Lead Agency partners with its CAC agencies, the Department of Health, Early Childhood Utah, Child Care Licensing Program, the Utah Registry for Professional Development and The Children's Center. Several of the CAC agencies are located within the early childhood development programs at institutions of higher education. 9.3.5 Unlimited parental access to their children Does the Lead Agency have procedures to ensure that parents have unlimited access to their children whenever their children are in the care of a provider who receives CCDF funds: [x] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: 9.3.6 Informing families about best practices in social and emotional health Describe how the Lead Agency shares information with families, providers, and the general public regarding the social-emotional and behavioral and mental health of young children, including positive behavioral intervention and support models based on research and best practices for those from birth to school age: The Lead Agency provides information to families on the social and emotional development and mental health of young children through its website and its contracts with The Children's Center and the Care About Childcare (CAC) agencies. The Children's Center Utah provides parents and child care providers with consultation services by phone, email, virtual platforms and face-to-face meetings at child care locations free of charge. Discussions include exchanging information about developmental expectations, concerning behavior, current and historical stressors to children and caregivers. Consultants support child care providers and parents by problem solving next steps to gather more information often including observations within their child care setting by consultants and child care staff. As needed, consultants make individualized recommendations to support the child and caregivers with additional research-based behavioral supports, strategies and resources. Consultants have specialized and on-going training and receive regular, reflective consultation from Division of Professional Licensing (DOPL) licensed clinicians. Frequently parents and child care providers are given referrals to early intervention, local school districts, speech therapy and/or clinical treatment at The Children’s Center or other community mental health facilities. Child care providers are often referred to CAC training and other specialized webinars that The Children’s Center and other entities provide. Families also may receive information through the CAC agencies. These agencies provide 13, ten- hour training courses available to providers and parents centered on social and emotional development of children, child guidance, attachment, brain development and child development theory. Classes are advertised through Care About Childcare and open to parents at a nominal fee. In addition, the Office of Child Care provides information to parents on child development through its "Child Development" section on the ￿Other Parent Resources￿ page located on the Lead Agency’s website. Additionally, Infant/Toddler and Preschool Early Childhood Guidelines are available to parents and the general public on the Department of Workforce Services website. Parents may also obtain them through community partners free of charge at community events or through early childhood organizations. The Lead Agency provides them to the CAC agencies and other partners for distribution to parents when requested. Both of the guidelines include information on childhood social and emotional development and methods of fostering healthy development in infants and young children. Lastly, the Lead Agency promotes the use of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire-Social and Emotional screening tool through a contract with Help Me Grow Utah. Parents receiving subsidy are contacted by Help Me Grow when an application for subsidy is approved to offer screening support for their children. This tool focuses on social and emotional development and helps parents assess whether or not their child may need additional support in this area. Help Me Grow provides additional support to parents in helping them understand the importance of development in this area and how to properly complete the assessment. They also interpret the scores and follow up with parents to share the results. If the screening indicates the child may need services they are able to help a parent navigate the system of supports to serve their child appropriately. With respect to providers, the Child Care Licensing Program requires and verifies that every licensed child care provider receives some training and information on principles of child growth and development, including development of the brain and positive guidance before they begin caring for children. Each year the caregiver remains in the field they must receive additional training on these topics. Additionally, The Children's Center Utah provides consultative and coaching services to providers of all care types. These services are provided to assist providers when behavioral problems become challenging or developmental concerns arise in programs. The Children's Center staff provide on-site support to programs through observation and feedback, technical assistance and modeling of desired interactions. Through the Children’s Center, the programs receiving coaching may also tap into additional professional development around Trauma Informed Care and working with challenging children. One of the goals of these services is to help providers develop the skills necessary to manage children presenting more challenging behaviors, thereby reducing the likelihood of expulsion. The CAC agencies provide 13 ten-hour training courses available to providers centered on social and emotional development of children, child guidance, attachment, brain development and child development theory. Classes are advertised through Care About Childcare and open to providers at a nominal fee. There are also 3 additional short courses providers may access through the lead agency’s collaboration with Early EdU. The lead agency also supports a college course taught through the Early EdU program on Positive Behavioral Support for Young Children. Providers may earn three college credit hours for less than $75 as a result of this collaboration with the Utah Education Network and Southern Utah University. In addition, the Office of Child Care provides information to providers on child development through its website. Infant/Toddler and Preschool Early Learning Standards are provided to providers free of charge through the OCC grant programs, conferences, community early childhood organizations, community events, online, in training classes and through the Lead Agency and the CAC agencies. Both of the standards documents include information on childhood social and emotional development and methods of fostering it in infants and young children. Lastly, the Lead Agency provides information to the public on the social and emotional needs and mental health needs of children through its CAC agencies. These agencies provide 13 ten-hour training courses available to anyone in the community centered on social and emotional development of children, child guidance, attachment, brain development and child development theory. Classes are advertised through Care About Childcare and open to the general public at a nominal fee. In addition, the Office of Child Care provides information to parents on child development through its "Child Development" section on the ￿Other Parent Resources￿ page located on the Lead Agency’s website. 9.3.7 Policies on the prevention of the suspension and expulsion of children a. The Lead Agency must have policies to prevent the suspension and expulsion of children from birth to age 5 in child care and other early childhood programs receiving CCDF funds. Describe those policies and how those policies are shared with families, providers, and the general public: The Lead Agency has employed a number of strategies to prevent the suspension and expulsion of children from birth to age five in child care and other early childhood programs for a number of years. The Lead Agency’s primary investment has been to contract with The Children’s Center Utah, a nonprofit early childhood mental health organization since 2004 to provide consultative services to child care providers, early childhood programs and parents. The Children’s Center early childhood consultation and coaching team provides consultation services to assist both parents and providers throughout Utah in a number of ways. The Children’s Center provides context to providers and parents in understanding typical, developmentally appropriate behavior that may be perceived as misbehavior or when there may be behavior occurring that is not typical and is concerning to the parent or provider. Parents are sent information via email or mail if they are concerned about behavior their child may be exhibiting or about reports about their child from their child care provider. Parents may request the Children’s Center contact their child care provider to arrange to have their child observed in their child care setting and provide additional resources for the provider or program. Children’s Center staff are specially trained to work with the providers when behavioral problems become challenging or developmental concerns arise in programs. Child care programs, parents or clinicians may contact The Children’s Center consultation team to request staff work in actual classroom settings where children are presenting especially challenging behaviors to offer support, specialized training, modeling, coaching and additional resources to assure that staff have the skills to manage challenging behavior. Observations are conducted and feedback is provided to classroom staff and the director. Based on the data from the observation, a plan is created to perhaps modify the environment, adjust the schedule, individualize for a specific child, or a myriad of other strategies. Another benefit of this service is that the Children’s Center has the ability to refer a child that appears to need additional intervention to their clinical staff. In some cases, children are referred to the Children’s Center therapeutic preschool program, which provides intensive intervention to assist children exhibiting behavioral, emotional or social issues that go beyond typical and challenging behavior. When this happens, children are often picked up and dropped off by the Children’s Center at the child care center that they attend. The additional intervention assists the program in meeting the child’s needs more effectively. The Children’s Center and the program work closely together to assure the child’s individual needs are met. One of the goals of the Children’s Center services is to help providers develop the skills necessary to manage children presenting more challenging behaviors, thereby reducing the likelihood of suspension or expulsion. The Children’s Center actively advertises their services to child care providers through email blasts to centers apprising them of the on-site consultative services they provide or about specific specialized training or other events that will be available for free or for a nominal fee. The Children’s Center also advertises services by attending early childhood conferences or other events where child care providers are present and staffing a resource table to share information with providers. Brochures and other written information is provided for participants to take with them. Parents are notified primarily through brochures available at children’s events that parents may attend such as The Week of the Young Child event. The Children’s Center provides intervention services through child-focused, on-site observations and follow-up with feedback, behavioral strategies, resources and referrals to community resources. After observing in the classroom and building a relationship with caregivers to understand their needs, consultants are able to determine what other supports may be needed for staff to develop skills in child guidance, identifying and supporting children’s emotional needs and development of social skills and how to build relationships that help children feel seen and safe. Staff are supported to find applicable training or the consultant may provide specialized training to staff, especially if patterns are seen throughout the program that many staff may benefit from the same training. In addition, consultants work closely with program administration to educate them on the negative effects of suspension and expulsion practices on children and how to intervene early and work with families to address concerns as soon as possible. Programs are encouraged to develop a suspension and expulsion policy and provided with support to keep children in programs if it is in their best interest. Consultants also work with administration to address caregiver well being and job satisfaction. Services are aligned throughout Utah with CAC service delivery areas and coordinated with early childhood councils and stakeholder groups where such exist. Program-focused social/emotional coaching cycles offer an opportunity to collect expulsion and suspension data from the participating programs to provide some limited baseline data from which to extrapolate data-informed direction for further prevention efforts. Consultation and Social Emotional Coaching content is drawn heavily from the following: Center for Social/Emotional Foundations of Learning (CSEFL) pyramid model, Center of Excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (Georgetown University) and the Zero to Three Organization. Additionally, the lead agency contracts with six Care About Child Care (CAC) Agencies to provide 13, ten-hour training courses available to providers centered on social and emotional development of children, child guidance, attachment, brain development and child development theory. A provider’s knowledge in all of these areas will better prepare them to have reasonable expectations of children, utilize developmentally appropriate practice, understand typical development and promote their own development in understanding how they can promote attachment, foster brain development and guide children to foster healthy self-esteem. Classes are advertised through Care About Childcare and open to providers at a nominal fee. There are also 3 additional short courses specific to social and emotional development that providers may access through the lead agency’s collaboration with Early EdU. The lead agency also supports a college course taught through the Early EdU program on Positive Behavioral Support for Young Children. Providers may earn three college credit hours for less than $75 as a result of this collaboration with the Utah Education Network and Southern Utah University. In addition, the Office of Child Care provides extensive information to providers on child development through its website. Another strategy utilized is to provide support to caregivers in learning about how to care for themselves to assure they are better able to care for children. The Lead Agency developed a suite of four 10-hour courses that is referred to as Guidance and Emotional Wellness. Course one is dedicated to teaching caregivers about self care and assuring that they are getting what they need on a regular basis to assure they are able to care effectively for the children they work with. This course discusses self care in regard to physical and mental health and social and emotional support. Each session focuses on strategies for caring for oneself and keeping each individual’s cup full, so to speak. Research suggests that caregivers that practice self care are better able to cope with the day to day challenges of caring for children and in some cases may decrease the likelihood of a challenging child being asked to leave the classroom or program. Lastly, the Lead Agency has made great strides in raising awareness among child care providers regarding developmental screening for young children. Through a contract with Help Me Grow, the Lead Agency promotes the use of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire and the Ages and Stages Questionnaire social, emotional screeners. The CAC agencies promote developmental screening as they work with parents to give child care referrals and when they send information to parents regarding what quality child care is or other requests they may have. Other strategies utilized to promote developmental screening are explained in that section of the plan. b. Describe what policies, if any, the Lead Agency has to prevent the suspension and expulsion of school-age children from child or youth care settings receiving CCDF funds: While there is not a formal policy in place to prevent the suspension and expulsion of school age children from child or youth care settings at this time, the Lead Agency does invest funds to provide support to child care programs and out-of-school time programs through a contract with the Utah Afterschool Network (UAN). The Lead Agency funds positions that provide technical assistance and coaching to programs. The coaches have extensive knowledge and expertise in providing quality experiences for youth at this age. They are consistently in programs supporting them with pertinent issues, including best practices in guidance and discipline and behavior management of youth at this age. Staff also provide resources to programs and provide specialized training in behavior management for this age group, according to best practices.