2008 Legislative Updates
Legislative Agenda 2008 – 5th DRAFT
Child Care Opportunities Support Our Youngest Citizens
Minnesotans believe that all young children deserve the early care and education they need to be successful in school and life. Our children are our future neighbors, doctors, firefighters and leaders. With the great majority of parents in the workforce, most of Minnesota’s youngest citizens are in non-parental care for some portion of their day. Access to affordable, quality child care is crucial to supporting Minnesota’s workforce and its youngest citizens.
Access to affordable, quality child care supports healthy development and school readiness while parents work. Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) helps families pay the cost of quality child care. Until 2003 CCAP was a national model, but today thousands of working families can’t use CCAP because of below-market reimbursement rates and long waiting lists.
In 2008, Child Care WORKS is advocating for:
1. An increase in the state’s reimbursement rates for Child Care Assistance to ensure that low-income families have affordable, quality choices without paying an additional co-payment
2. Funding to eliminate the Basic Sliding Fee waiting list (almost 3,600 families as of Sept. 2007)
Healthy, Safe Child Care Helps to Ensure Children’s Success
Good child care is, at the minimum, both healthy and safe. Child Care WORKS advocates for research-based policies that reflect best practices to ensure that our children’s child care settings are safe.
In 2008, Child Care WORKS is advocating for:
3. A modification of statute that requires child care providers to allows infants to sleep on their stomach at the parent’s request, even though this does not reflect strong research supporting that infants sleep only on their backs to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
4. Moving the responsibility for family child care provider background studies from the county to the state to streamline and accelerate processing time and ensure quicker updates for criminal offenses.
Excellent Early Childhood Facilities Get Children Ready for School
In 2008, Child Care WORKS is advocating for:
5. $7 million in bonding funds for the Early Childhood Facilities Grant program to ensure quality sites for early childhood facilities around the state of Minnesota.
In addition to our core Legislative Agenda, CCW will work to address specific items that require modifications to existing laws and/or statutes to enhance the ability of families to access high-quality child care.
[ Implement absent day changes made in 2007 session by July 2008 (instead of January 2009)
[ Change prioritization for BSF waiting list to cover unserved families first.
[ Request a state-led taskforce, including advocates and parents, to make recommendations on strategies to streamline the Child Care Assistance Program’s paperwork requirements.
[ Allow 5% of TEACH funds to be used for administration.
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