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FY15 Aspirational Budget. Presentation to the EEC Board November 12, 2013. EEC State Budget History. (Amount in Millions). FY14 EEC Budget. Recommendations.
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FY15 Aspirational Budget Presentation to the EEC Board November 12, 2013
EEC State Budget History (Amount in Millions)
Recommendations This presentation offers the following recommendations made by the Fiscal Committee to request $93,685,151as the FY15 Aspirational Budget request. An Investment in Access: $74,205,523 • Investment in DCF: The creation of a pilot to provide vouchers for 500 children at a cost of $6,618,810 will provide access for children on the waitlist with a strong emphasis in rural areas. • Investment in IE: An additional $50,000,000 will remove no fewer than 5,784 children from the waitlist. • Transportation: The request for $17,586,713 affirms the Board’s vote in June 2012 to increase the rate paid for transportation to support improvements in the system and the addition of one adult monitor on all vehicles carrying infants, toddlers, and preschool children. An Investment in Quality: $19,479,628 Aligned with our mission and our Strategic Plan, we will invest in quality through and by the following: • Investment in Workforce Quality: A rate increase of 3% or $13,657,652 supports an increase in salaries, benefits, and stipends for child care workers. • Investment in Quality Program Sustainability / Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS): A set-aside of $5,000,000 supports our investment in QRIS and helps sustain program improvements supporting children in care. • Quality Infrastructure: $821,976 to support staffing which holds child care providers accountable for health and safety, quality care, and quality programs.
ACCESS: DCF EEC currently manages DCF child care through contracted and expansion slots. • The DCF waitlist is maintained by 29 Area Offices which periodically report the waitlist number via Survey Monkey. • Most recent report shows approximately 625 children on the “placement waitlist”. • DCF has 22,000 open cases and believes that a large percentage of these open cases would receive child care if it were available. • Questions for consideration are: How can we determine true need? How can access be improved?
ACCESS: DCF • EEC supports the construction of a credible DCF waitlist to build a long term financing model to support the need represented by the waitlist. • We further support financing that supports DCF’s best estimate that satisfies their near term need. • In the absence of a credible waitlist number, but aware of the need, EEC proposes a pilot program which makes vouchers available to all contract providers. • The vouchers will be managed by EEC and will be given to providers who can prove the need to provide service to a DCF child above their contract allocation. • A particular emphasis will be on the delivery of these vouchers to children in Western Massachusetts. • The voucher pilot program helps to get satisfying the state mandate to serve all children. • We propose serving 500 children at a cost of $6,618,810.
ACCESS: Income Eligible (IE) • The addition of $50,000,000 to the Income Eligible Caseload account will provide service to an additional 5,784 children on the waitlist. • EEC proposes that we should open up access for the waitlist on a first come first serve basis. • This is the logical next step to waitlist remediation begun in FY14. • The addition of 5,784 children to the IE account will return us to historical levels of 55,000 to 56,000 children annually. • We still have the need. There are presently 42,000 children on the waitlist.
Caseload Waitlist 11/2012 - 10/2013 Data Report created on October 30, 2013 ** Excludes Unborn children, Children 13 or older, “0” zip codes and towns out of state .
TRANSPORTATION COST In June 2012 the Board voted as follows: Subject to a supplemental budget appropriation the Board approves an increased transportation provider reimbursement rate of $16.51 for round trip transportation and $11.11 for one-way transportation for all infants, toddlers, and preschool age children with the requirement that, if the recommended reimbursement rate increase is funded, entities that receive transportation payment from EEC for infants, toddlers, and preschool age children must dedicate one adult monitor on all vehicles. The transportation rate of $9.00 per day round trip and $6.00 per day for one way transportation will remain in effect for all transportation providers that transport school age children.
TRANSPORTATION • TRANSPORTATION: $17,586,713 • The last transportation rate increase was in May 2006 when the one way rate increased from $5 to $6 and the round trip rate increased from $7.50 to $9.00. • The rate of $16.51 per round trip makes providers whole for the staff time already directed to satisfying the following recommendations: • Management Responsibility • Parent Notification • Passenger Logs • Secondary Vehicle Inspection • AND places an adult monitor on vehicles based on the number of children, ages, and length of routes. • Vehicle monitoring devices will not be required.
RATE INCREASE FY14 Consolidated Net Increase • EEC has received $11.5M as part of the Consolidated Net Surplus (CNS) to dedicate to an across the board rate increase for all center based, family child care providers, and family child care systems. • This is roughly a raise of $.78 on the daily rate. • The rate increase will be retroactive to July 1, 2013. Market Rate Survey • A key finding from the recently completed Market Rate Survey is that reimbursement rates are significantly below the 75th price percentiles for all age groups in all regions of the state. • A comparison of EEC after-school rates and market prices finds that reimbursement rates are below the 75th price percentiles in all regions and are below the 50th percentiles in all regions, except for the Western Region.
RATE INCREASE Rate Increase: $13,657,652 • The cost of a 3% rate increase as a separate cost for each of the caseload accounts is as follows: • IE: $7,274,381 • DTA: $4,031,960 • DCF: $2,351,311 • This is the equivalent of an $.82 addition to the daily rate. • Prior to the rate increase to be implemented this year, the last rate increase was March 2009 when we gave .45%. • We will implement the same policy for the rate increase as used in FY09: “This increase shall be directed to expenditures for salaries, benefits, and stipends for professional development of early education and care workers or other programmatic quality improvements.”
Program Quality and Improvement QUALITY PROGRAMS: $5,000,000 • Approximately 5,200 programs/providers are participating in QRIS, representing half of our licensed programs. Additionally, we have 325 public school programs (license-exempt) also participating in QRIS. • 1,361 of these programs have been granted a Level 2 status, and 5 of these programs are rated a Level 3 pending the successful completion of their Environment Rating Scales (ERS) classroom observations. • 139,090 children (full and part time) are enrolled in a QRIS rated program (self-reported by program/provider): • Infants: 7,480 • Toddlers: 19,082 • Preschoolers: 67,414 • Kindergarteners: 5,430 • School Aged Children: 39,684 • 44,037 of these children are on EEC Subsidies (contracted or voucher slots) • Licensed capacity of programs participating in QRIS is 138,133 (enrollment exceeds capacity because a full time slot may be utilized by more than one child on a part time basis.)
Program Quality and Improvement Accountability and Monitoring Results from the first ERS classroom observations indicate that programs that have applied for a Level 3 status are of higher quality than the standard quality found in the general population of child care programs. This includes findings from MA specific studies, including the Boston Quality Inventory and the MA School Readiness Study. It is important to note that programs still need support in the areas of personal care routines and in providing children with a variety of play activities for a meaningful quantity of classroom time. Development of Inter-Rater Reliability Protocols -$500,000 Standards and accountability are necessary, but not sufficient to generate quality improvement. An essential element of a QRIS is the support offered to QRIS support staff (Program Quality Specialists, EPS Grantees, CCR&R Grantees, coaches and mentors, etc.) to ensure consistent quality of the QRIS standards as well as the reporting of program QRIS levels to the consumer. Development of inter-rater reliability protocols will allow EEC to contract with an experienced vendor to: • Create consistent delivery of QRIS technical assistance. • Build a uniform practice for program/provider site visits and monitoring. • Create a system for standardized application verification. • Maintain on-going monitoring, guidance and quality checks.
Program Quality and Improvement Environment Rating Scale (ERS) Classroom Observations -$500,000 The Environment Rating Scales is a research backed instrument that has been used to measure program quality for over two decades. Classroom observation facilitated by an ERS Reliable Rater is a vital component of the MA QRIS, accounting for measurement of 8 CBSB standards, 9 FCC standards, and 13 ASOST standards. Programs that self-assess in the upper tiers of the system are held accountable for quality through successful completion of a classroom/program observation by a certified ERS Reliable Rater. Family Child Care QRIS Validation Study - $1,000,000 EEC has initiated a QRIS Validation Study with CBSB programs; however, we delayed inclusion of FCC providers in order to allow them adequate time to move into the upper tiers of QRIS. Validation of the MA QRIS for our FCC providers will determine: • Whether the system’s tiers (levels) accurately reflect different levels of quality. • Whether the levels of quality are aligned with Center Based/School Based program quality. • To what extent those levels of quality are associated with children’s learning and developmental growth trajectories.
Program Quality and Improvement Provider Support and Sustainability • QRIS Professional Development - $3,000,000 • Professional Development requirements are a key component to MA QRIS, accounting for the measurement method of 21 CBSB standards, 14 FCC standards and 14 ASOST standards. Despite the strong link between early childhood educator qualifications and improved child outcomes, the capacity to educate all MA early childhood educators and providers remains one of the largest challenges for program movement toward the upper tiers of QRIS. • QRIS exemptions for Professional • Development and Workforce Requirements • have been, and continue to remain, • a consistent request from programs • and providers.
Program Quality and Improvement • Ongoing training and support are essential to the knowledge, acquisition, and continued growth of early childhood educators and providers. Increased support for QRIS Professional development will allow EEC to: • Develop standardized QRIS orientations for each of the QRIS levels (1-4). • Offer regional trainings that are essential in understanding QRIS measurement methods. • Offer content specific trainings that support the five QRIS categories. • Adapt professional development opportunities to an on-line format, thereby supporting a greater number of educators and providers for a lower cost. • Payment for substitute teachers while the classroom teachers are receiving professional development.
INFRASTRUCTURE COST In November, 2010, the Board recommended the staffing pattern presented below.
INFRASTRUCTURE: FTE Update 2014 • At the beginning of FY14 we had 153.45 approved FTEs. (We have a discrepancy of .20 with ANF.) • Administration and Finance has approved eight (8) additional positions as part of EEC’s FY14 budget: • Chief of Staff: Hired • Deputy General Counsel: Hired with early permission • Licensors (5): Positions posted • Caseload Budget Manager: Interviews in process • Our revised current FTE total is 161.65 (prior to hiring fingerprinting staff). • Because of the new responsibilities placed on EEC relative to the fingerprinting law, Administration and Finance has approved eleven (11) additional positions to fulfill EEC’s responsibilities relative to fingerprinting as follows: • Program Coordinators (5): These positions will handle the administrative aspect of the BRC process: tracking, updating, mailing, and filing results. They will provide TA to programs and applicants. • Reviewers (5): These positions will review discretionary applications and review rationales for decisions.
INFRASTRUCTURE FY15 Request for New Positions FIELD STAFF • Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Field Operations (1): $80,000 • The Deputy Director of Field Operations for EEC is responsible for the management of the day to day operations of the licensing, policy implementation, and regional office functions for a geographical area of the Commonwealth. This management responsibility requires setting priorities, deploying resources, directing and guiding agency direct service staff, and assuring consistency in operations amongst regional offices and licensing units. This management responsibility also includes maintaining the integrity of the policy, licensing, investigations, and regulatory compliance functions through monitoring and maintaining effective internal controls and quality assurance processes. • Licensors (5): $57,000 • The licensing specialists will provide support to the programs the agency licenses in order to provide quality early learning environments for the 250,000 Massachusetts children the agency is responsible for. The current caseload ratio for family child care licensors is 280 licenses to 1 licensor. In group child care the ratio is 104 licenses to 1 licensor. The addition of 5 licensing staff will reduce the caseload ratios to approximately 250 to 1 for family child care and 85 to 1 for group child care. This would bring Massachusetts closer to the recommended national standards of 75 to 1 for family child care and 50 to 1 for group child care.
INFRASTRUCTURE FY15 Request for New Positions FINANCE UNIT • Fiscal and Grant Monitors / Auditors (2): $66,000 • Ensure that funding awarded by EEC through grants is spent according to the requirements of the grant, the terms and conditions of the contract, and according to the applicable regulations of the state oversight agency (Office of the State Comptroller, OSC) as well as federal regulations. • Review grantee budgets and expenditures to ensure that the requirements of the grants are met. • Conduct site visits to Contracted Providers and Child Care Resource and Referral agencies to determine compliance with the Commonwealth’s budgeting and pricing regulations and terms of the provider’s/CCRR contract. • Conduct reviews of all contract provider and CCRR attendance and billing policies and providers oversight to any potential double billing occurrences.
INFRASTRUCTURE FY15 Request for New Positions • Transportation Monitor (1): $54,000 • Ensure that funding awarded by EEC for transportation services is spent according to the requirements of the grant, the terms and conditions of the contract, according to the applicable regulations of the state oversight agency (Office of the State Comptroller, OSC), Registry of Motor Vehicles and other federal regulations. • Monitor transportation subcontract agreement between EEC Contract Providers, Child Care Resource and Referral agencies, and transportation companies to ensure that the requirements of the funding are met. • Conduct site visits and desk review with contracted providers and Child Care Resource and Referral agencies to determine compliance with Transportation polices and oversight plans, passenger logs, billing, and attendance. • Oversight of training requirements, monitoring of drivers in the PQR, and revision of policies as necessary.
INFRASTRUCTURE FY15 Request for New Positions POLICY UNIT • Director of Workforce and Special Projects (1): $73,000 • Oversee the Educator and Provider Regional Partnerships, which includes 5 Educator Provider Support (EPS) Regional grantees. • Plan monthly EPS grantee meetings and EPS Liaison meetings. • Supervise 3 EPS liaisons at Central Office and the Professional Qualifications Unit which includes 3 Teacher Qualifications Specialists. • Coordinate and oversee all Professional Development opportunities including the PD Calendar and PQ Registry.
INFRASTRUCTURE FY15 Request for New Positions • Director of QRIS (1): $68,000 • Support the MA QRIS through analysis, project development, implementation, fiscal oversight, coordination and communication. • Ensure that the five key elements of the MA QRIS are embedded in standards, plans, and policies that guide QRIS development across the mixed delivery system. • Facilitate monthly program Quality Specialist Unit meetings, including development of agendas and assignments of QRIS related projects and tasks. • Coordinate activities to produce RFP and other competitive bidding processes required for the implementation of the MA QRIS. Design public awareness and consumer education program to ensure families are knowledgeable about QRIS. • Program Quality Specialists (2): $65,000 • Provide technical assistance to educators and providers in an assigned region. Develop an understanding of unique community needs and act as a liaison for programs, providers, schools, EPS grantees, and Readiness Centers. • Review QRIS applications by programs and verify self-assessed level of standards and documentation. In coordination with EEC regional Licensors, conducts site visits to programs to provide technical assistance for efforts to improve quality. Plan, prepare, and conduct QRIS training sessions.
