 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Advocates: NJ Child Care Issues & NJACCRRA Recommendations 
NJACCRRA's advocacy work on early care and education issues builds on local efforts coordinated through county child care resource and referral agencies to involve parents, providers, and child advocates in ensuring that New Jersey's families have access to high-quality, safe, and affordable, child care. NJACCRRA is advocating for solutions to critical issues impacting New Jersey's early care and education system.
Click here for Sample Letters of Support regarding current advocacy issues. Click here to review recent NJACCRRA Testimony. Click here to learn how you can become involved in child care advocacy issues by joining a Parent Voices group in your area. ISSUES & RECOMMENDATIONS ISSUE #1: New Jersey is one of a handful of states that does not require criminal background checks and fingerprinting of its family child care providers. Most parents make an incorrect assumption that providers are carefully screened before becoming a State-registered family child care provider. NJACCRRA believes the time has come for all children to have this basic protection. RECOMMENDATION: NJACCRRA recommends that all adult child care providers who care for one or more unrelated children on a regular basis, as well as their household residents and substitutes, should undergo a comprehensive background check, including fingerprinting and a check of the sex offender registries. [ Return To Top ] ISSUE #2: New Jersey's child care subsidy reimbursement rate does not allow equal access to the full range of options within the current child care market. Maximum reimbursement rates are significantly below the market rate. This limits parental choice by forcing subsidized families to either pay the difference between the center rate and voucher payment or place their child in an under-funded child care arrangement with insufficient resources to ensure quality. Families who qualify for child care subsidy assistance have limited options and too often choose care based on cost rather than quality. Another related concern is that child care programs that do accept the state maximum payment rate are not able to attract and retain qualified teaching staff, better equip classrooms, and upgrade curriculum materials - all indicators of quality care that have been well documented by research. RECOMMENDATION: The maximum reimbursement rates for center based, family child care, and approved home providers must be raised to reflect the 75th percentile of rates local providers charge families without a subsidy to ensure eligible children have equal access to quality child care. [ Return To Top ] ISSUE #3: Child care licensing violation reports are difficult for parents to access. At the present time, families looking for a child care center in New Jersey have to go to Trenton in order to review the records and violation reports on child care centers they are considering. Parents of young children in child care should not have to take a day off of work to come to Trenton to check a child care center's non-compliance history. RECOMMENDATION: We support the posting of all child care center violation reports on the Internet, so that parents can make informed child care choices for their children. [ Return To Top ] ISSUE #4: Although infants and toddlers are our most vulnerable population in child care, there is limited specialized training for New Jersey's infant and toddler caregivers. At least 50 percent of New Jersey's mothers with children under the age of three are employed outside of the home and an estimated 12 percent of infants and toddlers attend a regulated child care program. Research tells us that the first three years of life are the formative years; almost 90% percent of a child's core brain structure is formed during this critical time. Child care center staff and family child care providers caring for infants and toddlers can have a tremendous impact on a child's future success. Despite this fact, caregivers of infants and toddlers typically do not receive adequate training in early child development and/or methods of teaching which can optimize learning for infants and toddlers. RECOMMENDATION: While it would be most beneficial to have educators trained and certified in infant development for every young classroom, it is clear that we are several years from that possibility. Until that time, NJACCRRA is advocating for the expansion of the NJ First Steps Initiative to support funding an infant/toddler specialist in each county's child care resource and referral agency to provide mentoring and training for center based and family child care providers caring for infants and toddlers in local communities. Click here to learn more about current services provided by NJ First Steps. [ Return To Top ] ISSUE #5: It is difficult to identify, interpret, and rate indicators of quality within New Jersey's child care system. Although all New Jersey licensed child care centers and registered family child care providers are mandated to comply with New Jersey’s standards, which are the minimum requirements, many centers and providers far exceed these thresholds, but parents have no way of identifying which ones provide higher levels of quality. RECOMMENDATION: New Jersey should join the ranks of other states that have established a quality-of-care rating system. A rating system could inform consumers, recognize and reward the quality of care provided in child care centers and family child care homes, and support tiered reimbursement rates based on standards of quality. Such a system would use licensing standards as a baseline and establish levels of quality based on criteria that are associated with improved child development, learning, and well-being. [ Return To Top ] ISSUE #6: The annual Cost of Living Adjustment for state-contracted organizations does not reflect the increased costs of conducting business and providing services in New Jersey. Training and retaining a qualified child care workforce is critical. Last year the cost of living adjustment for all Department of Human Service contracts was only 1%. It is clear that this adjustment does not come close to addressing the increased cost of doing business each year. There must be an appropriate annual adjustment tied in to economic indicators which allows state-contracted agencies to continue to provide quality programs for New Jersey residents. RECOMMENDATION: Provide agencies contracting with the Department a fair COLA that will support them in maintaining their level and quality of contracted services. [ Return To Top ] ISSUE #7: Funding for Child Care Health Consultants has been eliminated from the budget, thereby halting health care consultation services to New Jersey’s early care and education system. In March of 2010, funding for child care health consultation through the NJ Department of Human Service’s child care quality programs fund was eliminated from the budget. Child care health consultant coordinators were responsible for conducting health and safety audits of child care programs and providing current and timely technical assistance and resources to the directors on how to respond to health-related outbreaks. Children in child care are considered the most vulnerable in an educational and care setting because of their younger age, poor personal hygiene practices, inability to effectively verbalize their health concerns and needs, and the typically lower educational background of the providers caring for them (compared to public school teachers.) An estimated 15% of all children have a chronic health condition (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2001). The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that child care providers make reasonable accommodations for children with special needs, such as those requiring asthma treatments and Epi-Pen injections. Despite these facts, funding for the ONE child care health consultant assigned to each county was eliminated. Without the training and support provided by the child care health consultation program, the health and safety of many of these children will be in jeopardy. (see Publications - Letters of Support Section for more information on the elimination of child care health consultants. RECOMMENDATION: For the protection of all children in child care, NJACCRRA calls for the restoration of funding to support Child Care Health Consultant nurses to serve the diverse, and growing medical needs within New Jersey’s early care and education system. [ Return To Top ] ISSUE #8: Severe funding cuts have been made to New Jersey’s aftercare network, thus placing a significant number of NJ school-age children at risk for becoming latchkey children, coming home alone at a very young age to an unsupervised home until their parents return from work. Non-school time represents the largest block of time in the lives of America’s youth. Violent crime triples between the hours of 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and it is during these same hours that children face the most serious danger of becoming victims of crime. Several recent studies confirmed the relationship between the availability of after-school programs and reduced juvenile crime. Research indicates that a host of positive benefits result from participating in high-quality after-school programs, including better grades, work habits, emotional adjustment, and peer relations. Children who participate regularly experience better academic and social outcomes, as well as higher education and career aspirations. An overwhelming amount of voters (92%) say that there should be some type of organized activity or place for children and teens to go after school every day, and two-thirds of voters believe that federal or state dollars should be used to expand daily after-school programs and make them accessible to all children. RECOMMENDATION: NJACCRRA recommends funding be restored to support low-income families in need of accessible, affordable after-school care. [ Return To Top ] ISSUE: #9: Preschool Expansion: Investment in a high-quality preschool program for three- and four-year olds is critical; specifically in a community-based setting supported by well-trained, adequately credentialed professionals. Preschool is a public investment that pays off. A growing body of research shows that high-quality preschool improves a child's learning and development. That improvement leads to long-lasting benefits for the child and the public. Research shows that children who attend high-quality preschool are less likely to be placed in special education, to drop out of school or to have to repeat grades. Teenagers who attended strong preschool programs are less likely to become pregnant or to get arrested; as adults, they have higher levels of employment. Additionally, the public saves money through reduced crime, a more productive workforce and a lower rate of employment. (To read more about this issue visit the Publications page for reports and position briefs). RECOMMENDATION: NJACCRRA calls for continued expansion of New Jersey’s preschool services so that ALL three- and four-year old children have access to early care education; specifically in a community-based setting supported by well-trained, credentialed professionals working in a high-quality, adequately-funded setting. [ Return To Top ] |
|
| Home | Member Login | Join | Contact Us | Site Search |
NJACCRRA P.O. Box 55816 Trenton, NJ 08638-6816 732.947.8730 © 2001-2013 NJACCRRA. All rights reserved. Web Site Design by worldwideRICHES |