State Plan – Provider Comment 2/3/16 – 2/13/16

Public Hearing on February 3rd in Augusta . This is the State of Maine Plan which is in response to the Child Care Development Federal Block Grant. The State Plan to address and meet the requirements of the grant is available for viewing at :
http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/ocfs/ec/occhs/child-care.html
The public hearing will be held from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 3, 2016 at: The Maine State Library 230 State Street, Room # 307 Augusta, Maine 04333 Public and provider participation.

This grant enables Maine families to access resources to help inform them of, pay for and retain care.
The grant also enables resources for Child Care Providers and pays for the Licensing Department of our Dept of Health and Human Services.

There are several areas in the Plan which did not address some requirements of the Federal Grant. This is problematic for Maine families seeking assistance and problematic for Providers who must depend on Licensing to be accountable for such safety measures as back ground checks for employees, fair and reasonable inspections of Maine Child Cares and timely reporting, administering and disbursement of the Federal funds. In one case, involving background checks, the State of Maine will forfeit $800,000.00 dollars by not implementing the recommendations of the Federal Block Grant. Several local Child Care Providers will be attending the Public Hearing, however, due to the hour it is being held, many will not be able to attend unless they close early, thereby inconveniencing parents.

Maine Child Care Association will be sending out information about some of those things that we believe should be commented on and hope that , if you agree, you will also comment as well.

It is the hope of MCCA to be in a position, financially, to hire a legal representative to present and address the concerns which Providers have a stake in. By uniting Providers, MCCA hopes to also use that representative in the future to look out for Provider interests as the New Licensing RULES and REGULATIONS are developed in the coming months.

Having a representative will enable Providers to focus on attention to our Programs and the children in them rather than spending time navigating the system to protect ourselves.

Please feel free to print this out to give to your clients, friends, fellow Providers and interested parties.

To join Maine Child Care Association and support these important efforts go to the website below and click on the Membership link:
Please feel free to contact MCCA Association / Representatives :
June Holman at Tel. 321-1634 or email: Juneholman712@gmail.com
Lori Bozeman at Tel. 837-9404 or email loribozeman@hotmail.com
EMAIL MCCA- mainechildcareassociation@yahoo.com
Website: Https://mainechildcareassociation.wordpress.com

Enrollment Form: https://drive.google.com/…/0B-E7TnHiLGL0UHBvTF9SZkdtU…/view…

Contact MCCA to enroll over the phone or discuss payment plan options (payment arrangements are available upon request.

Enrollment fees can by paid by check, cash, Credit Card or Paypal