ACTION ALERTS!

THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN LOSE EARLY EDUCATION BENEFITS

Cuts worsen already swollen waiting lists of over 10,000 children

Mississippi's Child Care Certificate Program, funded by the federal child care block grant, Child Care and Development Fund, provides child care vouchers to help eligible parents pay the high cost of child care so they can work. This program, operated by DHS, has announced cuts to about 4,000 children due to federal budget cuts effective 5/31/11. These cuts will worsen the already swollen waiting lists of over 10,000 children. Please help avert future cuts by contacting Mississippi's congressional delegation to urge them to support funding for CCDF for FFY 2012.

Also, the Governor can help improve this program for families. Please contact candidates and share the messages included in the attached Child Care Matters Campaign flyer.

Question: Why do cuts happen in the child care certificate program?

Answer: There's not enough money in the child care certificate program!

Question: What is the child care certificate program?

Answer: The Child Care and Development Fund Block Grant (CCDBG)

Question: Who votes on the money in the child care certificate program?

Answer: The U.S. Congress in Washington, DC.

Tell Mississippi's members of Congress:

"VOTE FOR MORE MONEY IN CCDBG
(the Child Care and Development Block Grant program)
so that more low-income working families in Mississippi can get child care certificates to help pay for child care!"

Senator Cochran is on the Senate Appropriations Committee. He is key to helping us get more money for CCDBG. Contact him, and all members of Congress from Mississippi. For more information, contact the Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative at: info@mschildcare.org

Sen. Thad Cochran (R- MS)
DC Tel: 202-224-5054
DC Fax: 202-224-9450
Email Sen. Cochran

Sen. Roger Wicker (R- MS)
DC Tel: 202-224-6253
DC Fax: 202-228-0378
Email Sen. Wicker

Repr. Alan Nunnelee (R - 01)
DC Tel: 202-225-4306
DC Fax: 202-225-3549
Email Repr. Nunnelee

Repr. Bennie Thompson (D - 02)
DC Tel: 202-225-5876
DC Fax: 202-225-5898
Email Repr. Thompson

Repr. Gregg Harper (R - 03)
DC Tel: 202-225-5031
DC Fax: 202-225-5797
Email Repr. Harper

Repr. Steven Palazzo (R - 04)
DC Tel: 202-225-5772
DC Fax: 202-225-7074
Email Repr. Palazoo

 

 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S LETTER

F

or an update on our current programs, read this letter from Carol Burnett, MLICCI’s Executive Director.

UNSPENT TANF FUNDS
SHOULD BE USED FOR CHILD CARE
FOR THE WORKING POOR

Summary

Assistance with child care has been identified as the single most important factor in helping low-income families successfully leave welfare and maintain jobs. Adequate child care is also an important factor in economic development and job growth. Mississippi has no state-funded early childhood program. Federal programs available for Mississippi to use for child care inlude Head Start, Early Head Start, Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and the Temporary Assistance to Need Families (TANF) block grant While these sound abundant, they are only large enough to serve about 40% of Mississippi's low-income children under five years of age.
To view chart of unmet needs>>

Mississippi has extensive discretion to set the rules in CCDF/TANF because these are federal block grants to the state. Much of MLICCI's work in this area focuses on urging the Governor and Department of Human Services to make changes in the child care certificate program that would make it easier for parents to access and retain services and for providers to get paid for them. We recently surveyed constituent child care centers to identify highest priority reforms (click for survey results>>).

Survey results of key reforms for certificate program:

  • Either subcontract with a different set of Designated Agents (DAs) that have expertise in early childhood education and support child care parents and providers (such as Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, as is done in many other states) or improve performance of the current DAs.
    Specifically: Require DAs to follow the DHS Child Care Policy Manual consistently across the state; Improve DAs customer relations with parents and providers; Require DAs to improve retention of services to children; Process applications, redeterminations, and payments in a timely manner; Reduce administrative errors and loss of paperwork resulting in terminations and/or delays in payment. Minimize terminations to eligible parents; Do not terminate services to a child already being served whenever a higher priority child applies.     TOP  »
  • Simplify the application and redetermination process and improve the retention rate.
  • Use priorities only when issuing certificates at the beginning of the program year.
  • Extend the re-determination period to 12 months.
  • Eliminate the child support requirement for single parents.
  • Make full-time students eligible for an entire school year, a higher priority, and eliminate their work requirement.

The lack of these reforms results in too frequent interruptions in services—bad for child develoment and problematic for parental employment.    TOP  »

You can help!
Contact government officials and tell them
to support these reforms to improve the
child care certicate program.

Support using TANF funds for child care, contact:    TOP  »

  • Governor Haley Barbour, 501 N. West Street, 15th Floor, Jackson, MS 39201, tel: 601-359-3150
  • Don Thompson, MDHS Executive Director, 750 North State Street, Jackson, MS 39202, tel: 601-359-4500

Support creation of a grant program to provide money to child care centers to help them afford to participate in the new quality rating system, the Mississippi Child Care Quality Step System.    TOP  »

Support including child care as a component of Mississippi's economic development strategy so that federal Community Development Block Grant funds can be used to expand the supply of affordable child care for low and moderate income working parents.    TOP  »

  • Contact the Governor's Office (see above) and Mississippi Development Authority
  • Mississippi Development Authority, P.O. Box 849, Jackson, MS 39205, 601-359-3449

Share MLICCI's DVD entitled Building A Strong Child Care System for Mississippi's Working Families.    TOP  »

  • Hold meetings at your child care center and with local community groups and invite parents, community leaders, elected official, and the media.
  • Show the DVD and share local, personal stories about the importance of affordable, full-time child care for working parents with young children.
  • If you need more copies of the DVD, or if you would like help planning your local meetings contact the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative at info@mschildcare.org
  • Watch the video online