LEGAL REMEDIES PROJECT YIELDS
CCDF REFORMS!

Recommendations for a Fair Appeals Process
and New Regulations Adopted

s a direct result of MLICCI's efforts, two critical reforms have been made to Mississippi's Child Care Certificate Program (CCDF): 1) a fair appeals process and 2) reforms to regulations that stymied new providers from occupying buildings, which had previously housed disbarred centers or from hiring their employees.

Fair Appeals Process

The first change involves instituting a fair appeals process when there is a dispute between a parent or provider and the relevant Designated Agent (generally a Planning and Development District.) Prior to MLICCI's request about an appeals process in December 2005, there was no provision whatsoever for appeal.

Once the Office of Children and Youth (OCY) acknowledged the need for some form of appeal process, it adopted a one-paragraph provision—which did not offer a fair and impartial process. The aggrieved party was given the opportunity to be heard by the Director of OCY and subsequent appeal to the director of DHS, The first hearing was held in November 2006, when MLICCI attorney Beth Orlansky represented a provider from Indianola who had been debarred from the CCDF program. The "hearing" was extremely one-sided and lacking in due process (which provides for a timely and impartial hearing and the opportunity to confront and cross-examine witnesses).

After that hearing, MLICCI wrote to the OCY director asking that a more detailed hearing procedure be implemented—one that would be fair to both sides in a dispute. The request was forwarded to the Attorney General's office, which responded by adopting virtually all of MLICCI's suggestions. In future hearings, all documentation presented by either party will be shared and both sides will present their case in the presence of the other. The hearings will remain informal, but both the parent/provider and the PDD will be accorded the same respect and courtesies. This change will be beneficial to all concerned.

Revised Occupancy and Hiring Regulations

After receiving a number of complaints about the same problem in the Delta, MLICCI took action. In an area where there is very little child care available, at least one PDD was making it unreasonably difficult to open new centers. In what amounted to unnfair real estate and employment regulations, CCDF participation was denied to providers who opened new centers in buildings that had previously housed debarred providers. New owners were also prohibited from hiring ex-employees of the debarred director.

Why did such an unlikely policy come to pass? An opinion issued by an attorney for DHS stated that there is a likelihood of fraud when a debarred center is reopened by someone else—particularly a relative of the debarred provider. The opinion also gave Designated Agents the right to refuse to allow successor centers to participate in CCDF. Rather than evaluating each case individually for likelihood of fraud, at least one PDD interpreted the opinion to mean that anyone occupying a previously debarred center or hiring its employees must be prohibited from participating in the CCDF program.

MLICCI asked OCY to provide a mechanism for new centers in this bind to establish that they operate free of fraud, and should therefore, be eligible to get paid with certificates. The Attorney General's office responded to MLICCI's request by stating that new owners could provide an affidavit establishing that there is no relation or financial connection between their center and the debarred provider. While the new center would be carefully scrutinized for potential fraud, it could participate in the CCDF program.