Child Care and Development Fund, Report to Congress for Fiscal Years 2002 and 2003
SERVICE COORDINATION
Lead Agencies work with many Federal, State, local, and Tribal entities in developing their Biennial State Plans. Many States have established State and local coordinating councils or advisory boards that meet regularly to provide input and direction on CCDF funded programs. In some States, social service and education departments jointly fund and administer full-day, year-round early care and education systems for children aged 3-4. Head Start is often involved as a major partner in these efforts as well. School districts are also coming on board and have begun to develop collaborative approaches for preschool-age children, and for before- and after-school care.
Collaborative efforts extend far beyond the typical care and education agencies. States are working with State and local labor and economic development agencies to support initiatives that allow TANF recipients or low-income families to apply for a variety of benefits in one place (typically called "one-stop shopping"). Early intervention experts are helping to make child care systems more responsive to families that have children with special needs. State and community-based training organizations, colleges, and universities are playing an important role in creating and implementing career development systems for early care and education practitioners. Additionally, the juvenile justice system is exploring a variety of ways it can prevent crime by reaching children in their younger years and supporting out-of-school-time programs.
Child Care Lead Agencies typically collaborate and coordinate services with-
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State health departments play a central role in making more comprehensive services available, as well as increasing the quality of many child care settings. Innovative examples of collaborations with health agencies include the use of public health nurses to train child care providers and the funding of a toll-free telephone line that provides parents and providers information on health and safety topics related to child care. Some States have developed broader, system-wide collaborations, such as ensuring that families seeking child care assistance are also informed about subsidized health care, and coordinating the monitoring of compliance with health and safety regulations. In 38 States, Lead Agencies also collaborate with health agencies on data collection and technology issues, ranging from maintenance of immunization records to the development of cross-agency online information retrieval systems.
All 50 State CCDF plans contain descriptions of public-private partnership activity. Those partnerships support a wide range of activities, from adding programs to building infrastructure to developing systems of care. The States report a wide range of partners, including child care resource and referral agencies, businesses, housing authorities, economic development authorities, and welfare-to-work agencies. Several States discussed their intent to use private, donated funds to meet part of the CCDF matching requirements.