§49-2-303. Statewide quality improvement system; financial plan; staffing requirements; public awareness campaign; management information system; financial assistance for child care programs; program staff; child care consumers.

Attached to the proposed rules required in section three hundred two of this article, the Secretary of the Department of Human Services shall submit a financial plan to support the implementation of a statewide quality rating and improvement system and help promote quality improvement. The financial plan shall be considered a part of the rule and shall include specific proposals for implementation of the provisions of this section as determined by the secretary. The plan shall address, but is not limited to, the following:

(1) State agency staffing requirements may include the following:

(A) Highly trained evaluators to monitor the assessment process and ensure inter-rater reliability of eighty-five percent or higher;

(B) Technical assistance staff responsible for career advising, accreditation support services, improvement planning, portfolio development and evaluations for improvement planning only. The goal for technical assistance staffing is to ensure that individualized technical assistance is available to participating programs;

(C) A person within the department to collaborate with other professional development providers to maximize funding for training, scholarships and professional development. The person filling this position also shall encourage community and technical colleges to provide courses through nontraditional means, such as online training, evening classes and off-campus training;

(D) Additional infant and toddler specialists to provide high level professional development for staff caring for infants and to provide on-site assistance with infant and toddler issues;

(E) At least one additional training specialist at each of the child care resource and referral agencies to support new training topics and to provide training for school-age child care programs. Training providers, such as the child care resource and referral agencies shall purchase new training programs on topics, such as business management, the Devereux Resiliency Training and Mind in the Making; and

(F) Additional staff necessary for program administration;

(2) Implementation of a broad public awareness campaign and communication strategies that may include the following:

(A) Brochures, internet sites, posters, banners, certificates, decals and pins to educate parents; and

(B) Strategies, such as earned media campaigns, paid advertising campaigns, e-mail and internet-based outreach, face-to-face communication with key civic groups and grassroots organizing techniques; and

(3) Implementation of an internet-based management information system that meets the following requirements:

(A) The system shall allow for multiple agencies to access and input data;

(B) The system shall provide the data necessary to determine if the quality enhancements result in improved care and better outcomes for children;

(C) The system shall allow access by Department of Human Services subsidy and licensing staff, child care resource and referral agencies, the agencies that provide training and scholarships, evaluators and the child care programs;

(D) The system shall include different security levels in order to comply with the numerous confidentiality requirements;

(E) The system shall assist in informing practice; determining training needs; and tracking changes in availability of care, cost of care, changes in wages and education levels; and

(F) The system shall provide accountability for child care programs and recipients and assure funds are being used effectively;

(4) Financial assistance for child care programs needed to improve learning environments, attain high ratings and sustain long-term quality without passing additional costs on to families that may include, but are not limited to:

(A) Assistance to programs in assessment and individual program improvement planning and providing the necessary information, coaching and resources to assist programs to increase their level of quality;

(B) Subsidizing participating programs for providing child care services to children of low-income families in accordance with the following:

(i) Base payment rates shall be established at the seventy-fifth percentile of market rate; and

(ii) A system of tiered reimbursement shall be established which increases the payment rates by a certain amount above the base payment rates in accordance with the rating tier of the child care program;

(C) Two types of grants shall be awarded to child care programs in accordance with the following:

(i) An incentive grant shall be awarded based on the type of child care program and the level at which the child care program is rated with the types of child care programs having more children and child care programs rated at higher tiers being awarded a larger grant than the types of child care programs having less children and child care programs rated at lower tiers; and

(ii) Grants for helping with the cost of national accreditation shall be awarded on an equitable basis.

(5) Support for increased salaries and benefits for program staff to increase educational levels essential to improving the quality of care that may include, but are not limited to:

(A) Wage supports and benefits provided as an incentive to increase child care programs ratings and as an incentive to increase staff qualifications in accordance with the following:

(i) The cost of salary supplements shall be phased in over a five-year period;

(ii) The Secretary of the Department of Human Services shall establish a salary scale for each of the top three rating tiers that varies the salary support based on the education of the care giver and the rating tier of the program; and

(iii) Any center with at least a tier two rating that employs at least one staff person participating in the scholarship program required pursuant to paragraph (B) of this subdivision or employs degree staff may apply to the Secretary of the Department of Human Services for funding to provide health care benefits based on the Teacher Education and Compensation Helps model in which insurance costs are shared among the employees, the employer and the state; and

(B) The provision of scholarships and establishment of professional development plans for center staff that would promote increasing the credentials of center staff over a five-year period; and

(6) Financial assistance to the child care consumers whose income is at two hundred percent of the federal poverty level or under to help them afford the increased market price of child care resulting from increased quality.