Organization: CHILD CARE COUNCIL OF WESTCHESTER INC
Mission: Westchester County's leading authority on child care, the Child Care Council of Westchester, Inc. is one of the largest child care resource and referral agencies in the state of New York. A nonprofit, 501(c)(3) agency, the Council plays a unique role within the County, delivering a variety of unique services including: Linking parents to child care via information and referrals and help obtaining financial assistance; Expanding the supply of quality child care programs and providers through technical assistance, training, monitoring of regulatory compliance and start-up help; Support to the workplace through on-site seminars, guidance on dependent care issues; Policy and public education to raise awareness of the benefits and value of a strong early care and education system. Beginning in March of 2020, the Council became actively involved in all manners of economic and other pandemic related support to the child care community.
Activities: Provider Services Department Accomplishments 7/1/19-6/30/20. Registration Services: The Registration Department offers three main services to Child Care Providers: Processing Initial Family Day Care (FDC) & School Age Child Care (SACC) Applications, Processing FDC & SACC Renewal Applications and performing "50% Inspections" of FDC/SACC Program. During the period of time starting July 1st, 2019 to June 30th, 2020: We served a total of 9 initial FDC applicants (3 - FDC Approved and 6 - FDC Withdrawn), and 15 SACC applicants (5 - SACC approved and 10 -SACC Withdrawn). All initial applicants were approved prior to the contract deadline. The challenge with initial applications has been applicant follow through. Many applicants applied and found that they could not meet OCFS guidelines in the required time period. This issue was exacerbated by the pandemic, causing the numbers of new applications to be lower than normal during the past year. The Registration Department also renewed 60 active FDC & SACC Programs. We assisted them in the process of renewing their registrations (22-FDC and 38-SACC). All renewal applications were completed within the 120 day timeframe. The Registration Department performed 253 inspections of FDC/SACC Program (141-FDC and 112-SACC). All inspections were conducted and closed within the approved timeframes. The greatest challenge in inspecting child care programs is the timely closure of regulatory violations and providing follow up monitoring for programs in need of additional visits. The number of inspections during the year was also negatively impacted by the pandemic. Legally Exempt Services: The Legally Exempt Department offers two main services to legally exempt child care providers. The department is contracted to process initial applications, renewal applications and conduct annual inspections. During the period of time starting July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020: We processed 540 legally exempt provider applications. We accomplished our goals due to the efficiency of the workers in the department. The challenge with processing the initial enrollment applications has been the timeframes and high turnover in providers. The challenge in processing the renewal enrollment applications has been the delay in providers submitting the renewal material on time and changes that are needed to be made to the enrollment. The Legally Exempt Department performed 8 20% inspections. All inspections were conducted and closed within the approved timeframes. We were unable to conduct annual inspections due to restrictions put in place during the pandemic. Child Adult Care Food Program: The Child Adult Care Food Program helps providers pay for meals and snacks served to children up to age 13 enrolled in their child care programs. As the sponsor of the contract we are responsible for determining if meals served meet nutritional requirements, conducting monitoring visits, and providing training to participating providers. During the period of July 1, 2019-June 30, 2020 CACFP staff processed 2,624 menus for reimbursing providers for the healthy meals and snacks served to children. The CACFP staff conducted 436 food monitoring visits and added 49 new providers to the program. Between April and June 2020 the Council distributed PPE and other supplies to more than 300 child care providers to help them operate safely during the pandemic. Thhis program was funded by the federal Cares act.
Training and technical assistance to improve child care quality * 3,719 early care and education professionals attended 215 Council workshops * 18 students were enrolled in the Council's eCDA program (on-line CDA). * In the first quarter, 19 early childhood professionals enrolled in the Council's 2019-20 In-Person Infant Toddler CDA program. 13 completed the course in the fourth quarter. * In March 2019, 20 early childhood professionals began the Council's 2019 In Person Preschool CDA program. 17 completed the course in October 2019. * A new class began in June 2020 with 13 early childhood professionals, and remains ongoing as of March 2021. * 9 center-based classrooms in 5 center-based programs and 13 family/group family child care providers participated in our Early Literacy Book Bag program funded by the Sexauer Family Foundation. The project was created to promote early literacy for low-income families by establishing lending libraries in the child care programs thereby strengthening the bridge between programs and homes. Participating programs received book bags filled with new books and manipulatives for children to borrow and use at home with their families * In Fall 2019, 106 early childhood professionals attended an Infant Toddler Conference held at a local synagogue. In Spring 2020, 114 early childhood professionals attended a virtual early childhood conference * 49 child care center classrooms and family child care programs received intensive scale based technical assistance; 20 of those programs received a quality improvement grant. * Our annual from our Children's Book Drive was cancelled in Spring 2020 due to the pandemic.
Between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020 the Resource & Referral Department provided child care referrals and resources to guide in finding child care providers for 1,678 families with 2,338 children. Under their Subsidy Support Services information and assistance through the public child care subsidy system, assistance was provided to 645 families and over 58 child care providers.
NTEE category: Human Services
Secondary category: Youth Development