Opinion ID: 2332761
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Daycare Provider Contracts

Text: During the Abbott IV remand proceedings both plaintiffs and the State recommended collaboration between the districts and existing community daycare programs. The parties recognized that a readily-available source of staff and facilities could be found in the DHS-licensed programs then operating in the Abbott districts. In Abbott V the Court understood the need for collaboration and explicitly authorized the use of community based programs. Abbott V, supra, 153 N.J. at 508, 710 A. 2d 450. Following Abbott V, in February 1999, Assistant Commissioner Barbara Anderson sent letters to the SNDs asking for revisions to the 1999-2000 early childhood program plans that had been submitted to the DOE to implement the Court's decision. The Assistant Commissioner informed the districts that they must collaborate with local ... DHS ... licensed child care providers and [must] use those providers whenever practical to implement required preschool programs. The districts were also told that [d]uplication of programs or records otherwise available in the community [was] prohibited and that they could rely upon the DHS licensure requirements as sufficient to ensure an appropriate level of quality for these programs... The DHS regulations, however, are designed to provide for supervision of small children in a daycare setting, see N.J.A.C. 10:122-1.2(a); they are not designed to provide a preschool educational experience that prepares disadvantaged children to achieve academically in school. Subsequently, the DOE adopted N.J.A.C. 6:19A-3.3, which states: