AND Are you exempt from child care licensing (for example, run by a school or municipality?)
If you answered yes to both of these questions, PLEASE READ ON
In mid-August, programs receiving Care4Kids subsidies that are exempt from state licensing will be receiving information from the CT Office of Early Childhood (OEC) regarding changes to the Federal Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). In Connecticut, this program is known as the Care4Kids program. These changes are aimed at improving children’s healthy development, safety and school readiness in child care settings, including afterschool programs that serve children under age 13.
In order to comply with these new federal mandates, the OEC has decided not to require licensure of these Care4Kids recipients. However, the federal law requires that all providers receiving these subsidies, licensed and unlicensed, are held to health and safety standards that touch upon key topic areas. The mailing you will receive in the next week or two will include a list of these new health and safety requirements. Please read this information carefully.
Beginning in October 2016, the Licensing Division of the OEC will be reaching out to license-exempt programs that currently receive Care4Kids subsidies to schedule an announced on-site inspection. This inspection must be completed no later than April 1, 2017 so that a program’s eligibility to receive Care4Kids subsidies will not be impacted. This initial visit will be an opportunity to review the health and safety requirements and identify, where needed, strategies to meet compliance.
Because many after school programs are unaware of this change in public policy that could have a large impact on their programming, we wanted to alert you so that you can pay close attention to the OEC letter and enclosed new health and safety standards that must be met if your program wishes to continue to be eligible to receive Care4Kids subsidies.
As always the Connecticut After School Network is here to help afterschool providers, so if you have questions regarding these new requirements feel free to contact the Network’s Executive Director Michelle Doucette Cunningham at 860-730-2941 or the OEC contacts will be included with the letter.