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Fall 2022 Child Care Licensing Newsletter

Category
CDD Blog
October 27, 2022

In This Issue:

Greetings from the Child Care Licensing Director:

Hello & Happy Fall!

I hope this finds you all enjoying every bit of goodness Vermont has to offer as the seasons change ~ exploring nature’s beauty, cooler weather activities like apple picking and fall hikes, rediscovering the warmth and comfort of warmer clothes in your closets, and if you are like me, it means a return to cooking different foods than I did during spring and summer.  I’d love to introduce myself to you all as this is the first CDD Licensing Newsletter I have had the pleasure of putting together with the support of the incredible team I have been fortunate enough to have joined. 

My name is Beth Maurer, and I am the new Director of Child Care Licensing. As I shared with the Licensing Unit when I was hired, working for CDD in this role is coming full circle for me. As a child, my mother ran a registered, in-home child care from the time I was 6 until I was 15! Our house was always buzzing with laughter, tears, and messes in every room that meant kids were living their best lives. I remember all the parents who were coming and going in our home with many staying for dinner or just hanging out after a long day of work. When I was headed off to college, I never imagined I would be working with kids and decided to become a communications major. Well, that course of action was VERY short-lived, and I found myself switching gears towards social work and psychology and…working with kids ~ my mother still says she knew I’d work with kids someday ~ and I never looked back.

I graduated from Trinity College of Vermont with a dual social work and psychology majors and worked for the Northeastern Family Institute for the next 10 years in a variety of roles – skills worker, therapeutic foster parent, case manager, and then as their resource coordinator in Franklin, Grand Isle, and Chittenden Counties before heading back to graduate school at UVM where I earned a Master of Social Work in 2006. From there, I began what would be a 16-year career with the Department for Children and Families – Family Services Division (FSD) in Chittenden County. I began working as a Juvenile Services Social Worker, moved into being the Juvenile Services Supervisor, was the Assistant District Director, worked on a collaborative FSD-UVM grant (The Placement Stability Project) for two years, and was the District Director for the past six years. It has been a privilege serving Vermont’s children and families in the variety of roles I have held throughout my career, and I am so excited for the opportunity to continue the work in this new role at CDD. 

Since transitioning to this role, I have been spending time getting to know the ins and outs of the incredible work of CDD’s licensors and business technicians and the overarching work of the Division, as well as meeting/spending time with the community partners in our state that support the important work you do every day.  I had the chance to co-present with Donna Lopiccolo, one of three of our licensing supervisors, at the VTAEYC conference and was truly inspired to see so many of Vermont’s early childhood educators in one place.  Thank you for all you do each and every day to make sure the children of Vermont have safe, healthy, and nurturing places to be while their parent(s) work ~ I see you and your dedication, and am honored to be in this position doing this important work with you.

This is the first newsletter to the field I’ve put together and I hope you find the information provided is valuable to you. I welcome your feedback and suggestions for future newsletters and can be reached by email or cell (elizabeth.maurer@vermont.gov or 802-735-6009). I look forward to working with you all because, in the words of Helen Keller, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” 

With warmth and gratitude,

Beth

Information to support the work you do:

In this section of the newsletter, our intent is to share with you bits of information we believe support you to do your best work in the field. 

DCF Website

Did you know that the Department for Children and Families (DCF) has updated their website? Please check out the “Child Care Providers” page which has everything you need to become a provider and/or support those of you who are already licensed and regulated providers. The navigation of this website is incredible and has all the resources you need readily accessible.

Visit Our Website

BFIS and CDDIS

Thank you all for the many ways you leaned into the launch of the Child Development Division Information System (CDDIS) early this summer! We appreciate that with change comes the potential for confusion and want to make sure we highlight for you that CDDIS and the Bright Futures Information System (BFIS) are two systems we continue to work in, each serving a distinct purpose.

CDDIS supports the Child Care Financial Assistance Program (CCFAP), which includes eligiblity determinations for families and for providers entering provider rate agreements and child care attendance. BFIS supports all other functions connected to licensing and the regulatory work we do (i.e., record checks, reapplications, credentialing, annual compliance visit reports, etc.).  BFIS continues to generate reminders to the field so please make sure you are on the lookout for these.

For CDDIS Support

For BFIS Support

Background Clearances (Record Checks and Fingerprint Authorizations)

As kids return to the classroom and your afterschool programs you are all very busy hiring staff to meet the needs of the children you serve. During this time of year, the Licensing Unit experiences a high volume of record check requests. We wanted to offer the following tips to support the timely processing of these and share some “New this year” news with you!

  • To avoid any delays with processing record check authorizations, please:
  • New this year!  Once you have sent in a record check authorization form, you no longer have to wait for CDD to send you the Fingerprint Authorization Certificate – you can find that on our website! This form is a fillable PDF for you/your staff to complete, print, sign by hand, and take with them to complete their fingerprints.
  • As always, if you have any questions about record checks or fingerprint authorizations, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our amazing Business Technicians. Their contact information can be found on our website.

Immunizations

On the way to you: Center Based Child Care and Preschool Programs (CBCCPPs) (including public school prekindergarten programs) and Registered and Licensed Family Child Care Homes (FCCH) are required to submit an annual child care immunization survey to CDD by December 31st. In early November, in partnership with the Vermont Department of Health (VDH), you will be notified by CDD that now is the time to complete the immunization survey. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you in advance for completing these timely.

COVID-19

In partnership with VDH, we put together the following points of interest to consider in your work with children:

  • COVID-19 testing should not be required in order for children to attend each day.
  • Antigen tests should only be used when a person has symptoms of COVID-19.
  • If someone who has mild symptoms, and a negative COVID-19 test but continues to have symptoms which could be something other than COVID-19, please continue to follow the Signs and Symptoms guidance in Appendix A of the licensing regulations.
  • PCR tests are the only tests approved for children under the age of two. Please note the State of Vermont is no longer providing PCR testing and PCR testing should not be used with people who have had COVID-19 in the last 90 days.
  • Working with the medical providers your children visit in the community about testing, illness, and return to care policies can be very helpful.
  • Encourage everyone to stay up to date on all vaccinations.
  • For additional information on testing recommendations, please see the CDD Memo from 8/11/2022.
  • Please direct COVID-19 Questions to 802-863-7200 (toll-free 800-464-4343) or AHS.VDHPublicCommunication@vermont.gov.

Lead Safety

On October 1, 2022, VDH’s Asbestos and Lead Regulatory Program (ALRP) adopted the federal RRP (Renovation, Repair, and Painting) authority standards, which require lead-safe work practices be used when repairing or renovating painted surfaces in buildings built before 1978. See the new lead regulations.

The new regulations also update the requirements (previously known as Essential Maintenance Practices or EMPs) for child care facilities to maintain their properties without chipping and peeling paint; the requirements are now called the Inspection, Repair, and Cleaning (IRC) practices. Please reach out to our partners at ALRP with all questions about what this means for you if your program is housed in a building built before 1978 – these are an incredible resource for you.

Lead Water Testing

We wanted to share with you a piece included in the AHS News – October 2022 Edition that highlighted Vermont’s success in getting the lead out of drinking water in schools and child care facilities: 

“Congratulations to all those who worked diligently over the last couple of years to reduce lead in school and childcare drinking water. The program is a success, following a new report that found 98% of Vermont schools and child care facilities have completed testing for lead in their drinking water and taken any needed steps to keep water safe. A law passed in 2019 requires all Vermont schools and child care facilities to test their drinking and cooking water for lead. To read more, check out the official announcement on Vermont Gets the Lead Out of Drinking Water in Schools and Childcare Facilities.”

If you have any questions about when you need to test or how to test for lead in your CBCCPP or FCCH here are some helpful links for you:

  • If you have questions about this process, please email the Lead in School and Child Care Drinking Water Program at leadchildcare@vermont.gov or call 802-863-7220 or 800-439-8550 (toll-free in Vermont).
  • Ordering Test Kits:

Student Loan Repayment Assistance Program for Early Childhood Educators:

Did you know that “The Student Loan Repayment Assistance Program for Vermont’s early childhood educators provides up to $4,000 annually to reduce the student debt of full-time educators who earned an early childhood-specific degree within the last five years. Awards are given on a first come, first served basis.”

For More Information or To Apply

This could be an incredible resource for you or someone you know working in the early childhood education field. Reach out to our partners at the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children (VTAEYC) at studentloanrepayment@vtaeyc.org with questions.

Regulation Review: 

In this section of the newsletter, our intent is to highlight for you regulatory information we believe will support the work you are doing in the field.

Planning for playground safety: 

Rule 5.10.3.3 focuses our attention on “Safe Use Zones” for play equipment that is thirty (30) inches or higher from the ground (i.e., swings, slides, and climbing equipment) and the need for resilient material designed to protect children if they fall.

We know that kids love and are drawn to these play structures and that they get lots of great use throughout the seasons and that this material gets moved around a lot throughout the day.  Having a rake handy to ensure this material maintains the needed depth and resilience can be very helpful.  As the colder months creep in, any materials you use under these structures will likely freeze, which means kids cannot use these play structures until the material is thawed.  Thank you for your attention to this detail on your magical playgrounds.

Associated Parties List:

Rule 3.4.7.5 focuses on the requirement for programs to update BFIS when there are changes in staff, auxiliary staff, and/or volunteers within five (5) working days. 

The intent of this rule is asking you to update BFIS if you know someone has left employment and/or volunteer status and will not return to your program. The intent of this rule is not that you need to update BFIS if there is a planned break in care with the intention that the employee and/or volunteer will be returning.  An example would be if you have an employee working in an afterschool program that does not run throughout the summer but will resume in the late summer when school is in session again.  If you believe your employees will be returning to work in your afterschool program when school resumes, you do not need to remove them as an associated party. If that employee does not return when school resumes, please update BFIS. We appreciate that this is likely a shift in the interpretation of the rule and that you may have questions.

Please reach out to our LOD (Licensor on Duty), who would be happy to answer your questions at 1-800-649-2642, option 3, or ahs.dcfcddchildcarelicensing@vermont.gov.

Regulation Revision Update: 

In September 2021, the CDD Licensing Unit engaged with our federal partners at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Child Care (OCC) in a monitoring process to review our compliance with the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) requirements. We were grateful for the opportunity to review our current regulations and learn from the wealth of knowledge our federal partners bring to the work.

Simultaneously, we began a rigorous process of reviewing our current Licensing Regulations.  We want to thank everyone who participated in the focus groups and for providing your feedback on our current regulations; this was an invaluable process. We took your feedback and have made proposed changes. I am highlighting the word “proposed” because we are at the very beginning of promulgation, and nothing is final until the process concludes (except for the federally required regulations; these cannot change).

There will be a public comment period as part of promulgation where we encourage you to provide your feedback about what you believe are both strengths and areas of change within the proposed regulations. 

Below is a broad overview of some of the proposed changes and does not reflect every proposed change. We want to highlight the first two bullet points, which are federal requirements not in our current regulations; licensors will start reviewing these with you during future site visits and can support plans to implement these changes in your programs.

    • CBCCPP – Non-Recurring programs collect child immunization records; these programs were previously exempt from this rule, and we learned that this is a federal requirement, and we can no longer permit this exemption.
    • Volunteers in all settings must be trained in emergency response procedures.  This is a federal requirement, and we can no longer permit volunteers from exemption.
    • We have proposed that the Afterschool Child Care Program regulations be completely reformatted and aligned language to mirror how the CBCCPP and FCCH are structured.
    • We have proposed staff to child ratios and staff qualifications shift in the CBCCPP regulations.
    • We have proposed a new definition for school aged child being served in FCCH so that children who graduate from preschool in the spring can now be considered “school aged” as part of staff – child ratios. 
    • We have also tried to simplify the language we use in the rules.
    • We have simplified cleaning practices that still align with federal health and safety standards.
    • We have also provided clarity for position titles.

CDD will continue to communicate where we are in the promulgation process through our blog, and we are looking forward to continuing to partner with you all in this process.