DISCUSSION
As a part of the CalWORKs Program supportive services, families actively participating are offered no cost child care resources to support their participation in job or educational activities. For many years, Shasta County has collaborated with SCOE to provide these services on behalf of CalWORKs recipients in what is termed “Stage One Child Care.” In addition to this Stage One Child Care agreement, SCOE has historically received related CalWORKs funding (Stages Two and Three Child Care) through the State Department of Education to provide additional child care and related parent support services for former CalWORKs participants. Child care services are crucial to maintaining stable employment, and the cost would otherwise be out of reach for many working parents in the CalWORKs Program. Stage One Child Care services are a mandated component of the CalWORKs Program, providing valuable assistance to parents in obtaining and maintaining work. Additionally, SCOE contracts with numerous child care providers, which spreads the financial benefit of these resources throughout the community. For the period of July 2016 through April 2017, an average of 122 families (203 children) were participating in Stage One Child Care each month.
In addition to providing child care, this agreement includes related educational services that focus on child development, parent education, and nutrition, health, and safety training for child care providers and parents receiving child care subsidies. The purpose of these enhanced services is to improve the quality of child care, increase provider retention and educate parents on choosing quality child care, as well as a variety of child development and health and safety issues. These enhanced activities are monitored through monthly narrative reports provided by SCOE describing the number of child care providers participating in trainings, outreach efforts, and the number of parents choosing to place children in licensed versus unlicensed care. From July 2016 through March 2017, SCOE provided 53 child care presentations to 605 parents participating in the CalWORKs program; accomplished 10 home visits throughout the County; taught 14 free CPR and First Aid classes to parents and providers with 28 individuals obtaining certification; provided outreach and training for 67 Family Childcare Providers; accomplished 35 community trainings; and provided Triple P® training to 37 parents including therapy services to 63 children and intensive services to 35 children.
Since August 1998, SCOE has been consistently providing quality services to Shasta County families, and expected outcomes included in the previous contract were achieved by SCOE. Those expected outcomes were ensuring 90 percent of Stage One child care providers were licensed, ensuring no "good cause" exemptions occurred due to provider unavailability, and ensuring 100 percent of clients referred for Stage One child care services had an approved child care plan and received written notification of their approved plan in five days. The Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) released a Request for Proposal (RFP) this past March, and SCOE was the only party to attend the mandatory responder’s conference, and submit the mandatory letter of intent.
The agreement allows the Contractor to make budget line item shifts within a Budget Category with County approval as long as the adjustment, in aggregate, does not exceed 10 percent of the Budget Category total and does not increase total compensation payable under this agreement. The agreement modifies amendment authority for the HHSA Director, or any HHSA Branch Director designated by the HHSA Director to authorize budget amendments across existing budget categories that do not exceed $75,000 in the aggregate during the original term of the agreement, as well as, other minor amendments that do not result in a substantial or functional change to the original intent of the agreement, do not increase total compensation payable under this agreement, and is in substantially the same format as the County’s standard format amendment contained in the Shasta County Contracts Manual (Administrative Policy 6-101). |