Good afternoon,
For many of you in the early learning field, change can often seem to be the only constant. Change can seem scary or frustrating when there is a lot of it or when you feel that you don’t have the adequate resources to accommodate it. Here at DCYF, we understand this all too well – over the past two years we have been in a constant state of flux as we’ve worked toward merging state agencies into one new organization. We have also seen that change can be good – it can give us the chance to solve problems or get improved supports for our work.
There are some important changes coming to early learning licensing, so I wanted to personally reach out to you to make sure you were aware of them, and that you are aware of what DCYF is doing to support you through these changes.
As you hopefully all know by now, beginning August this year, our aligned Family Home and Center licensing standards will go into effect. Our licensing team has spent the past year providing educational opportunities on these standards – I encourage you to visit our website to learn more.
Here are some key takeaways you should know:
- Education requirements do not have to be completed by August 1, 2019. Take a look at the education requirements flyer to learn more.
- As part of the licensing standards, we have established some requirements about credentials for early learning staff. We recognize that there are multiple paths to meeting these requirements – check out our chart of equivalents on page 34 of our Foundational Quality Standards Guide to find out how your past education may count toward our early learning requirements.
- We are designing a process for existing licensed providers to demonstrate competency in our licensing standards in partnership with the community college system. We will need to pursue funding before this is made available.
- The aligned licensing standards go into effect August 1, but the same process applies to annual monitoring visits – we will do these once per year and will not be visiting every family home on August 1 for a monitoring visit.
- It has always been the case that providers with special circumstances may apply for exceptions to parts of our licensing rules. That has not changed and we will continue to provide licensing technical assistance and support. See the Foundational Quality Standards Guide (page 27) to learn more.
- We realize how important it is to make sure our licensing actions are consistent. DCYF has implemented a new process for our licensing staff to ensure they have a consistent, shared understanding of the standards and how to use our licensing tools, and that they know how to monitor and support provider compliance.
- You may have heard about our work to create a “weighted WAC” system for our licensing standards, and many of you have participated in the data collection needed to put this type of system in place. Our goals with this are to provide the greatest level of protection for children while establishing a common understanding of and consistent actions around risk. In order to complete this, we will be analyzing the data we’ve collected over the next year and rolling out our weighted WAC system at the end of 2020.
- For those of you participating in Early Achievers, there were some important changes made by the legislature to support your work – such as creating a 3+ rating and expanding the allowable uses of the Needs Based Grants. As a result of our partnership with SEIU 925, you will see an increase to your subsidy base rates and tiered reimbursements over the next two years. Take a look at the Early Achievers Summer Update flyer to learn more.
- This year, the Department of Commerce, in partnership with us at DCYF, secured $18 million for the Early Learning Facilities Fund grant program. Visit their website to learn how you can apply for the next round of grants.
I am grateful to the thousands of you who continue to put the needs of Washington’s children at the center of your work and your lives. My staff and I have listened to your hopes and frustrations about providing early learning care in our state. We will continue to work together with SEIU 925 and other advocates to champion more supports and resources for you to be able to do your jobs well.
Thank you all,
Ross Hunter
Secretary
Department of Children, Youth & Families
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