Parent Aware ????

[Blackcat31]

So after reading all the post my thoughts are:

1. Who is paying for/pushing this agenda? Nobody does anything "just because" anymore so who is getting paid/rich to make people believe this is a necessity? Who is running this parent aware and where are their funds coming from? I have seen far too many head start dollars wasted so my opinion is jaded...

I certainly don't have all the answers but I will try to answer what I do know.
I think it is the government that is pushing this agenda and for the same reasons they push everything else....more money for the state. Whether this funding will actually find it's way to child care providers or the children is doubtful but who knows.

I also agree about the wasted money in regards to Head Start as I USED to be employed by them and that was precisely why I am no longer an employee there.

2. I do think the thing Meeko mentioned will happen. I mean I am not going to work for free and if there are less moms at home who just happen to do daycare and charge cheap rates then I can justify raising my rates. Which means less people will accept state pay (unless they raise their compensation rates) and people will have a hard time finding providers who have openings or people they can afford. DUH!

This is what happened with MA dental care here in MN. They made the restrictions so ridic and the compensation rates so low that there are only like 3 providers who take MA dental care. The closest one here is over an hour away and the wait list is forever long. Who suffers from this? The people who actually need MA dental but really who can blame the dentisits for not bothering to serve them anymore when the govt makes it impossible to do so. (My mom is in the dental field so I hear her complaints all the time )

THIS is exactly what I think will happen as well. I think the moms who stay home and do daycare for an income while raisng their own children will be pushed out of business or will be so far on the ratings scale that no one will want to use them as they will think they are not "quality" since they aren't rated at more than one or two stars at best.

That does mean that those providers who have more stars will also be seen as better (even if they are only fresh out of college and have zero experience behind them) and will be able to charge what they want and parents will ultimately pay MORE in child care costs to get what they "think" is better care.

3. Where does my information go now that I am registered? Who can access me and my training info? Why do you need to know that publically anyway?

4. Can parents really write what they want about my program like a review? Thats going to get ridiculous. We all know parents we have made unhappy because they either couldnt follow rules or didnt pay. So now those parents get to slander us at will?

I think the info on the registry is for the state to track you and isn't accessible by the parents other than just how many stars you have for a rating. I don't think parents can actually see what trianings and courses you have taken. I don't believe it is a public site...I think it is just how the state (government) is tracking us..or keeping tabs on us.

I have NO idea whether parents can post comments or reviews about us as we haven't discussed that as of yet. If that is the case, that will be a completely lop-sided thing since yes, parents who leave angry can say all sorts of things and that is NOT fair....but I am doubting this whole thing was ever started in the name of fairness.

[DCMom]

I haven't read all the responses, but I did read Meeko's and I completely agree.

I have said it before, they will have to drag me kicking and screaming into Parent Aware. I was asked to be part of the pilot program in the Twin Cities Metro a few years ago; It was simply called a Quality Rating System then. All it took was going to the info sessions and I said, "Thanks, but no thanks".

I predict it won't be long before it is mandatory in MN ~ especially if you are a provider who takes subsidized kids. It won't be long after that it will be a requirement of licensing for all of us. There are those who would like a preschool thru college public education system, effectively eliminating the need for childcare. We are losing our independent, unique businesses one piece at a time.

JMHO

[Blackcat31]

I haven't read all the responses, but I did read Meeko's and I completely agree.

I have said it before, they will have to drag me kicking and screaming into Parent Aware. I was asked to be part of the pilot program in the Twin Cities Metro a few years ago; It was simply called a Quality Rating System then. All it took was going to the info sessions and I said, "Thanks, but no thanks".

I predict it won't be long before it is mandatory in MN ~ especially if you are a provider who takes subsidized kids. It won't be long after that it will be a requirement of licensing for all of us. There are those who would like a preschool thru college public education system, effectively eliminating the need for childcare. We are losing our independent, unique businesses one piece at a time.

JMHO

It WILL be mandatory for ALL providers in MN by 2015. It will eventually be mandatory for ALL states within the next 10 years they told us.

...whether you take subsidy or not.

It is all called QRS but each state names their program whatever they want/

[DCMom]

It WILL be mandatory for ALL providers in MN by 2015. It will eventually be mandatory for ALL states within the next 10 years they told us.

...whether you take subsidy or not.

It is all called QRS but each state names their program whatever they want/

Interesting. I just went to an info session this spring and was told that it was going to be completely voluntary; no mention at all of it being mandatory. And I specifically asked the question. I should have known

It was a broad idea that they were promoting when I was first asked to participate. It has since evolved into Parent Aware and they have changed some things for the better, I will give them that. It still needs some work though...IMHO.

[Blackcat31]

Interesting. I just went to an info session this spring and was told that it was going to be completely voluntary; no mention at all of it being mandatory. And I specifically asked the question. I should have known

It was a broad idea that they were promoting when I was first asked to participate. It has since evolved into Parent Aware and they have changed some things for the better, I will give them that. It still needs some work though...IMHO.

Maybe I should clarify....this is basically what I was told when asked if it was a mandatory program:

It is NOT madatory for providers to participate HOWEVER the ratings of each place is done with or wothout consent. So if a provider chooses NOT to participate in the rating system and do the things required to obtain stars they will automatically only be rated at one star.

So yes, we can choose NOT to participate but we will still be rated.

Does that make more sense?

[satcook]

I have NO idea whether parents can post comments or reviews about us as we haven't discussed that as of yet. If that is the case, that will be a completely lop-sided thing since yes, parents who leave angry can say all sorts of things and that is NOT fair....but I am doubting this whole thing was ever started in the name of fairness.

The daycare I am the director of participated in a research study this summer. They compared those who participation in KQRIS to those who don't to see if they money they are spending on it is making a difference. I am interested to see the results when they come out. I will be sure and post what they found.

We did have to have feedback from parents. We handed out surveys that they gave us and then parents returned them to us in a sealed envelope and we had a larger envelope we put them into. I know 2/3rds of the parents had a return them for us to get credit. I'm not sure if they read and did anything with the info.

It made me upset that my staff could have a BA in anything and get credit for it, but then as a director, my degree in elementary education didn't count for anything. I think my degree is much more useful than the teacher who has one in business!!

Lori

[nanglgrl]

If any of you would like I can send the Iowa QRS "grading" sheet to you. I don't know if it's different qualifications in each state or not. You would think it would be the same since it is QRS. In Iowa it's really no big deal. Here is a rundown:

1 star: Is registered with the Department of Human Services.

2 stars: Childnet certified, participates in the Food Program, submits a self assessment of professional development (basically a list of trainings and strengths and weaknesses) and a professional development plan (what you would like to do in the future, what you want your daycare to be like, etc. )

3 stars:14-18 points (at least one from each category)
4 stars:19-24 points (at least one from each category)
5 stars: Minimum of 25 points and Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale – Revised (FCCERS-R) assessment score of 5.0 or greater. The assessment must be completed by Iowa State University.

Categories:
Health and Safety
Environment
Family and Community Partnerships
Professional Development

So in the Health and Safety category you could do: Development and implementation of an emergency preparedness plan for 2 points/Development and implementation of enhanced health and safety policies for 2 points/ Injury prevention checklist, (Visit completed – 1 point/Starting process of making recommended corrections – 2 points/All corrections completed – 3 points) for 3 points/Child record review, (Visit completed – 1 point,Development of a plan of action to secure health services for children – 2 points) for 2 points/ Health and safety assessment, (Visit completed – 1 point Development of a plan of action to correct deficiencies – 2 points All corrections completed – 3 points) for 3 points. = 12 points

This is just the health and safety category but as you can see it's pretty easy to get points. So a home provider could get at least a 4 stars and even a 5 star if they really wanted.

http://www.dhs.state.ia.us/iqrs/forms/index.html

In our state parents can not rate us or look at our files online and see complaints against us. They can however go into the local office and see any complaints (unsure if it is just founded complaints or if it also includes unfounded). Obviously it's not going to be the same from state to state (although in my opinion it should be) but it should at least be similar. In our state it's really no big deal. They try to get providers to do it because they receive more funding if they get providers to sign up but parents usually don't know about it and if they do they don't care.

[Crystal]

goes to show you how well the state keeps us informed of anything going on. You are in a different state and you know more than I do....uggh...

so when you say you feel that they will try to phase out home daycares, are you saying ones that don't meet the new criteria???

I was involved in some of the meetings on this, and it is very similiar to other states. However, due to the budget, it has all been put on hold. They started this discussion more than two years ago and have not made any progress to date with actually implementing it.

I personally think it will be great and hope they have funding to begin implementing it soon.....while I agree that it may be unfair to many of the experienced providers, I think it will also weed out some of the low quality programs out there that should not be operating at all.

Somewhere on this forum is a thread where we discussed future, nation-wide regulations for child care....and it seems it is finally going to happen. I am glad, as it has been a long time coming to have some sort of agreed upon standard for quality child care and ECE.

[DCMom]

Maybe I should clarify....this is basically what I was told when asked if it was a mandatory program:

It is NOT madatory for providers to participate HOWEVER the ratings of each place is done with or wothout consent. So if a provider chooses NOT to participate in the rating system and do the things required to obtain stars they will automatically only be rated at one star.

So yes, we can choose NOT to participate but we will still be rated.

Does that make more sense?

That makes sense, but it isn't how it was explained to me.

It was my understanding that every program who chose to participate would automatically get two stars, then you had to earn up to the four star rating. It was never mentioned that programs that chose not to participate were rated at all.

To me 'not rated' is better than 1 out of 4 stars, kwim?

Anyway, I am going to look for the literature I received at the informational session. My LEL coach was the person facilitating it; I like to think she would be honest with me after working with me and my kids for 9 months. But...I suppose lit will be like licensing regs, open to interpretation from county to county??

[Blackcat31]

Here is MN Indicators and Scoring sheet. http://www.parentawareratings.org/fi...child_care.pdf

It seems easy enough to get the first 2 stars, it is the 3 and 4 that seem to be tough to do...well not necessarily tough but it is where the education and levels on the career lattice come into play.

Here are some more threads about star ratings https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.p...=rating+system

This one is a particularly good one: https://www.daycare.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34913

[DCMom]

Thanks Blackcat!

I think I might sign up for another info session and go into it with a list of questions. If it is the inevitable in MN, might as well get ahead of the curve, right?

[Blackcat31]

Thanks Blackcat!

I think I might sign up for another info session and go into it with a list of questions. If it is the inevitable in MN, might as well get ahead of the curve, right?

Here are the list of sessions being offered in our state. There are also a couple webinars offered (scroll down to the bottom of the list)

http://www.parentawareratings.org/en/information-sessions

[daycare]

I was involved in some of the meetings on this, and it is very similiar to other states. However, due to the budget, it has all been put on hold. They started this discussion more than two years ago and have not made any progress to date with actually implementing it.

I personally think it will be great and hope they have funding to begin implementing it soon.....while I agree that it may be unfair to many of the experienced providers, I think it will also weed out some of the low quality programs out there that should not be operating at all.

Somewhere on this forum is a thread where we discussed future, nation-wide regulations for child care....and it seems it is finally going to happen. I am glad, as it has been a long time coming to have some sort of agreed upon standard for quality child care and ECE.

crystal,

I even have a mom that works for licensing and she has not muttered a word to me. I do agree that we need something in tact that will rid of the low quality or as I call them kiddie farms. Meaning that the kids do nothing but run around like a bunch of farm animals all day. I have some kids who have come from a place like this and holy mollie I had a hard time helping them to get into a routine.

I am looking forward to seeing what will come....

[Heidi]

I was involved in some of the meetings on this, and it is very similiar to other states. However, due to the budget, it has all been put on hold. They started this discussion more than two years ago and have not made any progress to date with actually implementing it.

I personally think it will be great and hope they have funding to begin implementing it soon.....while I agree that it may be unfair to many of the experienced providers, I think it will also weed out some of the low quality programs out there that should not be operating at all.

Somewhere on this forum is a thread where we discussed future, nation-wide regulations for child care....and it seems it is finally going to happen. I am glad, as it has been a long time coming to have some sort of agreed upon standard for quality child care and ECE.

Still, they could accomplish that by using SOME of the $10MILLION dollars the program costs over 2 years to hire more licensers, who could then SHUT DOWN the unsafe programs, and to offer more free training and loan equipment to those who need help.

Wisconsin has sold this program as a money saving program, saying it will ELIMINATE fraud. Yet, shorty after implementing Youngstar, they took family providers enrollment based pay away (but not centers) and put them all on attendance based pay. Which, if it boils down to it, probably encourages fraud, because now every time a child or parent is sick, the provider doesn't get paid. I KNOW providers whose daycare parents have said "well, just write them down anyway, I won't tell!" IN any case, the money they claim to have saved was not saved because of Youngstar. It was saved because they found a lot of fraud (and a bunch of clerical or training errors that they called fraud), and because they saved a crapload of money by cutting family provider's pay.

The state says "thou shall have only 8 children in care", but they do not pay for a "slot", only by the hour. The FCCERS says providers should contract for paid time off, but the state says HA! It's just a little ironic.

So, while I applaud any effort to improve the lives of children, I am not a fan of this particular program. Maybe if it where implemented a little differently, giving MORE credit for experience, and being more respectful of each provider's own approach, I'd be a little more fond of the whole thing.