Technology advances child care system

Policy & Practice, Dec, 2007 by Cheryl Martin

Pennsylvania's vision was to end its two-door system for the Child Care Works subsidized child care program in which families participating in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families cash assistance program gained access to services through local welfare offices operated by the state, and low-income working families accessed the program through local child care offices operated by a network of nonprofit and county organizations. The goal: reliance on local child care offices for all families. The rationale: reduce confusion; maximize the expertise of local child care offices for parent counseling on child care options and create a more efficient, equitable system using automated technology to support local child care offices.

Technology was to be a major part of the solution with a focus on creating a single automated system to manage subsidized child care that would 1) Provide the technology to support parent counseling services, including the provider selection process; 2) Enable consistent care by the same provider as families moved through state funding programs; and 3) Keep high-quality child care providers participating in the subsidized system by paying them in a consistent and reliable fashion.

Several years ago, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare was far from its goal of a single unified system. They faced two major problems. The first was a disparate local service delivery system and the second was a lack of appropriate technology.

From the service delivery perspective, the subsidized child care program was administered differently based on the funding stream with 99 County Assistance Offices handling TANF and 59 Child Care Information Services agencies overseeing the low-income and former TANF-funded child care services. Meanwhile, from a technology perspective, the County Assistance Offices were supported by a legacy mainframe system and the Child Care Information Services agencies were using a legacy personal computer-based system. Coordination and maintenance of this approach was nearly impossible.

These different systems and the lack of technology presented a number of problems including:

* Families had to go to different places for subsidized child care services, depending on their income level. Families often moved back and forth between the service delivery offices as their circumstances changed, but their records and information did not go with them.

* The lack of a central automated system and the need for manual processing made the work difficult and the possibility of duplicate and inaccurate payments to providers and parents more likely.

* The DPW could not provide central oversight, so it was difficult to manage children on wait lists and standardize the policies and practices among the local offices with so many different business practices and agencies involved.

* It was difficult to measure program accountability and child outcomes because complicated processing was required for federal and state reports. It took weeks to compile and analyze information about the subsidy program and the families and children served. Child-based information was not available.

The DPW, with the help of consultants, began gathering requirements to understand how to standardize the business practices and meet the needs of the federal, state and local stakeholders. Early in the process, the agency knew that a unified system needed these components:

1. A statewide child care provider repository that included information about provider quality and location so families could find providers convenient to their homes and work places.

2. A standardized eligibility process to ensure consistent application of the rules across the state.

3. A way to manage child-based information, including scheduling and calculating family copayments.

4. A single and unified way to manage all the state funding sources and payments to child care providers.

5. Real-time reports so that executives could analyze and monitor statewide and local impacts and trends.

Starting in 2001 and continuing through 2007, the DPW used a phased approach to implement a single child care information system. Business practices also changed significantly with the latest release (starting in October 2006 and ending in May 2007) when the department finally unified service delivery of child care services under one roof administered by the CCIS agencies. The CAO district offices continue to perform eligibility determinations for some funding streams, but all other aspects of subsidized child care are conducted in one place. Pennsylvania manages its child care wait list centrally, transfers funds in real time to counties that have the greatest need and the DPW is able to monitor trends and results centrally.

Pennsylvania now has a technology infrastructure for its Child Care Works subsidized child care program that is robust and child focused.

The New Vision

In January 2007, Pennsylvania's governor established the Office of Child Development and Early Learning. It is housed in both the Department of Public Welfare and the Department of Education and is managed by a jointly appointed deputy secretary and one integrated staff coming from both agencies. OCDEL is transforming early childhood programming by: