Friday, May 22, 2009
By Harold Gwin
The agency isn’t sure it will get the full funding it is requesting for next year.
YOUNGSTOWN — A state award for excellence in child care will allow Mahoning Youngstown Community Action Partnership to continue its state-funded Early Learning Initiative program for 160 county children.
Had MYCAP failed to achieve the One-Star Up to Quality Award, its program would have ended July 1 with the start of the new fiscal year, said Lois Clark, director of MYCAP’s Head Start program.
The agency secured state funding in the amount of just over $1 million for the program this year and operated three sites — two in Youngstown and one in Austintown, said Judy Miller, assistant Head Start director/early childhood. It applied for and was awarded the quality award from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services — Bureau of Child Care and Development.
The state has announced a new criteria for agencies offering ELI services effective July 1. They must now secure the One-Star Step Up to Quality Award to continue receiving funding, Clark said.
The award recognizes a child-care program that provides a higher standard of care exceeding Ohio’s licensing standards, such as lower staff-child ratios, credential and/or degrees for a facility’s administrator and at least one teacher, annual specialized teacher training and more.
For parents, it provides a central site for them to check online for the qualifications of child-care facilities in their community.
ELI is a year-round program serving low-income children between age 3 and 5, some with special needs, providing classroom activities involving basic concepts in math and science, the alphabet, health and nutrition and more.
Children can be in the program between 31‚Ñ2 to eight hours a day, depending upon the needs of parents or guardians. There is no charge.
A major concern facing the program is the anticipated cutback in state funding in the new fiscal year, Clark said, explaining that Mahoning County had 600 slots for ELI funding this year (MYCAP has 160, and Mahoning County Educational Service Center has the rest, she said.) but will get only 340 next year, she said.
MYCAP intends to apply for 160 again but doesn’t know if it will get that many, Clark said. The need doesn’t diminish, she added.
Securing the One-Star award will help the agency get funding, Miller said, noting that the application for funding is a competitive process.
The One-Star award applies only to MYCAP’s Renaissance Learning Center ELI site on Oak Hill Avenue, and plans are being made to move all ELI children to that site, if necessary, Clark said.
However, the agency also is seeking the same award for its other two locations in the city and Austintown so that putting everyone in a single location won’t be necessary, she said.
In addition to the children served by state-funded ELI, MYCAP provides early-learning and nutrition services to 1,000 children under the federal Head Start and Early Head Start programs. No funding cuts are anticipated for Head Start, Clark said.
gwin@vindy.com