SAMPLE LETTER TO CHILD CARE PROVIDER
Date
Dear (Child Care Provider’s Name): Thank you so much for your interest in the Olympic ESD 114 Head Start Child Care Connections project. Child Care Connections is a program where we contract with local community child care centers and family child care homes to provide Head Start services to a small group of age- and income-eligible children who are enrolled in the programs. We currently work with two child care centers and four family home child care providers. The child care centers have between 10 – 13 Head Start children enrolled with a larger number of non-Head Start children, and the family home child care providers enrollment ranges from 2 – 5 Head Start children. Child Care Connections was developed in 1998 as a Head Start Expansion Project. Our program chose to add 36 Head Start children by partnering with community child care providers, instead of starting a new OESD 114 child care center for 36 children. Child Care Connections is part of a larger Head Start, ECEAP (State Prekindergarten), and Early Head Start program at Olympic Educational Service District 114 in Bremerton. This program serves a total of 364 children and families ages pre-natal to five. Of this 364, about 214 are in part-day early care programs, and 150 are in full-day early care programs. Of the 150 in full-day care, 32 are in privately run family child care homes or child care centers in the community. There are three staff people who specifically work with the Child Care Connections project: Cindy Anstiss, Peggy Brown, and myself. Other Head Start staff members help in Child Care Connections by occasionally observing at sites and providing additional resources to our Child Care Connections partners. In a typical month, Peggy and Cindy will visit a family home provider in Child Care Connections at least one time each month. Peggy works with the child care providers to find out what they would like to do to enhance the child development part of their program and build on their existing expertise and practices in working with children in an all-day setting. For example, we have provided resources to help with lesson planning, transitions and ideas for working with children with challenging behaviors. Peggy has also helped providers with educational conferences and home visits with families. Cindy works with child care providers to enroll families, to help families set goals and to support families as their child’s primary teacher. Cindy has access to many community resources, and can help families locate medical, health and dental services as well as emergency housing, food and family counseling. For example, Cindy provides information on community resources, and assists child care providers in helping families work through difficult situations.
Page 2 My role is to recruit child care providers, oversee the contracts and support Peggy and Cindy in their work. Child Care Connections provides reimbursement to our Child Care Connections partners for their work that is required by Head Start that is above and beyond their current work with families. For example, Child Care Connections will reimburse you for your time preparing lesson plans, completing paperwork, meeting with families, and attending our trainings. We also provide $400 per year to go towards liability insurance, and $350 for those who are ready to apply for their Child Development Associate. Other funding includes dollars for field trips, parent activities, child development supplies and mileage reimbursement when you attend our Child Care Connections trainings. A yearly contract in Child Care Connections is typically in a range from $2,300 to $2,600 and is paid in monthly payments. All of our trainings are STARS approved. For child care providers working on their Child Development Associate (if provider does not have a college degree) we provide technical assistance and support in documenting training and work experience, preparing the application and the CDA certification process. Thank you again for your interest in working with Olympic Educational Service District 114 in our Child Care Connections program. We are looking forward to learning more about your program, and to tell you more about our Head Start partnership. This packet includes a copy of our brochure and information sheet, Provider Selection Process, and the Initial Child Care Assessment, Provider Selection Process. This form is used for your first visit by a Head Start visitor. The visitor will go over the form with you and answer your questions while completing this “getting to know you” step of the process. Initial Child Care Assessment. This form is completed when our two technical assistance consultants, Peggy Brown and Cindy Anstiss, visit your program. They will call to make an appointment to come to your site to observe your program. Please feel free to call me at 478-6897 if you have any questions, need additional information or would like to talk to our current child care partners. Sincerely,
Lorraine Olsen, Director Olympic ESD 114 Head Start/ECEAP/Early Head Start