1. Office of Child Developmentand Early Learning Because every child is Pennsylvania’s future

2. OCDEL Programs

3. Certification Services

4. Why Certification Services? • More than 300,000 children in Pennsylvania are served in certified or registered child care programs each year. • 3,368 registered family child care homes • 883 certified group child care homes • 4,482 certified child care centers (Figures as of June 2010) • Meeting health & safety requirements are a necessary foundation to build quality early learning opportunities.

5. Certification Services at a Glance • Helping children and families reach their promise by certifying the health and safety of certified child care centers, group child care homes and registered family child care homes. • Three regional offices provide certification services and conduct inspections. • Provides information source for starting up child care programs and for families wanting information on certified child care programs. • Contact to file complaints relating to child care facilities, both certified programs and facilities that are operating without the required certificate in violation of the law. • Regional offices provide orientation training for persons who want to operate child care facilities. Orientation training is required in order to receive a certificate of compliance or registration and open a facility.

6. Types of facilities regulated by OCDEL • Child Care Center • Group Child Care Home • Family Child Care Home

7. Child Care Center A child care facility in which 7 or more children who are not related to the operator receive child care. • Requires certificate of compliance to legally operate. • Inspected on an annual basis. • 55 Pa. Code, Chapter 3270, Child Care Centers

8. Group Child Care Home A child care facility in which 7 to 12 children of various ages or in which 7 to 15 children from 4th grade through 15 years of age who are not related to the operator receive child care. • Requires certificate of compliance to legally operate. • Inspected on an annual basis. • 55 Pa. Code, Chapter 3280, Group Child Care Homes

9. Family Child Care Home A child care facility located in a home in which 4 to 6 children who are not related to the caregiver receive child care. • Requires certificate of registration to legally operate. • Inspected on a random sample basis. • 55 Pa. Code, Chapter 3290, Family Child Care Homes

10. Regional Offices of Child Development and Early Learning • Three regional field offices • Conducts: • Inspections of child care programs • Complaint investigations relating to alleged violation of regulations and statutes regarding operation of a child care facility (for both regulated and illegal operations). • Provides: • Technical assistance to programs • Orientation training for prospective operators of new child care facilities • Information to persons interested in opening a child care facility • Information to families and the public regarding the Department of Public Welfare's certification regulations and the certification history of child care facilities (i.e., compliance with regulations, certificates of compliance or registration, verified complaints, etc.)

11. Certified Child Care Facilities To find out about certified child care facilities in your area: • View a listing of facilities online or contact the local Child Care Information Services (CCIS) agency. • To find a provider, visit: http://www.dpw.state.pa.us/forfamilies/childcareandearlylearning/index.htm • For information on a child care program’s certification history (regulatory violations, verified complaints, etc.) contact the Regional Office of Child Development and Early Learning. • Compliance history is also available online at: http://www.dpw.state.pa.us/forfamilies/childcareandearlylearning/index.htm

12. Starting a child care facility • Contact your Regional Office of Child Development and Early Learning. • Attend Orientation Session with regional office. • Receive information on statutes and regulations pertaining to child care facilities.

13. Regional Offices of Child Development and Early Learning North Central Region Harrisburg Office 1-800-222-2117 Scranton Office 1-800-222-2108 Southeast Region 1-800-346-2929 Western Region 1-800-222-2149

15. Division of Regulatory Administration The Division of Regulatory Administration (DRA), located in Harrisburg, is responsible for planning, developing, implementing, analyzing, coordinating, monitoring and evaluating regulation, policy procedures and operations relating to the certification and registration of child care facilities.

16. Certification: Achievements 2009-2010 • Partnered with Better Kid Care to develop a distance training curriculum for new child care center directors to provide a firm foundation of basic regulatory knowledge needed by a facility director. • Provided orientation training to 2,929 persons seeking to open new child care facilities. • Improved the usability of PELICAN Provider Certification, the electronic database used by certification staff for processing applications, certificates and inspections of child care facilities, to enable gathering of data relating to inspections, violations, complaints and incidents.

17. Certification: What’s ahead • Update certification protocols to ensure a consistent philosophy, consistent practices and a consistent decision making framework across the Bureau. The target to complete this update is December 2011. The protocols will be field tested for a period of six month to one year prior to finalization. • Participate in expansion of the PELICAN electronic certification management system into an enterprise system that includes other DPW Offices that certify facilities and agencies, beginning with the Office of Developmental Programs. The expansion includes further usability improvements that will benefit OCDEL.

18. Children served by program

19. 2011-2012 Highlights: State and Federal Investment (in thousands) References in Governor’s proposed budget Listed below are the appropriations by Department and the page number on which you can find these appropriations in the Governor’s budget proposal. The full document is available online at www.budget.state.pa.us DPW programs Early Intervention – E35.9 Child Care Works/ Keystone STARS - Child Care Services – E35.9 - Child Care Assistance - E35.9 Nurse Family Partnership – E35.9 PDE programs PA Pre-K Counts - E14.6 Head Start Supplemental - E14.6 Early Intervention - E14.6

20. Useful links • Pennsylvania Department of Education – www.education.state.pa.us • Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare – www.dpw.state.pa.us • Pennsylvania Key – www.pakeys.org • Pennsylvania’s Promise for Children – www.papromiseforchildren.com

21. Resources • OCDEL Annual Report: http://www.pakeys.org/pages/get.aspx?page=EarlyLearning_Tools • Program Reach & Risk Assessment: http://www.pakeys.org/pages/get.aspx?page=EarlyLearning_Reach • BUILD ECE News: http://paprom.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=Build_home_page