The Louisiana Department of Education announced changes to the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), which provides federal funds to help low-income working families pay for child care. The changes, approved during today’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting, enable more Louisiana families to afford and qualify for child care assistance. 

​Effective February 1, 2021:

• CCAP daily reimbursement rates will be increased to reflect the state’s current market rates for child care, significantly reducing out of pocket cost for working families and increasing family choice.
• Income eligibility will be increased to 65% of the State Median Income (SMI) in order to align with other child care programs, allowing families to make more income and still qualify for child care subsidy (CCAP).
• Providers will be reimbursed at the state’s newly established daily reimbursement rate irrespective of their own rates to assist with paying toward the true cost of quality child care.

“To reach our goal of ensuring all students are ready for kindergarten, it’s vital that we increase access to high-quality child care for Louisiana’s most vulnerable children,” said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley. “This shift puts higher quality programs within the reach of families who need them.”

Historically, families receiving child care assistance have been limited in their options by what they can afford with the help of child care assistance. Current CCAP reimbursement rates provide access to approximately one in four centers. The rate increase will allow CCAP-eligible families to choose between three in every four centers. This change will help ensure that more low-income families that are working, in school or actively seeking work can access high-quality child care for their children.

This will expand options for families who couldn’t previously afford the gap between what a provider charged and what the state pays, and thereby, open the door to families who could not previously afford child care at all.

“These necessary updates to the CCAP program help to address the real financial needs of low-income families regarding child care,” said BESE President Sandy Holloway. “Raising the reimbursement rates and expanding income eligibility will greatly increase the number of quality child care options for more families across the state that need assistance, and that ultimately leads to more children being prepared to learn on day one of kindergarten.”

“The proposed changes to the CCAP rates are one of the most significant and impactful measures we can take that will have lifelong impacts on our youngest learners,” said Alan Young, Owner of Southland Park Learning Center and Early Childhood Advisory Council Member. “These proposed changes will provide families access to additional high-quality early learning centers,ensuring every child is ready to learn when they enter kindergarten.”  

"The Louisiana Policy Institute for Children applauds the Louisiana Department of Education and BESE for making the necessary changes to both the reimbursement rates and eligibility criteria of the Child Care Assistance Program,” said Louisiana Policy Institute for Children Executive Director Dr. Libbie Sonnier. “These changes will help more Louisiana families get back to work to support our economy as well as support the growth and development of young children entering kindergarten ready to learn.” 

The income eligibility for CCAP is being increased to approximately 200% of the federal poverty level or $43,440 for a family of three. Along with making child care affordable for more families, this change also better aligns CCAP’s income eligibility with other early childhood programs like LA 4. 

​The policy changes are part of a broader effort by the Department — in collaboration with BESE, child care providers, advocates and families — to unify the system of early childhood education and to prepare all children for kindergarten by increasing access to and affordability of child care statewide.

Louisiana’s annual education conference is returning in 2021 with in-person and virtual options for educators from across the state. Registration is now open for the Louisiana Department of Education’s 2021 Teacher Leader Summit. The theme of this year’s event is Inspire. Innovate. Impact. The in-person Summit will be held May 25-27 at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. The Teacher Leader Summit: The Virtual Series will take place June 1-3.

The current registration is for the in-person Summit. Information will be released at a later date for the virtual event. In-person registration information is as follows:
Early Bird Registration (January 8 - March 1) 

• One Day Ticket: $55 
• Two Day Ticket: $108

Regular Registration (March 2 - April 12) 

• One Day Ticket: $71 
• Two Day Ticket: $140

Regular Registration (March 2 - April 12) 

• One Day Ticket: $71 
• Two Day Ticket: $140

Both the Department and the Morial Convention Center are taking measures to promote the health and safety of all participants. As a result, overall capacity will be reduced. Due to social distancing parameters, the Department has allocated a specific allotment of seats to each school system and early childhood lead agency for the in-person event. There will be no onsite registration this year. All registrations must be completed in advance of arriving at the event.

The Department has notified each system of their total number of seats and each school system has been issued a unique registration code for all tickets during the registration process. It is up to each school system or each early childhood lead agency to determine the best path for disbursing seats across their schools, sites and educators. 

Additionally, the Department will host the Teacher Leader Summit: The Virtual Series on June 1-3. The Virtual Series allows the Department to reach more Louisiana educators and deliver even more content.

To best assist schools systems and school leaders in determining to whom they should distribute their allocated seats, the Department has released a one-pager outlining which content will be delivered in-person and which content to expect to be delivered virtually. General Summit information can be found in the 
overview document posted to the Teacher Leader Library. Please contact [email protected] with questions. 

In addition to in-person registration, the Department is also accepting exhibitor applications for the resource fair and design concepts for the annual Summit t-shirt.

See a full list of all openings in Ouachita Parish as of December 21, 2020. Please call our office if you would like assistance in applying. 318-323-8775.

​The Children’s Coalition for Northeast Louisiana is a charity organization devoted to seeing to the health and development of local children. With over 20 different programs across northern Louisiana, members of the Children’s Coalition work tirelessly to see that all the needs of local children are met. As a Louisiana Child Care Resources and Referral Agency, the Children’s Coalition is authorized to receive donations through the School Readiness Tax Credit program. The SRTC program allows local businesses to support the Coalition with charitable donations and receive dollar-for-dollar credits on their state taxes, up to a maximum amount of $5000. These donations help the Coalition expand its early education programs, many of which focus on the development of children under 5 years old.

The deadline to receive tax credits is fast approaching; all donations must be postmarked by December 31, 2020, in order to process them for next year’s tax return. This is an excellent opportunity for local businesses to support their community, help low-income families access education resources, and receive a sizable break on their taxes. Research has shown that children under age 3 absorb information at an incredible rate compared to even just a few years later. Seeing to children’s development at a young age helps them develop critical thinking and social skills. Businesses that donate through the SRTC program can actually see their tax dollars put to use in the education of local children, and there is no minimum requirement! So, if you or someone you know has a business please consider participating in the SRTC program. For more information, or to make a SRTC donation, please click on the link below.

If you click the button below, you will find the childcare guidelines for Phase II. If you have any questions, please call at 318-323-8775.

American Academy of Pediatrics News - Child care workers in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic did not have increased odds of contracting SARS-CoV-2, according to a new study, which noted many programs were taking precautions.

Researchers from Yale University surveyed more than 57,000 U.S. child care providers in late May and early June, asking whether programs stayed open, what safety measures the program put in place and what precautions staff took in their personal lives.

Just under half of the programs stayed open or re-opened after a brief closure. A suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 led to closures of about 9% of those, according to “COVID-19 Transmission in US Child Care Programs,” (Gilliam WS, et al. Pediatrics. Oct. 14, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-031971).

The surveys showed that of the child care programs that continued to operate, 90% or more reported staff and children washed their hands frequently and indoor surfaces were disinfected daily. More than half disinfected indoor surfaces three times a day. Most programs performed daily symptom screenings and temperature checks of children and staff and practiced social distancing. Just over half kept children in cohorts that did not mix. However, daily face mask wearing was only 12% for children ages 2 and older and 35% for staff.

There were 427 child care providers who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2; researchers compared them to staff who did not contract the virus as well as to a group of matched controls. They found no association between contracting the virus and exposure to child care.

Odds of having COVID-19 were linked to being American Indian/Alaska Native, Latinx or Black. Taking personal precautions was linked to lower likelihood of contracting the virus.
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“None of these covariates, however, interacted with exposure to child care, suggesting a lack of association between child care exposure and COVID-19 outcome regardless of these other factors,” authors wrote.

Louisiana Tech’s Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) has received a two iPads and two laptops through a Technology Grant Award from the Children’s Coalition for Northeast Louisiana. The new equipment will be a valuable aid in helping ECEC maintain state-required safety adjustments.

The Center is one of the many departments learning to navigate through reopening in regard to complying with state guidelines concerning COVID-19. Along with following these guidelines, ECEC has established extra innovative ways to keep teachers and students safe.
“In order to comply with guidelines mandated by the state, parents are not allowed to enter the center, which can cause a disconnect between the teachers and parents,” said ECEC Director Laura Chestnut.

But with the new technology tools and the purchase of a childcare management software program, ECEC can do the following things:

• Check children in and out digitally
• Send weekly lesson plans virtually
• Record student progress and milestones with parents
• Communicate virtually with other staff members

Although the department has new technological tools to help create a cleaner environment for students, teachers, and staff are still performing basic precautions to care for the students, like these:

• Deep cleaning the Center
• Rearranging to keep children in tighter contact pods
• Taking the children’s and staff’s temperatures regularly
• Washing hands often
• Wearing masks

Focus on the common fundamentals is still a key necessity at ECEC, even as the staff has implemented new ways of operating after months of closed doors.

Along with the teachers and students at ECEC, there are multiple other workers utilizing the new technology. Working and training at the Center is one College of Education resident, eight Human Development and Family Science students from the School of Human Ecology completing their practicums, one graduate assistant, and five student workers. The grant has allowed these students both to gain first-hand technological expertise and to see how businesses have had to adapt in the pandemic.

“We are attempting to show them how to use technology to streamline their work but also ‘warm it up’ so that interaction with parents is not sterile,” said ECEC’s Shannon Tatum, an instructor in Tech’s School of Human Ecology.

As a student worker, Jaina Robinson, a graduating senior from Ruston, assists Chestnut throughout the day.

“This consists of guiding the children through learning activities and encouraging them to learn through play,” said Robinson, who is completing her degree in Human Development and Family Science with a Child Development Specialist concentration. “The grant has given us the opportunity to have more effective communication with families, and the iPads have made student records much easier.”

Fun fact: Robinson went to the ECEC as a preschooler and “is finishing strong at Tech by completing her last courses at ECES as a practica student,” Chestnut said. “Not many people can say they finished college in the same place they began their school career.”
As the days of reopening progress, ECEC continues to work hard and to keep each student in the cleanest environment possible.
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“We are making it a mission,” Tatum said, “to remain open on campus.”