Deadline Looming: Day Care Providers Could Lose State Subsidies

Almost 20,000 home-based day care providers could lose their state subsidy checks for watching children of low-income parents because they haven't completed new mandated state training.

The state mandated this year that all home-based day care providers get six hours of training by Sept. 17 to keep their "enrolled" status as a provider with the Department of Human Services.

The Early Childhood Investment Corp. is doing the training for the state. Judy Samelson, the CEO of ECIC, said as of June 21, only about 5,600 of an estimated 23,000 enrolled providers have completed the training.

"Everybody is trying," Samelson said. "We are concerned they are not getting how imperative this is or they are waiting until the last minute to do it."

Samelson said the ECIC ise considering advertising on city buses in Detroit to get the word out.

Samelson said a lot of the day care providers are "transient" and are "low-income."

If home-based day care providers lose "enrollment" status, they can get it back once they go through the training, but won't receive any state subsidies until the training is completed, Samelson said.

The Michigan Home Based Child Care Council board discussed at its Friday meeting that one of the problems is getting hold of the some of the providers. Larry Simmons, chairman of the MHBCC, said one of the issues is that many of the day care providers have cell phones and not land lines. The Department of Human Services doesn't require a phone number to be an enrolled day care provider in the state of Michigan.

The MHBCCC was set up as the agency that oversees home-based day care providers, who were unionized in 2008.

See also:

E-mails Reveal Child Care Union All About the Money

Employee Records Hard to Come by at Mysterious State Child Care Agency

Forced Unionization: Big Labor's Last Stand?

'No Comment' from Day Care Union Lawyer on E-Mails, Senate Hearing

The Saga of Forced Unionization