Program Description

The Child Care Program increases the accessibility, availability and quality of the care giving child development services to low income Puerto Rican families whose members are either working or studying. It currently administers, offers, delegates and supervises the care and development services for 32,114 infants, child care centers and developmental centers through different strategies. These include 12 care and development centers, 103 service providers who receive funds through proposals and a vouchers system.

It offers multi-disciplinary consumer education services and provides funding to improve the quality of service and directs grants from the Department of the Family Secretary's Licensing Office to increase the number of care establishments and strengthen their supervision. In addition, it has implemented and provided grants for special training projects such as: Training in National Health and Safety Care Giving Standards and the project Make Your Center Special intended to increase the availability of services for children with special needs. The Child Care Program has been recognized for offering a diversity of services to children of parents that work or study. Formal and informal agreements have been established to collaborate with the Department of Health, the Department of Education, the Office of the Ombudsman for People with Disabilities, the Veterans Office, the Office to Expedite Trials, the WIC Program, as well as with other agencies and related entities to complement the services provided by these agencies.

Objectives

• Provide integrated care giving and developmental services to children 0 to 18 years old, that promote self-sufficiency to families and communities with limited economic resources.

• Improve the educational skills and academic preparation of the agency's personnel.

• Encourage wholesome values and family life by training family care providers on the principles of the Values Count Program.

• Encourage the free choice of child care and development services among parents by offering them a variety of strategies that include the use of vouchers in centers and care networks, both public and private.

• Estabilish automated methods to monitor and evaluate the administration of funds by agencies that receive funds from the Child Care and Development Program to ensure compliance with federal and state rules and regulations.

• Continue the implementation of strategies to strengthen educational experiences intended for socio-economic development in accordance with the pyramidal and early childhood literacy models.

• Evaluate the quality of the services provided by the care and development program "Pasitos". Quality of services should be measured using the standards estabilish by reknown practitioners of early childhood education.

• Improve the quality of home care service or informal care through the implementation of the Developing Loving Enviroments Special Program ("PAC" Spanish Acronym).

• Offer orientation to families on child rearing and offer educational services and care through our Early Childhood Resource and Referral Centers ("CENTRANA" Spanish Acronym).

• Expedite the disbursement of payments through a direct deposit system for the vouchers program.

• Support the collaborative efforts between Head Start and Child Care programs by developing the special project, A Man's Promise, to guarantee continual coordinated services to participating children.

• Implement a continuous quality improvement process through the use of Standards of Excellence.

Beneficiary Families and Children

Human Resources

Authorized and Proposed Positions	2009	2010	2011	2012
Managerial,Technical, Administrative, and Office Staff	170	174	160	160
Judges, Lawyers, and Legal Staff	5	6	6	6
Other staff	119	112	96	96
Food Services Staff	21	19	19	19
Planning, Budget, Statistics, Auditing, and Finance	9	8	7	7
Education and Recreational Services Professionals	0	0	1	1
Public Relations and Communications	1	1	1	1
Maintenance and General Services Staff	82	65	53	53
Families and Community Services Staff	65	67	66	66
Health Services	3	3	3	3
Information Systems	12	11	11	11
Total, Positions	487	466	423	423

Program Description

The Head Start and Early Head Start Programs are intended to enrich social competence and school readiness of 3 and 4 year old children from low income families. Currently, this program sponsors, administers, delegates and supervises pre-school educational and multi-disciplinary support services to 18,014 children and their families in 21 agencies or projects that serve 64 municipalities in Puerto Rico. The sponsoring agencies are the municipalities, municipal consortia or other non-profit organizations.

They provide direct funding to improve the quality of service through training and study for professional development, strengthening of physical plants, equipment and material acquisition, specialized services, special projects and other strategies. The parents and the communities served by the Program actively participate and make decisions through their rule making bodies, establuished by each agency and the Policy Council at the central level. A specialist group comprised of central level and the 5 regions of the Department of the Family creates policies and procedures and makes sure all comply with federal and state regulations. In addition, it guarantees quality of service through various programmatic strategies that can include but are not limited to training and technical assistance in the 21 agencies or projects delegated by the Program. It also offers Early Head Start services for infants and/or care centers and to pregnant women promoting prenatal health, strengthening early childhood development and better health for families in general.

Objectives

• Strengthen parenting relationships through the prevention of the intra-familial violence program, A Man's Promise.

• Provide individualized education and nutritional, health, mental health and family counseling services to all Head Start and Early Head Start program participants.

• Ensure that all facilities used as Head Start and Early Head Start centers comply with all the federal and state requirements that govern the offering of infant, care and pre-school services.

• Recruit, train and supervise a highly qualified staff that ensures the offering of adequate services and promotes the positive interaction between Head Start and Early Head Start program adults and children.

• Implement an appropriate scientifically valid curriculum for infants care centers ands pre-schools that corresponds to the cognitive, physical, socio-emotional and linguistic development of Head Start and Early Head Start.

• Develop a planning and monitoring process that guarantees the offering of integrated services and the adequate use of the Head Start and Early Head Start program funds.

• Establish collaborative agreements with the primary health and mental health agencies to guarantee integrated health services for the children and families impacted by the program.

• Provide parents psycho-educational strategies to improve child rearing patterns and train them in the adequate disciplinary and behavior management methods.

• Train Head Start and Early Head Start program staff to adequately and effectively manage child behavior in challenging cases.

• Implement the curriculum, I'm Learning, to develop good eating habits and promote physical activities in children in order for them to maintain an adequate weight and a healthy life style.

Customers

Beneficiary Families and Children

Human Resources

Authorized and Proposed Positions	2009	2010	2011	2012
Managerial,Technical, Administrative, and Office Staff	80	80	75	75
Other staff	1	1	1	1
Other Safety and Protection Staff	1	1	1	1
Planning, Budget, Statistics, Auditing, and Finance	11	9	8	8
Education and Recreational Services Professionals	3	3	3	3
Public Relations and Communications	1	1	1	1
Maintenance and General Services Staff	10	11	10	10
Total, Positions	107	106	99	99

FISCAL YEAR 2011-2012 ADOPTED BUDGET

The adopted consolidated budget for Fiscal Year 2011-2012 is $193,738,000. The resources include: $9,276,000 from the Joint Resolution General Fund, $181,453,000 in Federal Grants and $3,009,000 from the Federal Economic Stimulus - ARRA.

The operational expenses reflect a decrease of $24,818,000 in comparison with Fiscal Year 2010-2011 Budget. This is due to a reduction in the non-reoccurring federal ARRA funds.

The Joint Resolution-General Fund resources will provide the matching funds needed to manage Child Care and Head Start operational expenses, including those of the Early Head Start initiative. These programs offer services in 64 municipalities to approximately 50,128 infants, care contracts, preschoolers and school age children.

Additionally, it will develop and continue with the implementation of the initiative, Your Values Count designed to encourage wholesome values and family life; "Pasitos" (Baby Steps) developed to measure the quality of the educational services offered; Make Your Center Special, designed to increase the availability of services for children with special needs, and A Man's Promise, designed for the prevention of intra-family violence. It also will improve home service quality or informal care through the implementation of the Developing Loving Environments Special Program (PAC); offer orientation to families on child rearing; provide educational and care services through Early Childhood Resources and Referral Centers (CENTRANA); and provide funding for Respite Centers in Ponce, Loiza, Moca and Camuy.

Federal Programs include: Head Start, Childcare and Development Block Grant, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Child and Adult Care Food Program, ARRA-Head Start, ARRA-Child Care and Development Block Grant. These funds and those provided by the state will help ACUDEN continue to provide care and integral development alternatives for children of low income families.

SUMMARY OF AVAILABLE RESOURCES

SUMMARY OF RESOURCES BY PROGRAM

Child Care

Head Start