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 24,740 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, 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. 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 Disabled Persons Investigating Official, the Veterans Advocate Office, Office of Pre-Trial Services, and the WIC Program, as well as with other agencies and related entities that complement the services provided by these agencies.

Beneficiary Families and Children

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. Early Head Start provides services to 96 infants in Aguadilla, Peñuelas, Fajardo, and Manatí.

They provide direct funding to improve the quality of service through training and study for professional development, strengthening of physical plants, equipment and supplies 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, established 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.

Customers

Beneficiary Families and Children

FISCAL YEAR 2012-2013 PROPOSED BUDGET

The proposed consolidated budget for Fiscal Year 2012-2013 is $177,688,000. This amount includes $8,318,000 from the Joint Resolution General Fund, $168,690,000 in Federal Grants and $680,000 in ARRA funds.

Operational Expenses reflect a decrease of $2,163,000 when compared to funds assigned in Fiscal Year 2011-2012 due to the loss of non-reccurring ARRA funds and other federal grants. In order to meet agency needs, there was a reduction or redistribution of other resources as well.

Joint Resolution-General Fund resources will provide the matching funds needed to manage Child Care, Head Start and Early Head Start operational expenses. These programs offer services in 64 municipalities to approximately 42,850 infants, care contracts, preschoolers and school age children.

In addition, these funds will allow the agency to continue the implementation of different initiatives, for example: "Tus Valores Cuentan", which promotes family values; "Pasitos" that measures the quality of educational services provided, "Haz tu Centro Uno Especial" designed to increase the availability of services for children with special needs, and "Promesa de Hombre", which aims to prevent domestic violence. It also will improve home service quality or informal care through the implementation of the Developing Loving Environments Special Programs; offer orientation to families on child rearing; provide educational and care services through Early Childhood Resources and Referral Centers; and provide funding for "Centros Respiro" in Ponce, Loiza, Moca and Camuy.

Contributing Federal Programs include: Head Start, Child Care and Development Block Grant, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Child and Adult Care Food Program and ARRA-Head Start. These funds will be used to continue to provide care options and integral development alternatives for children of low income families.

SUMMARY OF AVAILABLE RESOURCES