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(a) Definitions. In this Section, the following words have the meanings indicated:
Coordinating Council means the Early Childhood Coordinating Council.
Department means the Department of Health and Human Services.
Director means the Director of the Department or the Director’s designee.
(b) Established. The Executive must appoint, subject to confirmation by the Council, an Early Childhood Coordinating Council.
(c) Composition and terms of members.
(1) The Coordinating Council has up to 33 members.
(2) The Executive must appoint up to 15 public members. The public members should include:
(A) up to 4 representatives of local providers of early childhood education and development services;
(B) one representative of the Montgomery County Council Parent Teacher Associations;
(C) one representative of the Montgomery County Commission on Child Care;
(D) one representative of the Organization of Child Care Directors;
(E) one representative of the Family Child Care Association of Montgomery County;
(F) one representative of the Maryland Association for the Education of Young Children;
(G) one representative of the business community with demonstrated leadership in early childhood care and education;
(H) one representative of the local pediatrician community;
(I) one representative of the local philanthropic community;
(J) one representative of the local interfaith community; and
(K) up to 2 parent representatives.
(3) The Executive must appoint the following to serve as an ex officio member:
(A) the Director of the Department;
(B) one representative of the Department’s Division of Early Childhood Services;
(C) one representative of the Department’s Community Health Services;
(D) one representative of the Department’s School Health Services;
(E) one representative of the Department’s Infants and Toddlers Program;
(F) one representative of the Montgomery County Collaboration Council for Children, Youth and Families;
(G) one representative of the Montgomery County Child Care Resource and Referral Center;
(H) one representative of the Montgomery County Community Action Agency, the administrator of public Head Start programs in Montgomery County;
(I) one representative of Montgomery County Department of Public Libraries; and
(J) one representative of the Montgomery County Council;
(4) The Executive must invite the following to serve as an ex officio member:
(A) the Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent or the Superintendent’s designee;
(B) one representative of the Montgomery County Public School’s Division of Early Childhood Programs and Services;
(C) one representative of the School’s Division of Prekindergarten, Special Programs and Related Services;
(D) one representative of the Office of Child Care Region 5, Maryland State Department of Education;
(E) up to 2 representatives of public institutions of higher education in the County;
(F) one elementary school principal in Montgomery County Public Schools; and
(G) one prekindergarten teacher in Montgomery County Public Schools.
(5) The term of each member is 4 years. If a member is appointed to fill a vacancy before a term expires, the successor serves the rest of the unexpired term.
(d) Voting, officers, chairs, meetings, and compensation.
(1) Each member of the Coordinating Council is a voting member.
(2) The Executive must designate the Chair and Vice-Chair.
(3) The Coordinating Council meets at the call of the Chair. The Coordinating Council must meet as often as necessary to perform its duties, but not less than 9 times each year.
(4) A member serves without compensation. However, a member may request reimbursement for mileage and dependent care costs at rates established by the County.
(e) Duties. The Coordinating Council must:
(1) conduct a periodic county-wide needs assessment concerning the quality and availability of early childhood education and development programs and services for children from birth to school entry, including an assessment of the availability of child care, prekindergarten, and other supportive services for low- income children and their families in the County;
(2) identify opportunities for, and barriers to, collaboration and coordination among child development, child care and early childhood education programs, services, and advocacy groups including collaboration and coordination among State and local agencies and organizations responsible for administering or providing oversight for such efforts;
(3) develop recommendations for increasing the overall participation of children and their families in existing programs, including outreach to underrepresented and special populations;
(4) develop recommendations regarding the implementation and use of the State- established unified data collection system for public early childhood education and development programs and services throughout the County;
(5) develop recommendations regarding professional development, career advancement plans, compensation scales and incentives for early childhood educators in the County; and
(6) assess the capacity and effectiveness of 2- and 4-year public and private institutions of higher education toward supporting the development of early childhood educators, including the extent to which such institutions have in place articulation agreements, professional development and career advancement plans, and practice or internships for students to spend time in Early Head Start, Head Start, prekindergarten, or child care programs;
(7) recommend uniform regulations for the availability of quality child care in public spaces;
(8) develop ways to leverage public and private partnerships between private businesses, Montgomery County Public Schools, and the County;
(9) develop a hub consortium that connects family child care providers to accredited child care centers and schools to provide training, technical assistance, and mentoring to family child care providers; and
(10) update and implement an Early Childhood Initiative to integrate public and private early childhood services, including areas such as child care, early literacy, early childhood mental health consultation services, and parent support services.
(f) Advocacy. The Coordinating Council must not engage in any legislative advocacy at the State or federal levels unless that activity is approved by the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.
(g) Staff. The Department of Health and Human Services must provide appropriate staff to the Coordinating Council. (2015 L.M.C., ch. 24, § 3.)
Editor’s note—2015 L.M.C., ch. 24, § 7, states as follows: “Transition of the Early Childhood Coordinating Council. The County Executive must stagger the terms of the public members initially appointed to the Early Childhood Coordinating Council under Section 10A-3 as added by Section 3 of this Act so that approximately one-fourth of the terms of the public members expires each year.”
(a) Definitions. In this Section, unless the context indicates otherwise:
(1) Commission means the Commission on Child Care.
(2) Child care means caring for a child on a regular basis for pay.
(b) Findings and purpose.
(1) The increasing number of single-parent families and families in which both parents work outside the home has increased dramatically the need for infant, preschool and before- and after-school child care services.
(2) Parents of all income levels need high-quality, affordable and accessible child care in order to help strengthen families, increase the productivity of the County’s work force, and further many of the County’s economic development and social objectives.
(3) Montgomery County government has a responsibility to develop a comprehensive package of initiatives and policies designed to help families meet the wide variety of child care needs.
(4) The purpose of the Commission is to advise the County Executive and the County Council on the development of government policies, programs and services that enhance community support for high-quality, affordable and accessible child care.
(c) Membership of Commission.
(1) The members of the Commission are appointed by the County Executive, subject to confirmation by the County Council.
(2) The Commission has 17 voting members and 6 to 8 nonvoting members. The County Executive should appoint the voting members so that:
(A) Seven members are providers of child care services. The Executive should appoint providers of different types of child care services and providers to different age groups. These include family day care providers, group day care providers, private educational institutions, and providers serving infants, toddlers, pre-school and school-age children, and children with special needs.
(B) Five members are parents of children receiving child care services.
(C) Five members are selected from the business community and the general public.
(3) The Superintendent of Schools, the Chairman of the Montgomery County Planning Board, the President of Montgomery College, or their designees, are nonvoting members of the Commission. Two designees of the Director of the Department of Health and Human Services and one designee of the Director of the Community Use of Public Facilities are also nonvoting members of the Commission. In addition, upon
(4) Each member must reside or work in Montgomery County.
(d) Officers. For the Commission’s first year, the County Executive must appoint a chairperson and a vice-chairperson from among the members, subject to confirmation by the County Council. Thereafter, the Commission must annually elect one member as chairperson and another member as vice-chairperson. The terms of the chairperson and vice-chairperson are each one year.
(e) Term.
(1) Commission members serve for 3 years.
(2) A member must not serve more than 2 consecutive 3-year terms.
(f) Duties.
(1) The Commission must issue an annual report by October 1 of each year that addresses the County’s child care needs and that recommends short- and long-term priorities the County government should follow to improve services in support of child care. The Division on Child Care must assist the Commission in preparing the report.
(2) In order to develop the report, the Commission may:
a. Create special task forces, hold public hearings, and collect information to identify and assess needs, review services, programs and policies, and plan new strategies for supporting child care;
b. Analyze data on child care needs and services delivered by public and private agencies in Montgomery County;
c. Evaluate County government policies, funding, and programs affecting child care;
d. Promote the coordination of child care programs and policies among County government agencies;
e. Promote cooperation among the County government, the community, and business in addressing child care needs;
f. Make recommendations regarding the need for and use of public funds to be spent on behalf of child care services;
g. Recommend to the County Executive and County Council new sources of funds for child care;
h. Review standards for licensing and operation of child care services and programs;
i. Provide public information on child care programs and services in the County;
j. Participate in the activities of the State Office of Children and Youth;
k. Review federal and state policies affecting provision of child care;
l. Recommend policies, actions, programs, or legislation the Commission deems necessary to increase the quality, availability, and affordability of child care services;
m. Coordinate work with the Commission on Children and Youth and should not duplicate the work of the Commission on Children and Youth; and
n. Take any action the Commission finds would further the purposes of this Section.
(g) Compensation. A member must not receive compensation for serving on the Commission.
(h) Meetings.
(1) The Commission must meet at least 6 times a year on a day and at a time set by the Commission. The Commission may meet at other times at the call of the Chair or at the request of 9 members of the Commission.
(2) A majority of the members of the Commission constitutes a quorum for transacting of business.
(3) Action by the Commission requires a majority vote of those present.
(i) Advocacy. The Commission must not engage in any advocacy activity at the State or federal levels unless that activity is approved by the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.
(j) Procedures. The Commission may establish its own rules of procedure.
(k) Staff support. The Director of the Department of Health and Human Services must provide staff services and administrative support to the Commission. (1988 L.M.C., ch. 5, § 2; FY 1991 L.M.C., ch. 9, § 1; 1995 L.M.C., ch. 13, § 1; 2015 L.M.C., ch. 24, § 4; 2016 L.M.C., ch. 12, § 1; 2016 L.M.C., ch. 15, § 1.)
Editor’s note—2015 L.M.C., ch. 24, § 4, states: “Article VIII of Chapter 27 (Sections 27-62 and 27-62A) is renumbered and moved to Chapter 10A, as Articles 3 and 4 of Chapter 10A (Sections 10A-4 and 10A-5).”
Section 5 of 1995 L.M.C., ch. 13, reads as follows: “Sec. 5. A regulation that implements a function assigned to the Department of Health and Human Services by 1995 LMC ch. 13 continues in effect but is amended to the extent necessary to provide that the regulation is administered by the Director of the Department of Health and Human Services.”
(a) For each applicable capital project in the Capital Improvements Program during facility planning, the Office of Management and Budget must include in or transmit with the CIP an analysis of:
(1) the feasibility of including child care facilities in the project; and
(2) what capital or operating budget modifications, if any, would be needed to include child care facilities in the project.
(b) The child care analysis submitted by OMB should discuss at least the following issues related to the capital project:
(1) compatibility of child care with the underlying project;
(2) local availability of and demand for child care in the area of the project; and
(3) conformity of child care facilities to applicable zoning and land use plans.
(c) Each child care analysis under this Section should assign highest priority to the provisions of high quality child care in areas where the provision of child care may not otherwise be financially feasible due to large numbers of low-income parents and the resulting need for significant subsidies.
(d) As used in this section, applicable capital project means any proposed building project administered by the Department of General Services or the Parking Management Division of the Department of Transportation.
(e) In performing its analysis, OMB should consult the Department of Health and Human Services, the Planning Board, and any other County department or agency with expertise in child care.
(f) The Council may in the capital budget resolution, and the County Executive may by Method 1 regulation, exempt from this Section a capital project or category of capital projects which by their nature do not require child care analysis. (2013 L.M.C., ch. 8, § 1; 2015 L.M.C., ch. 24, § 4.)
Editor’s note—2015 L.M.C., ch. 24, § 4, states: “Article VIII of Chapter 27 (Sections 27-62 and 27-62A) is renumbered and moved to Chapter 10A, as Articles 3 and 4 of Chapter 10A (Sections 10A-4 and 10A-5).”
(a) The Director of the Department of Health and Human Services must establish and administer a Child Day Care Facilities Loan Program.
(b) The purpose of the program is to increase the number of children who receive licensed day care services in Montgomery County at reasonable costs.
(c) The Director may loan funds to operators of child care centers or family day care homes if the funds will:
(1) Increase the number of children served;
(2) Help a center or home begin operation; or
(3) Keep in operation a center or home that otherwise is likely to stop operating. (1989 L.M.C., ch. 19, § 1; 1995 L.M.C., ch. 13, § 1; 2015 L.M.C., ch. 24, § 5.)
Editor’s note—Section 5 of 1995 L.M.C., ch. 13, reads as follows: “Sec. 5. A regulation that implements a function assigned to the Department of Health and Human Services by 1995 LMC ch. 13 continues in effect but is amended to the extent necessary to provide that the regulation is administered by the Director of the Department of Health and Human Services.”
(a) The director may loan funds to nonprofit or profit-making centers or homes.
(b) The director must give highest priority to loans to centers or homes that serve significant percentages of low-income or handicapped children.
(c) The recipient of any loan must agree to provide child day care services, to an extent or in an amount set by the department, for at least the term of the loan. (1989 L.M.C., ch. 19, § 1; 2015 L.M.C., ch. 24, § 5.)
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