Child Care For Children with Special Needs

Families of children with disabilities have had a limited choice of child care resources. Quality child care programs need to be available and affordable for these families. The Services to Children with Special Needs Subcommittee of the Public Policy Committee wrote and published a position paper that was released in October 1989. The Subcommittee recommended expanding referral services for parents of children with special needs; providing technical assistance and consultation services to providers who wish to care for children with special needs; expanding training for providers, public agency personnel, and parents; providing incentives to help recruit providers; and providing assistance to parents of children with special needs to help pay for increased child care costs.

Some of the recommendations in the position paper have been achieved. Funding from the Child Care and Development Fund has been used to increase the Child Care Subsidy Program reimbursement rate to providers for all children, including children with special needs, to the 75th percentile of the 2002 market rate. Children with special needs whose families meet eligibility criteria are also high on the priority list for child care subsidies.

In 1990, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which guarantees equal opportunity and access to people with disabilities. The ADA regulations treat child care as a public accommodation and, as a result, child care providers may need to make adjustments in enrollment policies and some modifications of their physical space. MCC submitted comments on the regulations and held a workshop to educate providers about the ADA. In 1993, the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council provided funding for MCC to develop brochures on the ADA for parents and providers. In 1995, MCC arranged for staff from the California-based Child Care Law Center to come to Maryland to train child care licensing staff and others about the ADA. Another training was held subsequently. Members of the Subcommittee have also worked with the staff of the Office of Child Care (OCC) in its efforts to bring child care regulations into compliance with the ADA.

In light of passage of the ADA, in January 1995 the Subcommittee released a new position paper, Improving the Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Community Child Care Programs. The position paper makes general recommendations to provide support for families and child care providers as well as specific recommendations directed toward state agencies to improve the child care delivery system for children with disabilities and their families. The Subcommittee has followed the implementation of some of these recommendations over the last several years.

Members of the Subcommittee have also worked with the OCC to educate providers and licensing staff about caring for children with disabilities. MCC training staff, Subcommittee members, and consultants have trained CCA licensing specialists and written articles for an OCC newsletter dedicated to caring for children with special needs.

The Subcommittee continues to monitor efforts to reform the children and family services delivery system in Maryland and the potential effects of such reform on child care for children with disabilities. Experts and service providers have come to meetings to discuss their perspectives. Subcommittee members monitored the Governor's Task Force on Children, Youth, and Families Systems Reform and the Systems Reform Transition Team and followed the activities of the Partnership for Children, Youth, and Families.

In the 2002 Session of the General Assembly, MCC and its allies helped to ensure that some revenue from an increase in the cigarette tax was dedicated to the Maryland Infants and Toddlers Program (I&T), a critical but woefully under-funded service for children with special needs from birth to age 3. As a result, I&T received an immediate infusion of $4.8 million, with a state funding formula to be phased in beginning in FY 2004.

However, the implementation of the funding formula was left to the discretion of the Governor within the budget process. In the 2006 Session, legislation was introduced to make the funding formula mandatory rather than discretionary. Budget constraints led to a compromise: the bill was amended to eliminate the mandate but require the appropriation for Infants and Toddlers in any given year to equal or exceed the appropriation of the preceding year.

MCC participated in the Task Force on Inclusive Child Care and After School Care, convened by MSDE and the Governor's Department of Disabilities. In January 2006, the Task Force issued and “Implementation Plan for Inclusive Child and School-Age Care,” the full text of which can be viewed on the Public Policy pages of MCC’s website (www.mdchildcare.org).

Position

MCC should continue to monitor the effect of the Americans with Disabilities Act on child care programs, support the Infants and Toddlers Program, and take an active role in advocating for inclusive child care.

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