Department of Health & Social Services

Child Care Program Office

Notice of public comment and hearing

on the

Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Plan

As required by the federal government, the Child Care Program Office is soliciting public comment on Alaska’s Draft 2019-2021 Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Plan, which will be submitted to the federal Administration for Children & Families (ACF), Office of Child Care. The CCDF Plan is due this year on August 31, 2018. Ultimately, the CCDF plan must be approved by the federal government and is the basis upon which the state of Alaska receives its share of federal block grant funds for child care.  The state of Alaska’s allocation for FFY 2018 is over 17 million dollars in block grant funds under this program.

The CCDF Plan is the primary mechanism that the ACF uses to determine Alaska’s compliance with the requirements of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014 and associated Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) final rule of 2016. The CCDF Plan is used to describe to ACF Alaska’s progress on the following sections:

1. Define CCDF leadership and coordination with relevant systems;

2. Promote family engagement and consumer education;

3. Provide stable child care financial assistance to families;

4. Ensure equal access to child care for low-income children;

5. Establish standards and monitoring processes to ensure the health and safety of childcare settings;

6. Recruit and retain a qualified and effective child care workforce;

7. Support continuous quality improvement; and

8. Ensure grantee program integrity and accountability.

    

   Alaska’s CCDF Plan serves as the State of Alaska, Department of Health & Social Services application for CCDF funds. This three-year plan describes the overall services and activities administered by the State of Alaska Division of Public Assistance, Child Care Program Office through the following programs:  Child Care Assistance; Alaska Inclusive Child Care (Alaska IN!); Child Care Licensing; Child Care Grant; and Child Care Resource and Referral.

    

   As part of the CCDF Plan approval process we must put the draft plan out for public notice and solicit comments.  You may comment on the draft CCDF Plan by submitting written comments to the Department of Health & Social Services, Child Care Program Office, 3601 C Street, Suite 140, Anchorage, AK 99503. Additionally, the Department of Health & Social Services will accept comments by facsimile at (907) 269-4536 and by electronic mail at samantha.ray@alaska.gov. The comments must be received not later than 5 p.m. on July 31, 2018.

    

   You may also submit oral or written comments at the public hearing to be held on July 12, 2018, at the Frontier Building, in conference room 896, 3601 C St., Anchorage, AK 99503. The hearing will be held from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.  If you are unable to attend in person, but would like to comment during the oral public hearing, you can call the teleconference number 1-800-633-8284 (toll free) access code 21891794.

    

   You may submit written questions relevant to the proposed action to Samantha Ray by email at samantha.ray@alaska.gov or at 3601 C Street, Suite 140, Anchorage, AK 99503. The questions must be received at least 10 days before the end of the public comment period. The Department of Health & Social Services will aggregate its response to substantially similar questions and make the questions and responses available on the Alaska Online Public Notice System at https://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/default.aspx  and its website at http://dhss.alaska.gov/dpa/Pages/ccare/default.aspx .

    

   If you are a person with a disability who needs a special accommodation in order to participate in this process, please contact Samantha Ray at samantha.ray@alaska.gov or by telephone at (907) 269-4681 not later than July 9, 2018, to ensure that any necessary accommodations can be provided.

    

   A copy of Alaska’s draft 2019-2021 CCDF Plan is available on the Alaska Online Public Notice System at https://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/default.aspx and on the Child Care Program Office website at: http://dhss.alaska.gov/dpa/Pages/ccare/regs.aspx. You may also obtain a copy by contacting Samantha Ray at samantha.ray@alaska.gov or (907) 269-4681.