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Indiana Association of Licensed Child Care Centers
IALCCC eConnection
March 1, 2007
Hello All!
I hope this finds each of you doing well, surviving the winter weather, and anticipating a new season just around the corner. The next few months will be especially busy ones for the Indiana Association of Licensed Child Care Centers with continued work toward promoting equal regulation for all child care settings in Indiana, contributing to the State Advisory Board, and our Annual Meeting and Conference in April.
I'd like to take a moment to welcome Cherie Kane from Rainbow Child Development Centers and Debby Rowan from Abacus Child Care Center to the Board of Directors. We are thrilled to have you both as part of the leadership team at Indiana Association of Licensed Child Care Centers!
It was fantastic to have so many member centers represented at the fall mini-conference in November! Marty Lemmert of Baker and Daniels presented information about Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations. Are you aware that the Standard Industrial Classification Code (SIC) for child care centers is "835" which allows for many exemptions from OSHA recordkeeping requirements? One point that seemed to catch many members off-guard, is the requirement to offer the Hepatitis B vaccine free of charge to all staff members upon and at any time during employment.
During the mini-conference, we also enjoyed a presentation from Sally Lacey of the Indiana Association of the Education of Young Children. Ms. Lacey provided a great deal of information about the demographics, wages, benefits, education, staff retention, and employment trends associated with child care centers. The study gave good insight. I would love to see a similar study that presents the same information but reports and compares homes, unlicensed registered ministries, and licensed settings separately.
In November, the Board of Directors met with Tim Evans from the Indianapolis Star to discuss concerns facing licensed child care centers in Indiana - most importantly the disparity between the different sets of regulations imposed upon providers depending on their licensing (or lack thereof) status. We feel that Tim did provide a good first step in educating the public about the differences in his article...
"Glitch in the Law is Putting Kids in Danger."
http://www.indystar.com
We hope that many Indiana Association of Licensed Child Care Centers members will be attending the National Child Care Association (NCCA) conference in Las Vegas in a just three weeks. This conference has proven to be a favorite among our members and always provides valuable information, innovative ideas, current issues, and grand networking opportunities. If you are attending and would like to know others from Indiana that will be there, e-mail me and I will spread the word!
Mark your calendars now for the upcoming Annual Meeting and Conference for the entire membership of IALCCC to be held on April 26th from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. in Indianapolis. I am very eager to hear from you about what issues are most important at this time. What do you consider to be hurdles in providing high quality child care in a licensed center in Indiana? What are the biggest business challenges affecting your centers? As the Board of Directors secures speakers for the Annual Meeting and Conference, we want to make sure that the true needs of the membership are being met. Please send me your thoughts and watch for registration information!
One area that the IALCCC Board of Directors is committed to improving this year, is our nominations process leading to elections at the Annual Meeting and Conference. At this time we are asking for nominations for the following positions President-Elect, Secretary/Treasurer, Government Relations Chairperson, Communications Chairperson, Membership Chairperson, and a new representative from each of the five districts around the state. Becoming a chairperson and sitting on the Board of Directors demands coming together at least 6-8 times a year to work with other IALCCC members, legislators, elected officials, the Bureau of Child Care, the media, and other community members in an effort to affect positive change in and for licensed child care centers in Indiana.
It is important that all kinds and sizes of centers are represented on our board so that our unique interests and perspectives can be considered and acted upon. If you would like to be nominated and are willing to conscientiously participate, please send a nomination to me by e-mail. The nomination should give the name of the person being nominated, the post for which that person is being nominated, and a brief professional description of the person. Please submit all nominations no later than March 15th.
Recently, the Indiana Association of Licensed Child Care Centers was contacted by Shirley Tate from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The reason for the call was to notify child care centers that the department of labor is conducting labor audits on low wage industries including child care centers. Ms. Tate informed me that the DOL is concerned by the lack of knowledge among the leadership in child care settings about labor laws and is finding many centers out of compliance and requiring them to provide retroactive pay to any staff member not properly compensated according to labor laws.
Ms. Tate provided a fact sheet link which I am including here: DOL WHD: Fact Sheet #46: Daycare Centers and Preschools Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs46.htm.
We hope to have someone from the Department of Labor at the Annual Conference and Meeting and already have some good materials to share with our membership.
Thank you for the efforts you make every day to care for Hoosier children in safe, healthy, and stimulating environments. I look forward to hearing from you soon and seeing everyone at the upcoming Annual Meeting and Conference.
Regards,
Heidi Dowell, President
Indiana Association of Licensed Child Care Centers
hdowell@cwpsa.com
Membership Grows!
IALCCC membership is growing! We now have over 77 members! If you have not yet joined, plan to do so soon. The IALCCC has become a recognized voice for licensed child care centers in Indiana.
Click Here to join the IALCCC Today!
©Indiana Association of Licensed Child Care Centers / www.IALCCC.org
Previous Newsletters:
(require Acrobat Reader to view)
IALCCC Newsletter - March 2007
IALCCC Newsletter - May 2006
IALCCC Newsletter - January 2006
IALCCC Newsletter - Spring 2005
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