Thursday, April 09, 2009
Family Daycare Background Checks Bill...
I would like to share the following information that I received from the Scott County provider's association about the current status of the proposed bill on provider background checks in Minnesota that is currently being debated in legislature...
The bill has been introduced and is titled Family day care background checks required, and criminal history data access allowed. The link below will take you to the text of the bill. The bill number in the house is HF1543. In the senate the bill number is SF1413.
While many of you may be aware that the national union headquarters that both SEIU and AFSME have divided the providers in this state up by counties as to which union could organize providers, we have experienced a vast difference in how each union works with or on behalf of providers. SEIU has been at the capitol in the presence of Denise Welti and has been fighting hard for us to get this bill passed. AFSME has been at the capitol and is opposed to the bill. Their reasoning is that it would cost county social workers their job. We believe they are misinformed. Jobs will be created by DHS equivalent to the FTE of county social workers job responsibilities being removed. In some counties doing background checks may be as little as 10% of a persons job (.1FTE).
A hearing has been held in both a house and senate committees. At this time the bill may be jeopardy. Due to opposition by ASFME (A Union that represents both family child care providers and County Employees), the bill is in danger of being pulled. We (Scott County Licensed Family Child Care Association, Beth Mork and Deloris Friske) have been concerned about the conflict of interest a Union may have when it represents both County Employees, such as licensors and social workers, and child care providers. What is currently happening is a good example of that.
While many licensors have expressed support of this bill because it could speed up the background check process and licensing, ASFME has stated that there may be a job loss when Back Ground Checks become a state responsibility and not the county responsibility. We believe the net job loss would be zero. Some jobs will be created at the state level. Most counties will have no significant effect to their jobs as background checks are just a small part of one persons job in counties having fewer licensed providers.
Representative Nora Slawik (Maplewood) is the author of the bill in the House with Jim Abler (Anoka), Kim Norton (Rochester), Patti Fritz (Faribault), Carolyn Laine ( Columbia Heights), Jeanne Poppe (Austin), Ryan Winkler (Golden Valley) and Andy Welti (Plainview) as co-authors. Senator Claire Robling (Prior Lake) is the author of the bill in the Senate with Sharon Erickson-Ropes (Winona), Tony Lourey (Kerrick), and Tarryl Clark (St. Cloud) as co-authors.
Action: If you are a constituent of any of the authors, it is important to let them know how much you appreciate their support. You could e-mail or call your Representative and Senator who is NOT on the list above know the bill has been introduced and it is of interest to you.
Summary of the Bill:
1. Background checks will be transferred FROM the responsibility of a county to perform to the responsibility of the State via DHS (Department of Human Services).
2. As of the effective dates of the bill, providers will pay for the background checks the first time they are required and not again after that. We are looking at the language with July 1, 2009 effective date of the state fiscal year (or January 1, 2010) as the starting date for new providers coming into the system and January 1, 2010 as the starting date for those renewing family child care licenses. We guess this has to do with the fact that counties have this anticipated income in their budget.
3. Background checks will use an on-line system with DHS with family child care providers applicants collecting the information needed under subdivision 1 and forward it to the county agency using the commissioners online system.
4. The fee PER background check required will be $20.00 per study. This is a one-time fee to get into the state database. It does not state it in the bill but this fee is payable using credit card or debit card on-line. Concerns have been raised that this one time fee is not clear enough in the bill. We will be addressing that.
5. Section 8 addresses that probation officers and correction agents report to DHS any disqualified person. Violations of 245.C will be immediately kicked back to DHS for action rather than not detected until the next background check in our current system. Some licensors are adamantly concerned that local background checks need to be performed. We are looking at how this can be addressed in the bill.
The link to find the actual wording of the bill is below. https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.phpbill=H1543.0.html&session=ls86
Any action you might be willing to take to push this bill through needs to happen immediately. Our window opportunity for getting this bill passed this legislative session is coming to an end this week.
If you need more information or have a viewpoint or suggestion you wish to discuss with us, please contact us as soon as possible.
Deloris Friske
friske@frontiernet.net
952-492-3827
Beth Mork
Bethmork@comcast.net
763-427-3775
I would like to share the following information that I received from the Scott County provider's association about the current status of the proposed bill on provider background checks in Minnesota that is currently being debated in legislature...
The bill has been introduced and is titled Family day care background checks required, and criminal history data access allowed. The link below will take you to the text of the bill. The bill number in the house is HF1543. In the senate the bill number is SF1413.
While many of you may be aware that the national union headquarters that both SEIU and AFSME have divided the providers in this state up by counties as to which union could organize providers, we have experienced a vast difference in how each union works with or on behalf of providers. SEIU has been at the capitol in the presence of Denise Welti and has been fighting hard for us to get this bill passed. AFSME has been at the capitol and is opposed to the bill. Their reasoning is that it would cost county social workers their job. We believe they are misinformed. Jobs will be created by DHS equivalent to the FTE of county social workers job responsibilities being removed. In some counties doing background checks may be as little as 10% of a persons job (.1FTE).
A hearing has been held in both a house and senate committees. At this time the bill may be jeopardy. Due to opposition by ASFME (A Union that represents both family child care providers and County Employees), the bill is in danger of being pulled. We (Scott County Licensed Family Child Care Association, Beth Mork and Deloris Friske) have been concerned about the conflict of interest a Union may have when it represents both County Employees, such as licensors and social workers, and child care providers. What is currently happening is a good example of that.
While many licensors have expressed support of this bill because it could speed up the background check process and licensing, ASFME has stated that there may be a job loss when Back Ground Checks become a state responsibility and not the county responsibility. We believe the net job loss would be zero. Some jobs will be created at the state level. Most counties will have no significant effect to their jobs as background checks are just a small part of one persons job in counties having fewer licensed providers.
Representative Nora Slawik (Maplewood) is the author of the bill in the House with Jim Abler (Anoka), Kim Norton (Rochester), Patti Fritz (Faribault), Carolyn Laine ( Columbia Heights), Jeanne Poppe (Austin), Ryan Winkler (Golden Valley) and Andy Welti (Plainview) as co-authors. Senator Claire Robling (Prior Lake) is the author of the bill in the Senate with Sharon Erickson-Ropes (Winona), Tony Lourey (Kerrick), and Tarryl Clark (St. Cloud) as co-authors.
Action: If you are a constituent of any of the authors, it is important to let them know how much you appreciate their support. You could e-mail or call your Representative and Senator who is NOT on the list above know the bill has been introduced and it is of interest to you.
Summary of the Bill:
1. Background checks will be transferred FROM the responsibility of a county to perform to the responsibility of the State via DHS (Department of Human Services).
2. As of the effective dates of the bill, providers will pay for the background checks the first time they are required and not again after that. We are looking at the language with July 1, 2009 effective date of the state fiscal year (or January 1, 2010) as the starting date for new providers coming into the system and January 1, 2010 as the starting date for those renewing family child care licenses. We guess this has to do with the fact that counties have this anticipated income in their budget.
3. Background checks will use an on-line system with DHS with family child care providers applicants collecting the information needed under subdivision 1 and forward it to the county agency using the commissioners online system.
4. The fee PER background check required will be $20.00 per study. This is a one-time fee to get into the state database. It does not state it in the bill but this fee is payable using credit card or debit card on-line. Concerns have been raised that this one time fee is not clear enough in the bill. We will be addressing that.
5. Section 8 addresses that probation officers and correction agents report to DHS any disqualified person. Violations of 245.C will be immediately kicked back to DHS for action rather than not detected until the next background check in our current system. Some licensors are adamantly concerned that local background checks need to be performed. We are looking at how this can be addressed in the bill.
The link to find the actual wording of the bill is below. https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.phpbill=H1543.0.html&session=ls86
Any action you might be willing to take to push this bill through needs to happen immediately. Our window opportunity for getting this bill passed this legislative session is coming to an end this week.
If you need more information or have a viewpoint or suggestion you wish to discuss with us, please contact us as soon as possible.
Deloris Friske
friske@frontiernet.net
952-492-3827
Beth Mork
Bethmork@comcast.net
763-427-3775
// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 5:13 AM 
