There is a mandate that follow-up services be sought and acquired for those children in need. California's general funded programs do not provide follow-up medical or dental attention but the programs are required to make every effort to see that the parent uses Medi-Cal services or other available medical and dental treatment services. The fourth required component is nutrition services. In both the part-day and full-day programs, a federal Type A lunch is served, and in most programs, at : least one snack is provided. Many of the programs also provide breakfast as well as an after school snack. The nutrition programs are funded mainly by federal Special Food Services allotments; however, since not all of the costs are covered by that funding source, many of the additional costs are attached to the contracts between the agency and the Department of Education. Some of the school districts in California levy a tax for meals for needy children, and this source is used as supplemental revenue. The programs use available surplus foods and commodities as a supplement to the programs. The programs are planned by a dietician. Each meal is served family-style for the staff and children because nutrition education is a very important part of the program. Parents are encouraged to eat with the children when they volunteer in the program and this is an important aspect of the parent education component. The fifth required component is social services. Most of the programs have social workers on their staff or social workers under contract for immediate consultation. There are many opportunities for referral services for a variety of family needs. The programs utilize community aides for much of this referral service, so that all agencies available to an AFDC family are utilized. The sixth component is parent education and parent involvement. Each program is required to maintain a parent advisory committee and this committee is encouraged to participate in all aspects of the program. The Department of Education holds the contracting agency's governing board responsible for all aspects of the contract, but most agencies permit the advisory committee to play a significant role in personnel and program evaluation. The committees are advisory and the authority and responsibility rests with the agency's governing board. Most programs provide a parent education component where evening or weekend classes are conducted for the parents to meet specific needs identified by the parents. Also, parent education is sometimes a laboratory course which accompanies the preschool program. The seventh component is staff development, which is continuous inservice training of all staff in the program. Most staff development is offered separately for professionals, paraprofessionals, and volunteers but the most effective programs combine parts of their training. Staff development activities may be conducted by the child development agency or they may be contracted with nearby adult education, community colleges, or universities. The eighth component is a required program evaluation which is conducted annually and submitted to the Department of Education. The evaluation is compiled at the State level by the Department's Office of Program Evaluation and Research, and a composite State report is issued annually by that office. The programs for the past few years have been asked to report by discrepancy evaluation. This type of evaluation involves the agency setting forth its child-oriented objectives and its program process objectives for the contract year. At the end of the year, there is an assessment by the agency as to whether or not they attained these objectives and any discrepancies are noted. The overall evaluations have been. extremely favorable whereby most agencies are attaining their objectives at the 80 to 90 percent level. The objectives are set by the agency in cooperation, consulta tion and negotiation with the Department of Education's professional staff assigned to that agency. This is a key responsibility of the Field Services staff in the area of program development. Interagency Agreements The Child Care Services Programs in California are administered by the State Department of Education through interagency agreements (Chart 5). The agency designated by State statute as the single state agency for social services in California is the Health and Welfare Agency. This is the agency recognized by the federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Social and Rehabilitation Services, Community Services Administration as that single state agency responsible for all social services in California. There are eight departments in the State Health and Welfare Agency, three of, which have an impact on child care services. These three departments within the Health and Welfare Agency are the State Department of Health, which has been given responsibility by the Agency for administrative implementation of all social service programs; the State Department of Benefit Payments, which is responsible for all fiscal matters pertaining to Title IV-A, Social Security Act funds; and, the State Employment Development Department, which is responsible for contracts to operate government-subsidized housing units with county housing authorities for migrant families. The State Department of Education, as reflected on Chart 5 enters into agreements with the Health and Welfare Agency and two of the State Departments in order to derive funds and authority to implement child development programs. The Department of Education executes an interagency agreement with the Health and Welfare Agency to acquire approximately $3 million State General Funds which are used for federal match purposes to fund the innovative programs previously mentioned. Similarly, the Department of Education executes an interagency agreement with the Employment Development Department to acquire approximately $500,000 from the General Fund 58-983 76 pt.7 19 (2) T STATE DEPARTMENT OF Social Service Programs (3) STATE DEPARTMENT OF BENEFIT PAYMENTS SSA, Title IV-A Funds (1) (2) 22 2 STATE EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT State Migrant Funds $3.6 million innovative state funds Social Service Program Regs. SSA Title IV-A funds (3) Migrant Child Care funds CHART 5 to use for federal match purposes for migrant child care programs. A master interagency agreement is executed between the State Department of Education and the State Department of Health for regulatory responsibility and more than $47 million of Title IV-A, Social Security Act funds. The Department of Education uses its appropriation from the California State Budget, the State funds derived from the agreements with the Health and Welfare Agency and the State Department of Employment Development as match funds to meet the 25 percent federal requirement for acquisition of Title IV-A Social Security Act funds through the Department of Health. The Department of Education aggregates all of these funds, and within the authority granted by the Child Development Act, enters into agreements and contracts with child development agencies throughout the State to provide programs for families and children. Program Controls The list on Chart 6 indicates Department of Education and, in turn, the child development agencies with which it contracts. The Department of Education, under the Child Development Act, was designated California's single state agency for child development programs. However, the Department has been unable to acquire a waiver of the single state agency social services requirement from the Federal Government, and this has necessitated the interagency agreements previously detailed. In addition to language of the interagency agreements, there are many other statutory and. regulatory controls placed upon the Department of Education. The Department is unable to set forth social service regulations which are the responsibility of the single state agency, and this inability to regulate the child care portion of social services has created some delays in overall program implementation and · continuity of service. the multitude of controls placed upon the State |