State reported activities to support immigrant and LEP families in child care programs

[Harold Schiffman]

State reported activities to support immigrant and LEP families in
child care programs

For CLASP's new policy brief, CCDBG State Plan Reported Activities to
Support Limited English Proficient (LEP) and Immigrant Communities,
CLASP reviewed FY 2006-2007 Child Care and Development (CCDBG) state
plans for references to initiatives that could support immigrant
families and/or providers, LEP families and/or providers, and English
Language Learners (ELLs).  The state plans set out the policies and
initiatives the state expects to implement over a two-year period
using the direct service and quality set-aside funds in the Child Care
and Development Block Grant.

Some examples of state-reported activities include:

Utah assembled an early learning guidelines' development team that
represented diverse cultural groups. The team included Centro de la
Familia, a nonprofit organization that works to meet the needs of the
Latino population in the state;
Arizona's and South Dakota's guidelines contain specific information
or strategies addressing their use with ELLs.
North Carolina's Division of Child Development web site is available in Spanish
New York's application for child care assistance is available in six
languages—Haitian-Creole, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and
English.
CLASP found that state reported activities to support diverse families
and providers were often vague.  Few states reported a comprehensive
approach by planning for multiple strategies.

To better serve the child care and early education needs of LEP and
immigrant families, CLASP recommends that states  develop
comprehensive strategies that are clear in their intent to meet the
needs of LEP and immigrant families and providers and specific in
their plans for implementation.  Some examples of recommended policies
include:

provide materials on child care services to language minority
communities, including information about eligibility for child care
subsidies;
ensure that child care subsidy intake procedures and materials are
linguistically appropriate, culturally sensitive, and accessible for
those living in immigrant communities; and
use contracts and grants to expand access to high quality child care
programs for children in immigrant families, and support partnerships
with immigrant serving organizations to provide information and direct
services.

http://childcareandearlyed.clasp.org/2008/02/state-reported.html

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