Team 1

Assignment: Design some Pilots

• Urban
• Rural
• Define pre-development

Report Out

Design some Pilots
We started talking about the pilots, and we decided that the first thing is that LIIF would need to decide whether to do it by invitation or by RFP.  There would be certain readiness elements that they would look for:
That there was buy-in by the provider community to participate.
Analysis of gaps and inefficiencies at the local level.
An identified lead agency.
That they already demonstrated capacity to work with vendors and partners.
That they’re actually doing something, not a new entity without experience.
Already identified some kind of funding, some incentive
Demonstrated organization capacity.
A collaborative relationship with other child care organizations in their community.

The incentives apply as a pilot:
Community would be fist to benefit
Assistance with start-up costs
The state or other agency might be able to provide wavers for contract management
Position community of providers for other funding opportunities
A leading edge type of program

Requirements of the Piloting Organization
Pilot would need to demonstrate willingness
Need integration between pilots and state-wide organization
Do a cost benefit analysis
Be willing to develop a business plan to be sure that this affiliate would be sustainable.
Would have to do a local needs assessment of providers to identify gaps or needs to determine which services to pilot.
Would have to develop a governance structure.
Pilot at least one service at the local level.
Work with the state to develop a manual or some kind of guide.

Steps
LIIF or Marie would have to look for some money.
Do some research to see if there already is something like this happening.
Decide if it’s and RFP or invitation.

There need to be clear goals and outcomes
The ability to provide multiple services
Clarify the state vs. local services and roles.
Provide technical assistance to the pilots
We also need to work on the statewide structure.

Team 2

Assignment: Design the Statewide Organization

• Pre-development
• Partners - competitors

Report Out

Statewide Team
Predevelopment
Need for research, we start with research and its an ongoing process.
Market research to see who’s doing what already.
Identify the break even point to see how many members we would need.
The PFA as a driver that rushes us forward.  Is contract management something that could be viable?  What would the role of this group with PFA?
Once we get research done, we want to engage other statewide organizations.
We need to get to them before they hear rumors.

And then we want to engage child care providers.  What do they need and what can they pay?

Then we would do the business plan.

Funding from LIIF turned out to be “step zero.”

We talked about contacting out with focus group consultants.  It’s critical to get diversity among types of providers and regions.  Engaging economists to help with the economic analysis and market research.

How do we engage with state wide organizations?  What’s the face of this?

Maybe we can get a person within each organization to be part of the planning process so that there’s not a sense of us-and-them.  We need a lot of people to manage these complicated contracts.  There might be a role for an advisory group.

The statewide orgs include the unions.

Discussion
There are some concrete next steps.
It doesn’t feel like a fantasy.

What do you need to do to move this forward?
Funding Research
Timeline - PFA.
We’d have to be able to do this before the districts if the PFA happens.  PFA is the driver.

If PFA is a driver, what would stop them from being the local pilot?  They might see themselves as the holder of this.  Is PFA indeed the right driver?  By decoupling it might open the field for some other entity to be the pilot other than the LEA.

We need to know.  If nothing happens, some local school districts may not integrate the local providers.

This could happen with LEAs because of PFA.  Local entities will have money, and they do some of this already.  In the model that we’re talking about, they may not have the providers as their key customers - no, they don’t! 

If PFA happens, it will be in early 07. 

How can we help LIIF get the funding they need?  How do we all help so it’s not just LIIF?  That’s why I put up the idea of an advisory group.  That’s a good way.

Closing
Langdon:  Thank you all very much.  You did a lot of great work, and it’s been a pleasure working with you!