ECECD NEWS
The Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD), the state agency responsible for administering the child care assistance program for New Mexican families, published updated regulations governing child care assistance yesterday. ECECD aims to ensure that all New Mexican families and young children have access to high-quality and safe early child care opportunities, believing that early intervention, care, and monitoring are New Mexico’s best tools to address systemic issues such as juvenile justice, social and economic inequality, and generational poverty.
The new regulations increase access to care, clarify current procedures, and reduce the administrative burdens for families and providers in order to better serve New Mexico’s families and young children. The amended regulations (8.15.2 NMAC) can be found here: http://164.64.110.134/parts/title08/08.015.0002.html
By New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty
• Mar 3, 2021
Commentary: Many more families now qualify for New Mexico’s Child Care Assistance Program after the elimination of multiple unnecessary eligibility requirements. The program provides help with the costs of child care for parents and guardians who are working or in school. The Early Childhood Education and Care Department released the new rules, which became effective yesterday, after workers and worker’s rights groups lobbied New Mexico agencies for years to eliminate barriers to the program.
Notably, the new rules no longer force parents to pursue child support from the child’s other parent in order to qualify for assistance. Most parents, faced with fruitlessly antagonizing coparents who sometimes were their former abusers choose to simply forgo much needed childcare along with employment and work opportunities.
Child Care Aware resumes services | News, Sports, Jobs minotdailynews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from minotdailynews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Legislation, education and public funding were among the ideas discussed to help fix the problem. 7:00 am, Feb. 26, 2021 ×
Child care providers Sherry Tiegs (left) and Karen DeVos talk about the child care crisis in rural Minnesota during a webinar Feb. 18 hosted by the Center for Rural Policy and Development. Screenshot / Theresa Bourke
“We need to educate our communities, our state and our nation on what child care is.”
Sherry Tiegs hammered that message into the minds of those who attended a webinar offered by the Center for Rural Policy and Development Thursday, Feb. 18, to discuss the state of child care in rural Minnesota.