NARA BLOG

Check back tomorrow afternoon for the link to the full 2011 NARA Licensing Seminar registration brochure.  Today's blog will highlight a couple sessions that would be of interest to all attendees.

Licensing in the 21st Century – Voicing Concerns and Sharing Ideas
Presenters: Panel / Audience Interaction - Jana Martella, Executive Director, NARA; Christine Johnson-Staub, Child Care and Early Education Policy Group/CLASP; Tiffany Conway Perrin, Senior Policy Analyst, Child Welfare Policy, CLASP and Ronald W. Costen, JD, Professor, Temple University School of Social Work
Presenters’ Area of Expertise: Various
Topic Relevant to: Everyone

In the spirit of fostering partnerships, attendees will gather together to share their visions of the future of licensing. A multi-disciplinary panel of experts will take questions and comments from the audience and offer answers and analysis in an interactive format. Make sure to join us for this exciting and empowering closing session!

Crisis Mode: Three States’ Perspectives
Panel: Gloria Merk, Community Care Licensing Manager, California Department of Social Services; Mary A. Murphy, Director Compliance and Regulation Development Unit, Child Care Licensing Program, Kansas Department of Health and Environment and Deborah Russo, Child Care Services Director, Florida Department of Children and Families
Facilitator: Chris Ross-Baze, Military Child Care Liaison – Kansas, National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA)
Presenters’ Area of Expertise: Program Administration
Topic Relevant to: Everyone

Join this facilitated discussion on the difficult trials that states are facing with regard to shrinking budgets and burgeoning duties. Health and safety is facing its biggest
challenge ever from internal and external forces. Let’s discover how three states are handling these challenges and brainstorm on how we can pull together for the
protection of all vulnerable populations.

Caring for Our Children, 3rd edition: Using the National Standards Effectively in Licensing to Improve Child Care Quality
Presenters: Jeanne VanOrsdal, American Academy of Pediatrics, Manager, Early Education and Child Care Initiatives; Danette Glassy, MD, Co-Chair, Steering Committee, Caring for Our Children 3d Ed.; Kristen Copeland, MD, FAAP, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Marilyn J. Krajicek, Director, National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education, Steering Committee, Caring for Our Children 3d Ed.
Presenters’ Area of Expertise: Child Care, Children’s Health
Topic Relevant to: Child Care Regulators and Providers, Child Welfare Regulators and Providers

An overview of the structure and content of Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards: Guidelines for Out-of-Home Child Care Programs, 3rd edition (published 2011), will be presented using a panel discussion format. Effective methods of using the standards at the state licensing level to improve state regulations and successful outcomes that have been achieved by using the standards will be described and audience participation will be encouraged.

Progress & Measurement: The Regulations and the Right Culture in Aging Services
Presenters: Walter Coffey, President/CEO, Aging Services of Georgia and Kim McRae, Director, Culture Change Network of Georgia
Presenters’ Area of Expertise: Adult Care
Topic Relevant to: Adult Care Regulators and Providers

The session will begin with a discussion about the importance of focusing on personal transformation as the starting point for culture change, focusing on why and how to expand philosophy and practices of person-directed care throughout the continuum of long-term living into all settings where aging services are delivered. It will then delve into how regulations can support and foster culture change and how culture change can be incorporated into education that works across care settings. Concluding the presentation will be specific examples of how culture change progress is measured and accountability established in long term care, housing, and community-based  service settings from the perspective of a state association, culture change coalition,
and a multi-site provider organization.

Fostering Health: Resources to Help Meet the Health Needs of Children & Youths in Foster Care
Presenter: Sarah Springer, American Academy of Pediatrics/Healthy Foster Care America
Presenter’s Area of Expertise: Child Welfare
Topic Relevant to: Child Welfare Regulators and Providers

Children and youth in foster care have a high frequency of unmet health needs that are often complex. Meeting their physical, mental, oral, developmental, behavioral, and educational health needs requires coordinated care across disciplines.  Accordingly, the Fostering Connections Act of 2008 requires that states develop coordinated systems of care to identify and address health concerns. This seminar
will review the common health issues of this group of children, and review resources developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics to help communities improve health and well-being among children and youths in foster care.

Be sure to check your e-mail inbox and your mailbox in the coming days for a copy of the NARA Licensing Seminar Registration Brochure.  The brochure will contain information about all of the sessions for the 2011 NARA Licensing Seminar along with information about how to register.  NARA will be releasing session information each day until the brochure is released.  Today, we'll kick things off by releasing three sessions:

Presenter: Harriet Dichter, National Director; First Five Years Fund
Speaker’s Area of Expertise: Child Care
Topic Relevant to: Child Care Licensors and Providers
Description: We typically think that the states are exclusively responsible for creating and implementing a solid framework for early childhood regulation. While they play the dominant role, the federal government is also engaged. Learn about that role, get an update on current federal policy and advocacy issues and opportunities, and discuss how you as a regulator or provider can participate.

Presenter: Karen E. Kroh, Vice President for Regulatory Excellence, Sunrise Senior Living, Inc.
Speaker’s Area of Expertise: Child Care, Adult Care, Individuals With Disabilities, Substance Abuse, Child Welfare
Topic Relevant to: Multi-Discipline, Licensors and Providers
After three decades of serving as a regulator of child, adult, and disability services in Pennsylvania, as well as experience as a provider of senior care in 30 states, 3
Canadian provinces, and the United Kingdom, a charter member of NARA (past President and NARA regulatory consultant) shares her insight regarding the provider/regulator relationship. Interactive discussion will occur about: a) the consistency of licensing inspections and rule interpretations, b) the speed of the licensing process, c) the treatment of providers, and, d) the knowledge of the regulators. Let’s all step back and take a look from the “other side of the fence”.

Different Approaches to Licensing in Child Welfare
Presenter: Tiffany Conway Perrin, Senior Policy Analyst, Child Welfare Policy, CLASP
Speaker’s Area of Expertise: Child Welfare
Topic Relevant to: Multi-Discipline, Licensors
The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) has received a grant to explore different child welfare licensing models (child welfare agency vs. human services agency vs. business and professional regulation). During this session, CLASP staff will report the preliminary results from this study, which will be published in November.

Be sure to check this blog again Monday to read about more sessions available at the NARA Licensing Seminar!