Tribes and States Working Together: A Guide to Tribal-State Child Care Coordination
Table of Contents (This document is also available in PDF and Word format.)
Successful Tribal-State Collaborations (continued)
| "It is important for State and Tribal leaders with responsibility for carrying out the services funded by CCDF to take some time to meet and get to know one another. Doing so when there are no identified problems with the programming helps us work together when problems may arise. " |
Child Care Resource and Referral Delivery
Minnesota and Oklahoma are two states that directly contract with Tribes to provide comprehensive child care resource and referral (CCR&R) services. Minnesota contracts with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Early Childhood Education Department to provide statewide CCR&R services to all eleven Tribes in the State. Oklahoma’s approach is to fund two Tribes—the Cherokee Nation and Delaware Tribe—to serve as CCR&Rs agencies for Indian and non-Indian families and providers in large multi-county areas of the State.
Child Care Licensing and Monitoring
Louisiana and Oklahoma have reciprocal licensing agreements with specific Tribes that allow the Tribes and States to cross-monitor child care programs by sharing monitoring reports and conducting joint complaint investigations. Tribal child care monitoring staff is also included in all State training for licensing/monitoring staff.
Training and Professional Development
A number of States and Tribes participate in shared cross-training and professional development opportunities. For example, Montana’s CCDF Lead Agency encourages all local child care resource and referral agencies to invite Tribal CCDF programs and providers to local training events. Arizona helps fund and co-sponsors an annual statewide training conference for Tribal child care providers. The White Earth Reservation Child Care program in Minnesota annually sponsors and delivers a state-of-the-art Community Collaborative Brain Development Conference that draws over 1,000 local, state, and out-of-state Tribal and non-Tribal participants.
Grant and Funding Opportunities
Nearly all State CCDF programs include Tribal programs in all announcements of funding and requests for proposals. Some Tribes and States have collaborated on more innovative funding strategies. Using CCDF and foundation funds, South Dakota has collaborated with the Tribes to hire infant-toddler specialist/trainers within each Tribe. Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Tribal Child Care Association have brought together a wide range of partners to become a pilot site for the national Sparking Connections research project aimed at improving family, friend and neighbor care. Five Tribes are participating in the research project, with funding assistance from the Child Care Bureau.
This compilation highlights just a few of the examples of the work that Tribes and States are undertaking together. How did they do it? All have collaboration stories rich in lessons they have learned. Most of those stories involve sitting down with each other and learning about each other’s programs and common issues. It always takes someone—either a Tribal Child Care leader or a State Child Care leader—to take that first step. In Alaska, the State-Tribal collaboration is now viewed as simply the way to do business. In the words of Mary Lorence, the Alaska State Child Care Administrator:
I really believe that the more the State and the Tribes can learn about each other’s systems and identify possible areas of collaboration—whether to help a provider purchase necessary items to get licensed or to combine resources for putting on a training—the better we can work together to improve the quality and availability of child care, especially in our rural areas. It is essential, especially in these times of belt tightening, that we all work together towards the common purpose of helping parents choose child care that fits their needs and assist and support child care providers in providing quality care. The opportunities are tremendous when we join forces; together we can achieve so much more than our individual efforts.
<< Previous Page | Table of Contents | Tribal CCDF Grantees >>