Questions?   Privacy   Site Index
			ACF Home | ACF Services | Working with ACF | ACF Policy/Planning | About ACF | ACF News		ACF Search

Tribal Child Care Technical Assistance Center (TriTAC)
Effective Program Strategies

Developing Tribal Standards Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe

Type of Program:
The Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe's Child Care Program operates a certificate program allowing families to choose from the full-range of care options available in the community. The Child Care Program also recently began offering contracts with local group homes and child care centers. The Child Care Program has two staff members who are responsible for all aspects of subsidy administration, including registering family child care homes, group homes, and child care centers. In 2002, the Child Care Program served approximately 192 children.

Effective Program Strategy:
When the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe first became a CCDF grantee, the Child Care Program staff developed a six-page child care code that contained very broad language requiring providers to ensure the health and safety of children in their care. While this met the requirements of the grant, it gave providers very little guidance about what health and safety measures should be in place. It also lacked a child care-specific framework through which the Child Care Program staff could measure a program's level of safety. When registering a family child care home or a child care center, Child Care Program staff used an IHS checklist and a home screening form from the State to conduct the site inspections.

When the Child Care Bureau introduced the Minimum Standards for Tribal Child Care Programs as guidance in 2000, the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe's Child Care Program staff began a three-year process of incorporating these standards into their own tribal child care code. The first step was to gradually introduce the minimum standards and the rationale behind them to registered child care providers through newsletter articles, site visits, and training sessions.

In 2002, the staff received permission from the Tribal Council to work with the Tribe's in-house attorney on the revision of the tribal child care code. They began by comparing the existing code to the minimum standards, using the Tribal Child Care Minimum Standards Self-Assessment Workbook. They also noted areas where they wanted to identify and incorporate more stringent requirements than those of the minimum standards, such as child:staff ratios, and where they might need to reconcile the minimum standards with other existing rules and regulations. Then the Child Care Program staff and the attorney revised the existing code based on their review and research. The process of reviewing and revising the code took approximately four months to complete, and the final draft was three times the length of the original code. The staff updated the Tribal Council regularly about their progress and provided them copies of each new draft.

At the same time that they were working on the code revisions, the Child Care Program staff also started working with providers to help them write their own policies and procedures in accordance with the standards. During the annual site inspections, each provider was given a portable file container to hold children's emergency forms and confidential documents, and the Child Care Program staff talked to providers about topics such as nutrition and establishing emergency evacuation procedures. They also continued to remind providers that more a comprehensive code would be forthcoming, including fingerprinting and background checks. The Child Care Program staff offered to type the policies and procedures written by providers who didn't have access to a typewriter or a computer, and to make copies of the policies and procedures for the providers to give to families.

The local early childhood trainer accompanied the Child Care Program staff on the annual site visits and discussed early childhood training issues with providers, including what training they'd already had, what trainings were scheduled for the near future, and what other trainings could be developed. The trainer also participated in the discussions on the proposed standards and was therefore able to tailor future trainings to the needs of the providers. New trainings developed as a result of these visits included sessions on writing program policies and procedures and developing written lessons plans and daily schedules.

Once the final draft of the revised tribal child care code was completed, a public hearing was held to get comments from the community. Hard copies of the revised code were also sent to all currently registered providers. The final draft was then presented to the Tribal Council for approval. Since new Council members had been seated near the end of the revision process, additional time was needed for them to review the draft code before giving final approval.

In addition to incorporating most of the minimum standards issued as guidance by the Child Care Bureau, the final draft of the revised tribal child care code incorporates higher standards from a number of different sources, including:

• State of Minnesota standards for staff:child ratios and group sizes in family child care homes;
• State of Minnesota standards for guidance and discipline; and
• IHS recommendations for immunizations and sanitation.

While the Child Care Program staff adopted strong language and clear guidelines for most of their standards, they intentionally left some parts of the code very broad to allow for greater provider flexibility and parental choice. For example, the Tribal Council expressed concern that strict language regarding goals for children's development would exclude some providers because providers' levels of education vary greatly. The Child Care Program staff agreed to keep this language broad and to work directly with each provider to ensure that all children's developmental needs are met. In another example, the Child Care Program staff were concerned that IHS would not allow all providers to acquire the insect sting kit required in the federal minimum standards. To address this concern and still create safe environments for children, the tribal attorney drafted language for the tribal code that requires providers to ask a child's parent or guardian to provide an insect sting kit if an insect sting allergy is noted on the child's emergency form.

In revising the code, the staff encountered several challenges that were difficult to resolve. For example, when they first explored the federal, state, and local requirements for conducting background checks, they were daunted when one agency told them that, in addition to fingerprinting, providers would have to complete a 12 page application and credit history. In this case, the Child Care Program staff found it helpful to learn what other tribes are doing. Then they identified their basic requirements, which were that the process be simple but still keep the child care environment safe. They gave the attorney this directive along with the information they gathered from other tribes and asked her to develop the appropriate language.

In another example, when the Child Care Program staff consulted with Tribe's Environmental Protection Office regarding the requirement to check for lead based paint, they were informed that if a provider found lead paint in the home, there would not be any funds within the Environmental Protection Office to assist with removal. Child Care Program funds are also not available for this purpose. However, the staff decided that it was important to include the requirement in the code. The Tribal Council will determine how to handle any removal matters that arise as a result of this standard.

Results:
Although a formal plan for evaluating the effectiveness of new standards has not yet been developed, the Child Care Program staff reports that it has already seen positive results. Anecdotal evidence from the annual site visits shows that there have been significant improvements in family child care environments since the standards were first introduced to providers three years ago. The early childhood trainer indicates that more people are attending training sessions beyond those required by the standards, and the providers themselves have expressed more interest in learning about child development, health and safety, nutrition, and other topics.

Lessons Learned:
The Child Care Program staff found that the entire standards revision process took much more time than they had anticipated. However, they are pleased with the final results and with the providers' acceptance of the enhanced standards.

One reason that the providers supported the adoption of a stronger tribal child care code was that the Child Care Program staff provided focused technical assistance and communication throughout the process, starting long before the actual writing of the new code was underway. While this created a lot of work for the small Child Care Program staff, it appears that it has already caused an improvement in the quality of care available to Sisseton-Wahpeton families.

The Child Care Program has also found that it is helpful to offer door prizes, meals, and other incentives to providers to attend trainings. As another incentive for providers to continue their education in early childhood development, the Child Care Program recently offered to pay membership fees for all registered providers interested in joining NAEYC.

Phone: (605) 698-3911
Fax: (605) 698-3708

Download FREE Adobe Acrobat® Reader™ to view PDF files located on this site.

Return to Effective Program Strategies

Return to TriTAC Home
This page was last updated December 17, 2003.