Agenda Item No. V Regular Meeting: 9-25-19

1

M E M O R A N D U M

TO: First 5 Lake County Commission FROM: Carla Ritz, Executive Director DATE: September 18, 2019 SUBJECT: Executive Director’s Report DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS – I was out of the office the week of September 9-13 for two important and meaningful convenings. Sept. 9-11, I was in Palm Springs for the final gathering of the First 5 Leadership Network cohort. It was a very positive experience that provided me with new insights on equity, facilitation and leadership skills, greater connectedness to the First 5 Network across the state and more opportunities to impact and engage with that Network in the future. I now have strong personal connections with colleagues outside of our NW Region, including Fresno, Stanislaus, Los Angeles, Monterey, Imperial, Merced, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Riverside, San Bernardino, Calaveras, Tuolumne, and Santa Barbara counties. I will put together a list of potential ways that I can share what I’ve learned going forward with the greater early childhood and family support community here in Lake County and have that ready before our next meeting. The second gathering I attended, on Sept 12-13, was the Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s Prevention Planning Learning Conversation in Sacramento. Lake County was well represented by Susan Jen (HLN/F5L), Ana Santana (LCOE), Wendy Mondfrans (LC Probation), Amber Davis (DSS-CWS) and myself. Three of the most valuable take-aways for us were 1) the prevention cross-walk for California’s public youth-serving agencies (attached), 2) OCAP’s definitions of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention (attached), and 3) the presentation from the City of San Francisco on how they captured the dollars being spent in their city/county on prevention and how those dollars are broken out by the Protective Factors. I will share more about this at our meeting on September 25th. Existing Projects: The “State of the Children" larger, all-agency, meeting will take place on Monday, Sept.

23. This meeting will focus on sharing all of the materials developed for the project and plan out the presentations for governing bodies and community groups around the county.

The Smart Start Resource Website project is nearing completion. The Smart Start Collective met on September 5th to review the latest changes to the site and discuss the roll-out of the site at the Heroes of Health and Safety Fair on October 12th. The logo was finalized and a magnet is being developed to jointly advertise the 0-5 resource website and the Health Leadership Network’s more comprehensive community resource guide. The Collective also discussed the possibility of working together to gather professional quality photos (with releases) of Lake County children and families to use in joint promotional efforts going forward. Currently we all use stock images that don’t always reflect our unique population.

I have continued meeting with community agencies, along with Sutter Lakeside Hospital’s Family Resource Navigator, and have gathered intake forms. The universal eligibility form

Agenda Item No. V Regular Meeting: 9-25-19

2

is being drafted now and will be distributed to agencies for review this month. Once we have an agreed upon draft form, I will begin the process of getting quotes from web developers for building out the online survey and beta testing it with support.

Today Carly Swatosh-Sherman and I will join staff from Social Entrepreneurs Inc. in hosting a webinar for Lake County kindergarten teachers about the Kindergarten Entry Data Profile (KEDP). All KEDP forms will be due to First 5 by the end of October and I will enter the data for SEI to then analyze. We’ll hear from SEI early in 2020 with the results. This year we are asking for parents to complete the demographic page so that we might have greater confidence in the data, particularly about primary language and where the student attended preschool.

The First 5 Express is working with East Lake Elementary to be present on their campus on October 11th. Many thanks to Carly for this recommendation.

New Opportunities: o Since our last meeting in August, I’ve worked with Jackie Rad from Sutter Lakeside

Hospital to submit a proposal for a topical session for First 5 California’s 2020 Child Health, Education and Care Summit. The session we proposed would allow us to share about the evolution of the Safe Sleep classes into the Smart Start Initiative including the Family Resource Navigator position, 0-5 resource guide and the creation of a singular eligibility form for key 0-5 resources in the community. We expect to be notified by mid-October if our proposal was accepted.

FEDERAL LEVEL – The First 5 Policy Committee has endorsed two federal bills: one that would increase funding for early intervention developmental services for children ages 0-5 (H.R. 4107, Funding Early Childhood is the Right IDEA Act), and one that would prohibit federal funding to enforce the Public Charge rule changes announced by the Department of Homeland Security that is set to take effect on October 15th (HR 3222, No Federal Funds for Public Charge).

• HR 4107: The bipartisan bill, introduced by Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) and Congressman Rodney Davis (R-IL), increases funding for the IDEA Part C early intervention program (serving children 0-2) and the Section 619 preschool program (serving children 3-5) for young children with disabilities. Adjusted for inflation, per-child funding for both Section 619 and Part C have decreased from their peaks by more than 64%. In the last two decades funding for Part C has eroded significantly from a high of $1,768 per child in 1999 to $645 per child in 2017. Over the last 25 years Section 619 has experienced similar financial erosion, a high of $1,484 per child in 1992 to $529 in 2017. This bill would restore funding back to previous levels. Specifically, the bill authorizes that Section 619 Preschool program would be increased from $537 million in FY 2020 to $1.2 billion in 2024. Funding for Part C Early Intervention would go from $722 million in 2020 and grow to $1.7 billion by 2024.

• HR 3222: Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), introduced the No Federal Funds for Public Charge Act that would prohibit the use of federal funds to implement the Trump administration’s proposed “public charge” regulation. The bill, H.R. 3222, would create a barrier to the Trump administration’s attempts to vastly expand the number of people who may be deemed ineligible for lawful permanent residence (a “green card”) based on their household income, use of certain essential government services, and other criteria -- known as "public charge". Currently, public charge is applied to some cash aid assistance programs, including: Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and long-term institutional care provided by the government. On

Agenda Item No. V Regular Meeting: 9-25-19

3

August 12, the Homeland Security Department issued its final rule and expanded the above definition of public charge to also include: Medicaid (excluding emergency and disability services related to education, children under 21, and pregnant mothers); Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/ CalFresh); Federal Public Housing – Section 8 Housing Vouchers and Section 8 Based Rental Assistance. Further, receiving such benefits for a total of 12 months in a 36-month period will now be deemed "highly negative" by immigration officials who assess if an individual is a deemed a public charge. The rule would not apply to a person who applies on behalf of a dependent or a family member. For example, a parent applying for a child but not seeking benefits for themselves is not considered to have received the benefit themselves. The rule is set to take effect on October 15th. Anticipating that the rule change will go into effect, this bill, HR 3222, will prohibit appropriations to be used to enforce the new rule change.

STATE LEVEL – The state legislature has officially adjourned for the 2019 session. First 5 is still supporting five measures that are heading to the Governor’s desk (below). The Governor has until October 13th to sign or veto legislation.

• AB 1004 (McCarty) Developmental Screening: The Association, First 5 LA, and Children Now are co-sponsoring this bill to clarify that health care providers must use a validated tool and adhere to the Bright Futures best practices around developmental screenings. In negotiations with DHCS, the bill was amended to align the reporting requirements with reporting efforts currently underway with implementing the Core Set of Children’s Health Care Quality Measures for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

• SB 464 (Mitchell) California Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act: This bill aims to reduce pregnancy-related preventable deaths and severe illnesses and associated health disparities by requiring perinatal health providers to undergo evidence-based implicit bias training. Specifically, the bill requires all medical providers involved in perinatal services at hospitals and alternative birth centers to undergo evidence-based implicit bias training. The bill will also align California death certificate formats with the federal standards, which specify whether the decedent was pregnant at death, within 1- 42 days of death, or within 43 -365 days of death. This will allow the California Department of Public Health to resume collecting and publishing data on maternal mortality and severe morbidity that can be further assessed and researched.

• SB 436 (Hurtado) Family Resource Center: This bill defines "Family Resource Center" into the Welfare and Institutions code of state statute. The First 5 Association worked with the CA Family Resource Center Association (CFRA) on amendments to ensure the definition reflected a broader family resiliency frame and encompassed more than just non-profits that engage in this work. First 5 is recognized in intent language of the bill as a key systems builder of family resource centers.

• ACR 1 (Bonta): Immigration: Public Charge This measure would condemn regulations recently adopted by the Department of Homeland Security to prescribe how a determination of a person who is not a citizen or national is made based on the likelihood that the person will become a public charge. This measure would also urge the federal government to repeal the new regulations.

• AB 197 (Weber): Full-day kindergarten. This bill would require school districts offering kindergarten and charter schools serving pupils in early primary grades to implement a full-day kindergarten program by the 2022–23 school year.

Agenda Item No. V Regular Meeting: 9-25-19

4

FIRST 5 CALIFORNIA – Governor Newsom announced a new First 5 CA Commissioner last week. Mayra Alvarez, president of The Children’s Partnership, will be joining the commission at the October meeting, replacing Lupe Jaime. You can read her full bio here. Also, First 5 CA’s website (http://www.ccfc.ca.gov/about/summit.html) for the 2020 Child Health, Education and Care Summit is live and early bird registration will begin in October. If we approve the Title IV-E contract with Chabot-Las Positas, we will have additional funding to send people from Lake County who work with children in dependent care and/or those who are at risk to this conference in Pasadena, February 3-5. FIRST 5 ASSOCIATION – The Association Summit will be held at La Quinta in Palm Springs December 9-11. I am part of the committee that will be planning this event. GRANT ACTIVITY UPDATES: Quarterly reports from grantees are due October 15th. Mother-Wise and AmeriCorps program directors are slated to present updates to the Commission at the Sept. 25th meeting. Adventist Health Perinatal Transportation Update, Kari Donley, LVN: “I contacted Lake Transit (per Trustee Allison’s request) to inquire about alternative transportation assistance. I spoke with Karl, who informed me about ‘Lake Links’ and ‘Pay your Pal’ programs. We may be able to utilize Pay your Pal in some instances but the 10-day prior approval and the monthly reimbursement may prove to be a barriers. (Our gas cards are immediate reimbursement with no prior approval required). It is also limited to just 200 miles per month, which would not allow for just one full round-trip to San Francisco. (Our patients often require weekly appt’s at the end of pregnancy). There is no reassurance for continued funding at this time (grant ends in March 2020). Lake Links trip request must be made a week in advance and one must find their way to the local Senior Center for pick-up and drop-off. This is an option for patients traveling to Santa Rosa, however, appt’s must be made between the windows of 10-12 & 1-3 and only on Tuesday’s. They hope to extend this service in the future. Trustee Carly Swatosh-Sherman requested that I provide statistics about our travel recipients and their compliance in providing gas receipts. (We don’t ask for bus riders to provide receipts). In the year 2018, eighty-four requests for travel out of County were provided for gas to S.F., Marin, Ukiah and Santa Rosa. Seventy-three of those provided the gas receipts. Five were frequent travelers and six were one- time requests.” ADMINISTRATION Financial Statements – Financial reports for July and August submitted separately. Budget Revision – When the 2019-20 budget was approved by First 5 Lake on April 10th, we had not yet signed contracts with our grantees. In contract negotiations, we agreed to pay LCOE a larger portion of their grant award in year one (2019-20) and lesser amounts in years two and three. This will need to be reflected in a budget revision. If the Title IV-E contract is approved, this would also necessitate a budget revision. I will submit a revised 2019-20 budget for the Commission’s consideration at the October 9th regular meeting. Annual Fiscal Audit – The audit is in process. Jennifer Jensen was onsite conducting the audit on August 29-30. We hope to have a final audit report for Commission review in October, pending the provision of pension numbers from the County Auditor/Controller’s office.