Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 9, September 1, 2024
The Early Learning Council may fund no more than seven Hub
Demonstration Projects in fiscal year 2013-2014. The ELC will release a request
for applications for Hubs in August 2013. A Hub may provide services to a
geographic area or a community of interest. The ELC and Hubs, through either
communities of geography or communities of interest, will serve no fewer than
50,000 at risk children in year one.
(1) The ELC will award Hub Demonstration
Project contracts based on the degree to which any individual Hub demonstrates
the following application criteria:
(a)
Representation of the five functional sectors: health care services, human and
social services, education services, early childhood services, and business in
its governance
(b) A defined
service area and cross-sector coordination, including identifying a target
population and high quality services for at-risk children and their
families,
(c) Accountability for
outcomes and return on investment, including improving the results for at-risk
children by the ability to identify, evaluate and implement coordinated
strategies for ensuring that a child is ready to succeed at school,
(d) Ability to coordinate the provision of
early learning services across five functional sectors to the community served
by the Hub through a governance model or community advisory body that was
transparently selected and includes:
(A)
Formal partnership agreements from the following sectors: early childhood
education, K-12 education, coordinated care organizations and other public
health entities, human services, the private sector and local governments
within the proposed service area.
(B) Ability of governance body to initiate
audits, recommend terms of contracts for service providers and provide outcome
reports to the public and to the ELC.
(e) Ability to demonstrate that parents of
at-risk children have meaningfully participated in the creation of Hub
strategies and plans and will serve an ongoing role as part of the entity's
governing structure and will be the foundation of Hub service design,
reflecting the principle that children are best raised and supported in
families.
(f) Commitment and
ability to serve at least 40% of the population of at-risk children in the
entity's proposed service area by the end of year 2.
(g) Commitment to collect and track system
and client level data using a unique identifier for each child
served.
(h) Demonstration of
business acumen and operational stability, including:
(A) Use of coordinated and transparent
budgeting for all providers funded directly by the Hub,
(B) Documentation of previous financial
audits and cash reserves, as well as liability insurance as required by state
law,
(C) Ability to provide a match
of 25% of funds distributed to the entity by the ELC,
(D) Ability to keep administrative overhead
at or below 15% across the Early Learning System, and
(E) Ability to provide monthly financial
reports to Department of Early Learning and Care staff.
(F) Ability to identify with which federal,
state or other funding streams if the lead applicant provides direct services
to children covered by the Hub.
(i) Identify
any financial, role or function conflict of interest
(ii) Provide a plan for how those conflicts
will be managed
(iii) Provide
evidence of financial and functional separation and risk independence of the
lead applicant's direct service delivery function from the Hub
function.
(2) Any application that does not meet the
criteria is not eligible for the award of a Hub contract.
