YoungStar was passed by the Joint Finance Committee today by a resounding and unanimous, bipartisan 16-0 vote. The committee’s action approves $10 million for the fiscal year July 2010 – June 2011 to launch the Department of Children and Families (DCF) YoungStar program.

This legislative victory comes after many years of efforts to start a quality rating and improvement system in Wisconsin, dating back to a Governor’s Task Force in 2004. YoungStar finally came to fruition by extensive work by DCF and support of a wide range of allies, including the Wisconsin Early Learning Coalition, business and civic leaders, and early care and education advocates.The decision immediately allocates $5.6 million immediately for the following purposes:

$3 million for data collection and assessment activities
DCF is required to contract with regional entities throughout the state to collect information on key quality child care indicators: teacher qualifications, director qualifications (if applicable), learning environment and curriculum, professional practices, and health and wellness. DCF is required to report on data collected and preliminary ratings by November 22, 1010.

$1.5 million for immediate training and technical assistance
To begin with, training and technical assistance will be targeted to12 counties: ten that have the greatest number of WI Shares providers, and two that have a total population under 17,000.

$0.5 million for TEACH and REWARD
$500,000 will enhance existing funding for child care scholarships and stipends through the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood and R.E.W.A.R.D. programs.

$0.6 million for 3 state positions and administrative costs
DCF will fill 3.0 FTE positions to oversee and implement YoungStar. The funding will also go for information technology costs.

In addition, the committee set aside $4.4 million that DCF can request later for micro-grants for child care providers seeking to make quality improvements, additional training and technical assistance, and other YoungStar expenditures. The Department is required to report back to the Joint Finance Committee with a five-year sustainability plan by November 22, 2010, including tiered reimbursement to providers.

See the Joint Finance motion for more details: http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/100623JFCmotion_YoungStar.pdf. (Notice that YoungStar information in on pages 2-4 of the motion. All issues described in the motion were passed by the Joint Finance meeting.)