BOCA minutes - member meeting Jan. 27, 2025 at 1:00 PM

Location of Meeting:

Virtual (GoToMeeting – available for one month) https://transcripts.gotomeeting.com/#/s/f1bada38f528efb95d8a2230a9a01270fff2c897927065d9833e19ce40c68f04

In Attendance:

Board:
Rebecca Compton Dr. Day Care
Amy Vogel Dr. Day Care
Haley Paige Coggeshall Club/Haven Middletown

Members & potential members:
Marissa Gallagher Hope St. Early Learning Center, Connecting for Children and Families
Missy Davis Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center
Rebecca Madden Little Acorns Academy
Mary-Lyn Siderski Federal Hill House
Marlen Roberti Brown Fox Point
Natalie Martin Boys & Girls Clubs of Northern RI
Denise Greene West End Community Center
Susana Ortega Federal Hill House
Heidi Nordmann East Bay Community Action Program Head Start
Nickolas Rogers & Lily Sheahan Boys & Girls Clubs of Northern RI

Guest Speakers:
Nicole Chiello
Sarah Nardolillo

(members arriving after 1:05 were not recorded)

Agenda:

Guest speaker: Nicole Chiello & Sarah Nardolillo, Department of Human Services
• New DHS Regulations on school age and summer camp
• RISES System
• RI Bridges
Welcome and introductions
Guest speakers for future meetings – who would you like to hear from?
Priorities for 2025
Legislative updates
Schedule a time to meet with Mayforth Group – who would like to meet with our lobbyist?
Seeking BOCA board member nominations
Join BOCA – membership for 2025

Meeting Notes:

Nicole Chiello:
- RI Bridges update
  - New news: Provider correspondence going out in the next 24 hours, next batch should be going out as normal, within next week should be able to enter enrollment. Bringing system back in phases. Everything has been fixed and deemed safe. Stay tuned over the course of the next week.
- DHS regulations on school age & summer camp.
  - Advanced notice of proposed rule making came out around the holiday season. People seemed nervous, but it was just an initial first idea on what we were thinking before the full promulgation process. Not near having a new set of regs promulgated yet. DHS was tasked in last year’s budget to start regulating summer camp for people who want to accept CCAP as payment. Asks for very general things to regulate – but there are nuances for people who want to take DHS payment. Have not written a first draft of regs to promulgate. 1/24 was the last day for comments on the initial idea on regs. Nicole will receive any feedback and will be required to comment on it. They want to know what people are expecting to see in the regulations. Take feedback, look at what they have drafted, make changes as needed, think about moving forward with full promulgation. Wanted to let us know that if we have a school age program now and take summer kids, will continue to operate as normal. This is for those programs that want CCAP as payment but are not licensed to take CCAP, this will be for them. Will keep us informed as they move forward. Still in gathering feedback phase.
  - Missy Davis: Where to find them? Nicole & Sarah: will try to send in chat or will email over (Here is a link to the regulations on the DHS website. The regulations themselves are under Proposed.Adoption.PDF https://dhs.ri.gov/regulations/proposed-rules-regulations-hearings)
- RISES system: should be going live. Was planned for beginning of Feb. Go live date is planned for 2/24. Stay tuned for finalized info. Excited to work on it as a streamlined way to do licensing going forward. Current process is very paper based and cumbersome. Looking to streamline the entire process. Ability to apply for licenses, renew licenses online, make changes online. Can request changes to capacity. More intuitive. Will eliminate emails back and forth. Would like to know your thoughts on how to make it a helpful, effective system. Difficult for providers to gather information and share with different people. Can upload things as they get them (ie, if fire inspection comes in months before renewal date). Can pay online. Will also be connected to case management/technical assistance. Really great way to gather true data to make informed decisions on next steps. Will help with gathering data for advocacy. Use data to support need for increased funding in proven areas.
  - Sarah Nardolillo: massive undertaking built from ground up. Looking for us to give constructive feedback to make the system work the best for everyone.
(Haley) Welcome & introductions – everyone introduced themselves and were asked for a suggestion on a guest speaker
- Guest suggestions:
  - Someone to speak about trainings (maybe outside of CELP)
  - Loves hearing from Sarah & Nicole more on one-on-one like this (send us topics if anything comes up you would like to review)
  - Likes getting legislative updates, what’s happening on the state level, appreciate the legislative info
  - Lobbyist, reps, senators, DHS was helpful. Maybe someone from RIDE to go over changes or want to be changed. Providing meals
(Amy) Priorities for 2025 (Amy) trying to get CCAP up 5%
- Our lobbyist Rick, Mayforth Group, would like to join next meeting or can schedule a meeting.
- Voted – Rick to come to next 2/24 meeting. Right now, there’s only one bill that’s been put in, will send out to membership (it can be found here: https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText25/SenateText25/S0062.pdf)