CM Gutierrez on 2K pilot and home-based provider networks

And then if we could move to 2K.

So exciting.

Applications went live, yes, last week.

June 2nd.

Yeah, really exciting stuff.

Are you able to share at this point the proposed contractual seat cost for each 2K seat?

We can give that to the council afterwards.

It is a bit complex, and I don't want to take up too much of your time, but we can definitely share that afterwards.

Okay.

And just to confirm, this 2K pilot applications went live last week.

It's for enrollment for the fall.

It's extended day, extended year.

That is the primary seat model, expanded day, full year, but there are some providers who will be offering school day, school year as well.

Okay, okay, excellent.

That's exciting.

Okay, I want to move to the home.

home-based providers under this model.

It does appear in the 2K pilot rollout that a large number of the home-based providers will be participating.

Can you share

What costs, what other costs do the family child care networks contracts cover at this point?

So the family child care network structure, and just for everyone to have awareness, we contract with a network that then affiliates with a family child care home.

And so through that cost per child rate,

the network retains a portion to support that kind of administrative oversight and support.

So they provide coaching and training.

They have education specialists, as we call them, to provide that coaching and training in addition to what we provide within the Division of Early Childhood Education.

But they also support with the administrative oversight and support.

So they actually remit the payments.

To the family child care home and provide any other additional supports that they need to maintain compliance with the Office of Children and Family Services.

And do the contracts include any liability insurance costs, certification costs?

That is an allocable cost.

And so they can, they as a network, can bill us for that insurance.

Okay.

Is there any role that home-based providers who are not affiliated with a network currently play under this 2K rollout or will play to the best of your foreshadowing ability?

Yeah.

So one thing we were very thoughtful about is the placement.

We don't want to oversaturate communities because we know that some of our family child care partners want to remain independent, right?

And they're part of a healthy ecosystem of care that centers family and parent choice.

And so we did really look at expanded data set to determine their placement, and we worked with ACS on that really closely with them.

But what we hope to do is we hope they do consider partnering with us and affiliate.

And what we created as an opportunity in this RFI process that we released to encourage new 2K and 3K providers was that group family daycare organizations can actually serve as a network.

And that's a new model.

Okay.

And so it's really exciting.

They are...

So one family, a home-based provider or family, yeah, sorry, just make sure I have the terminology correct, who is not within a network right now.

Can serve as their own network?

If they applied through the RFI and received, and they were selected, their proposal was selected.

For this pilot?

For this initial year, correct.

And we plan to do that moving forward.

Okay.

And is there, and we should, we will, I think, expand a little bit more because I think people are

are very curious and we want to be very careful.

I know you all share in that, that, you know, under the two administrations ago rollout of UPK, I think there were a lot of folks that ultimately had to close their doors because they were not in the process.

And we want to be really careful.

I don't want to be a part of something that's going to force these women, majority women, to shut down shop.

So for any of these home-based providers that are seeking to join a network or be their own network,

What is the process, right?

Let's say they're not one of these in the 2K pilot for this year, for this round.

What is the best way for them to remain engaged?

What is the best way for them to just not fall through the cracks?

Right.

So for the latter, if they wanted to operate specifically group family, not family daycare programs, if they wanted to operate as a network, that opportunity has since passed, right?

There was an RFI process.

They had to apply.

And so I will say that if there are future opportunities, we will note that on our webpage.

But for those who are interested in affiliating for 2K or not 2K, right, we offer infant care, we offer 3K care through family child care.

They have the opportunity to reach out to us to determine if they want to affiliate with any of our existing about two dozen networks that already exist across about 48 contracts.

And we have one in each, at least one in each borough.

And so they can reach out to us.

There is a process to make sure it's a right fit, right?

We want the

affiliated provider to choose the network that they want to partner with.

Language is a real important aspect of that.

Cultural responsiveness is at the core, but we also want the network to have some say in the affiliated provider.

And so- And I'm sorry to interrupt.

No, it's okay.

Is every network that is affiliated

have the capacity to take on providers at this point?

That is a fantastic question.

Not every single one of them have the capacity.

Some of them are at kind of their max target, but we are having conversations with those networks now and the UFT to determine if we can have some wiggle room in shifting that target threshold for them.

Yeah, I think that's a concern.

I think especially the ones that have reached out to me have said, like, we've tried and they're...

capacity.