Today we saw a real effort from the OCFS to enact tangible changes based on our discussions and petition requests. Nora Yates shared:
-Bimonthly meetings "Community Conversations" between providers and OCFS to continue a dialogue, build a partnership, and maintain transparency
-Initiative to improve regulator consistency and communication by facilitating ongoing statewide and regional training of all regulators on "Building Effective Relationships" as well as expanded "Regulator Institute" for BOTH new AND existing staff
-Initiative to improve the transparency of inspection protocol, monitoring, and enforcement processes for providers and families
-Reducing years of posted inspection reports from 4 years to 3 years
-Revising the language on the website to include more plain language regarding compliance reports
We thanked Nora for acting on many of our requests and the OCFS seems determined to see the changes through and work more collaboratively with providers going forward. We have 2 major requests left requiring action:
1) Equality and consistency with regulation practices for all providers across all modalities and geographies of NYS
2) Compliance report modifications to include plain language revisions for violations and context/commentary ability for providers
The next steps documented by the OCFS during the meeting includes "continue to gather input statewide on website plain language revisions and draft key elements for discussion." WE NEED YOUR VOICE!
What do YOU wish would be different about compliance reports as parents/providers? Do you wish the violation contained context? Provider commentary option? Self reports be documented differently? Severity level of violations posted? E-mail us at nyschildcareowners@gmail.com so we can create a compilation of ideas, comments, and requests to share with the OCFS team or comment in this petition and don't forget to SHARE!
The door is open to request the changes we want, now is the time to participate to make the changes we seek a reality. This is major progress in just 4 months since starting this petition and definitely steps in the right direction!