135.173A  Child care advisory committee.
  1.  The early childhood stakeholders alliance shall establish a state child care advisory committee as part of the stakeholders alliance. The advisory committee shall advise and make recommendations to the governor, general assembly, department, and other state agencies concerning child care.
  2.  The membership of the advisory committee shall consist of a broad spectrum of parents and other persons from across the state with an interest in or involvement with child care.
  3.  Except as otherwise provided, the voting members of the advisory committee shall be appointed by the stakeholders alliance from a list of names submitted by a nominating committee to consist of one member of the advisory committee, one member of the department’s child care staff, three consumers of child care, and one member of a professional child care organization. Two names shall be submitted for each appointment. The voting members shall be appointed for terms of three years.
  4.  The voting membership of the advisory committee shall be appointed in a manner so as to provide equitable representation of persons with an interest in child care and shall include all of the following:
  a.  Two parents of children served by a registered child development home.
  b.  Two parents of children served by a licensed center.
  c.  Two not-for-profit child care providers.
  d.  Two for-profit child care providers.
  e.  One child care home provider.
  f.  Three child development home providers.
  g.  One child care resource and referral service grantee.
  h.  One nongovernmental child advocacy group representative.
  i.  One designee of the department.
  j.  One designee of the department of education.
  k.  One head start program provider.
  l.  One person who is a business owner or executive officer from nominees submitted by the Iowa chamber of commerce executives.
  m.  One person who is a member of the Iowa afterschool alliance.
  n.  One person who is part of a local program implementing the statewide preschool program for four-year-old children under chapter 256C.
  o.  One person who represents the early childhood stakeholders alliance.
  5.  In addition to the voting members of the advisory committee, the membership shall include four legislators as ex officio, nonvoting members. The four legislators shall be appointed one each by the majority leader of the senate, the minority leader of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives, and the minority leader of the house of representatives for terms as provided in section 69.16B.
  6.  In fulfilling the advisory committee’s role, the committee shall do all of the following:
  a.  Consult with the department and make recommendations concerning policy issues relating to child care.
  b.  Advise the department concerning services relating to child care, including but not limited to any of the following:
  (1)  Resource and referral services.
  (2)  Provider training.
  (3)  Quality improvement.
  (4)  Public-private partnerships.
  (5)  Standards review and development.
  (6)  The federal child care and development block grant, state funding, grants, and other funding sources for child care.
  c.  Assist the department in developing an implementation plan to provide seamless service to recipients of public assistance, which includes child care services. For the purposes of this subsection, “seamless service” means coordination, where possible, of the federal and state requirements which apply to child care.
  d.  Advise and provide technical services to the director of the department of education or the director’s designee relating to prekindergarten, kindergarten, and before and after school programming and facilities.
  e.  Make recommendations concerning child care expansion programs that meet the needs of children attending a core education program by providing child care before and after the core program hours and during times when the core program does not operate.
  f.  Make recommendations for improving collaborations between the child care programs involving the department and programs supporting the education and development of young children including but not limited to the federal head start program; the statewide preschool program for four-year-old children; and the early childhood, at-risk, and other early education programs administered by the department of education.
  g.  Make recommendations for eliminating duplication and otherwise improving the eligibility determination processes used for the state child care assistance program and other programs supporting low-income families, including but not limited to the federal head start, early head start, and even start programs; the early childhood, at-risk, and preschool programs administered by the department of education; the family and self-sufficiency grant program; and the family investment program.
  h.  Make recommendations as to the most effective and efficient means of managing the state and federal funding available for the state child care assistance program.
  i.  Review program data from the department and other departments concerning child care as deemed to be necessary by the advisory committee, although a department shall not provide personally identifiable data or information.
  j.  Advise and assist the early childhood stakeholders alliance in developing the strategic plan required pursuant to section 256I.4, subsection 4.
  7.  The department shall provide information to the advisory committee semiannually on all of the following:
  a.  Federal, state, local, and private revenues and expenditures for child care including but not limited to updates on the current and future status of the revenues and expenditures.
  b.  Financial information and data relating to regulation of child care by the department and the usage of the state child care assistance program.
  c.  Utilization and availability data relating to child care regulation, quantity, and quality from consumer and provider perspectives.
  d.  Statistical and demographic data regarding child care providers and the families utilizing child care.
  e.  Statistical data regarding the processing time for issuing notices of decision to state child care assistance applicants and for issuing payments to child care providers.
  8.  The advisory committee shall coordinate with the early childhood stakeholders alliance its reporting annually in December to the governor and general assembly concerning the status of child care in the state, providing findings, and making recommendations. The annual report may be personally presented to the general assembly’s standing committees on health and human services by a representative of the advisory committee.
2010 Acts, ch 1031, §354, 361; 2015 Acts, ch 30, §55 – 57; 2021 Acts, ch 76, §35; 2023 Acts, ch 19, §155
Referred to in §237A.1, 256.9
Section amended