VIRGIN ISLANDS
Year Three Participant

Vision

We envision inclusive, quality, developmentally appropriate child care in a safe, healthy environment in which all children are children first and comprehensive services are provided to meet each child's and family's needs.

Mission

To conduct community awareness and promote creation/expansion of quality inclusive child care options for all children.

Recent Efforts to Support Inclusive Child Care

• Within the past two years, directors and staff of child care facilities have been awarded scholarships to participate in the University of the Virgin Islands' Inclusive Early Childhood Education Certificate Program. The program, in response to community need, seeks to ensure that child care providers and early childhood professionals are trained to provide quality inclusive early childhood programs in which children with differing abilities and their families have the same opportunities for and experiences with early intervention and preschool services and programs.

• Child Care Development Fund collaborated with the Department of Human Services Division of Intervention to provide respite child care for children in need of protective services.

• The Virgin Islands Part C Program in collaboration with the VIUAP sponsors Successful Inclusion of Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities Through Multidisciplinary Training. This inclusion training project is designed to increase access to center-based child care for infants and toddlers with disabilities and to increase collaboration between local child care programs and early intervention.

• The VIUAP has been contracted by the Quality Improvement Center for Disabilities (QIC-D) to assist the QIC-D Puerto Rico office in providing technical assistance and training to the Head Start Program in the Virgin Islands. More specifically, VIUAP is working to promote the successful inclusion of children with disabilities in Head Start classrooms. Numerous workshops have been provided and staff provides technical assistance to individual centers on an on-call basis.

• VIUAP and VIFIND collaborated to provide two workshops (one on St. Croix and one on St. Thomas) to inform child care providers of their responsibility to make their facilities and programs accessible to children with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

• In November 1997, the Virgin Islands - Interagency Coordinating Council (VI-ICC) was re-established. The Council, through its committee and subcommittee structure, is responsible for advising and assisting the Lead Agency in the performance of its responsibilities, particularly regarding:
  • Developing and implementing policies and procedures that constitute the statewide system, identifying the sources of support for early intervention services, and promoting interagency agreements.
  • Implementing the statewide system by establishing processes that include seeking information from service providers, service coordinators, parents, and others about federal, state, or local policies that impede timely service delivery.
  • Identifying sources of revenue and other support for services of the early intervention system and assigning financial responsibility to appropriate agencies.
  • Advising and assisting the Virgin Islands Department of Education regarding transition of toddlers with disabilities receiving preschool and other services to the extent appropriate.
  • Preparing an annual report to the Governor and the the Secretary on the status of early intervention services/programs operated in the Virgin Islands and submitting the report to the Secretary.
  • Advising appropriate agencies in the Territory with respect to the integration of services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and at-risk infants and toddlers and their families, regardless of whether at-risk infants and toddlers are eligible for early intervention services in the Territory.

• The Virgin Islands Interagency Coordinating Council's membership is composed as follows:
  • At least 20 percent are parents who meet the following criteria:
    • Parents of infants and toddlers with disabilities or children with disabilities aged 12 or younger with knowledge of or experience with programs for infants and toddlers with disabilities.
    • At least one parent must have an infant or toddler with a disability or a child aged 6 or younger with a disability.
  • At least 20 percent of the members are public or private providers of early intervention services.
  • One representative for each of the following criteria:
    • A member of the State Legislature.
    • An individual involved in personnel preparation.
    • An individual from each of the Territory's agencies involved in the provision of or payment for early intervention services to infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families and has sufficient authority to engage in policy planning and implementation on behalf of these agencies.
    • An individual from the Territory's education agency that is responsible for preschool services to children with disabilities and has sufficient authority to engage in policy planning and implementation on behalf of that agency.
    • An individual from the Territory's governance of health insurance.
    • An individual from the Head Start agency or program in the Territory and has sufficient authority to engage in public planning and implementation on behalf of that agency.
    • An individual from the Territory's agency responsible for child care and has sufficient authority to engage in policy planning and implementation on behalf of that agency.
  • All other members will be selected by the Governor.

• The VI-ICC quarterly meetings are publicly announced and open to the public.

• The Virgin Islands Department of Human Services, through its Office of Licensing and Regulatory Services, holds the responsibility of enforcing the regulations governing child care in the Territory. Over the past three years, a team has been formulated consisting of representatives from the licensing team, the legal profession, as well as private child care providers with the responsibility of revising the Territory's rules and regulations for infant and child care facilities. The new rules and regulations are still in draft form. However, the draft does include a revision to section 381-808 which addresses Children with Special Needs. The revisions to regulations governing child care for children with special needs include:
  • Early childhood programs in facilities and family child care homes are considered as public accommodations and must comply with the ADA rules effective January 26, 1992.
  • Program fees cannot discriminate against disabilities.
  • All infant and child care facilities are prohibited from discriminating against an individual child or group type of children because of a disability or grouping in a disability type category.
  • Enrollment decisions must be made on an individual child basis.
  • Using arbitrary barriers of excluding children is prohibited.
  • Staff of the facility shall receive training in the appropriate plan of care according to the child's needs, potential for growth and development, and his relationship to the center, family, and others around him.
  • When the nature of the special need or the number of children with special needs warrants added care, the facility shall add sufficient staff and equipment as is necessary to meet the child's needs and comply with the regulated staff/child ratio.
  • After consultation with and consent from the parent/guardian, if the director or staff has a concern about a child's development a referral for evaluation shall be made to the appropriate agency.

Goals and Objectives for Promotion of Inclusive Child Care

To increase and maintain public awareness. Audience: parents, families, child care centers, private and public agencies, businesses and corporations, churches, organizations, and clubs.

Community Event

The team will focus on developing public/private partnerships to facilitate and promote inclusive after-school care for children aged 3-12 years.

For more information on the Virgin Islands Map to Inclusive Child Care project, please contact:

Ms. Velven Samuel, Program Director, Child Care and Development Fund Program, Dept. of Human Services at .

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