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Authors Posts by Jim Sharp

Jim Sharp

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Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

The Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth, and Families (OCYF) has issued updated general guidance reflecting the Governor’s and Secretary of Health’s COVID-19 Mitigation Orders and how they will impact services offered to children, youth, and families served by counties and providers licensed by the Department of Human Services (DHS), Office of Children, Youth, and Families.

This guidance replaces the guidance previously issued on June 5, 2020 that was based on the Governor’s strategic three-phased approach (red/yellow/green) to reopen the commonwealth and ongoing mitigation efforts to limit the community spread of COVID-19.

The guidance can be found here.

These safety precautions, including social distancing and building safety protocols, shall be followed for the purpose of minimizing the spread of COVID-19:

      • In-person contact, as required by the Child Protective Services Law (CPSL) for Child Protective Services (CPS) and general protective services (GPS) investigations, will continue with strict safety precautions that comply with Department of Health (DOH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance;
      • Telework is mandatory unless impossible;
      • Previously issued DOH guidance for universal precautions applies;
      • All agencies with in-person operations must follow business and building safety orders;
      • Agencies must follow the most recent orders and guidelines to include masking requirements, travel restrictions, and continued social distancing requirements; and
      • All agencies must screen employees prior to each shift, or for employees who don’t work shifts, before the employee starts work. Visitors should be screened prior to entering the building for visitation. When children return from home visits, screening protocols should be in place to assess for the need to quarantine (See the Symptom Screening Tool).

Visitation requirements for child residential facilities, child and youth agencies, foster care agencies, and adoption agencies:

      • Visitation frequency and type (in-person/virtual) will continue to be directed by the Court for Children under their jurisdiction. All in-person visitation should consider the unique needs of the child, youth, or family and follow the Governor’s orders and updated DOH protocols.

Please contact RCPA Children’s Division Director Jim Sharp with any questions or clarifications.

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The Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) has released updated Intensive Behavioral Health Service (IBHS) guidance bulletins. These bulletins are both effective beginning January 17, 2021; they provide information on the provision of one-to-one individual and applied behavior analysis (ABA) services in a licensed IBHS location as well as updates to the IBHS procedure codes. The full bulletins can be found below.

RCPA will be reviewing these bulletins along with the RCPA IBHS Work Group to develop any needed response or clarification. If you have any questions or concerns related to these bulletins, please reach out via email to this contact or RCPA Children’s Division Director Jim Sharp.

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From Associated Press:

January 20, 2021

Harrisburg, PA (AP) — Employees of licensed child-care facilities in Pennsylvania will be eligible for a one-time $600 grant to reward them for providing a valuable service throughout the pandemic, Governor Tom Wolf’s Administration said Wednesday.

Wolf’s Administration said the money is coming from a federal government program that subsidizes child-care costs and leftover money initially targeted for child-care providers in coronavirus relief aid legislation approved last spring by Congress.

About $20 million is available, and it could provide grants to as many as 33,000 child-care workers, the administration said.

Eligible employees must have been employed by a licensed child-care provider on January 1, must earn a gross salary of no more than $70,000, and must work a minimum of 20 hours per week at the child-care facility.

This grant will replace this year’s grants from a program designed to boost the pay of highly qualified early childhood education teachers. That program previously provided payments of about $1,000 to $3,000 to approximately 9,000 child-care employees, the administration said.

The grants will be made available through the child-care facilities, the administration said. Applications must be submitted to local early learning resource centers. They should be issued on a first-come, first-served basis.

Last year, Pennsylvania distributed $220 million in federal coronavirus aid to child-care facilities hit hard by the pandemic. The state expects to receive a share of an additional $10 billion in emergency pandemic aid approved by Congress last month to support child care.

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