Immunization is one of the best ways parents can protect their children against serious diseases. Infants are particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases and the benefit from immunization is great. All infants should be immunized against 14 vaccine-preventable diseases before age two.

Adults who are caring for infants should also be immunized against many of these diseases to help prevent exposing the infants to an infection. Some of these preventable diseases are diphtheria, measles, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), varicella (chicken pox), and polio.

Vaccine-preventable diseases can be serious for infants or young children, often resulting in medical visits and hospitalizations. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that more than half of infants younger than 12 months of age who get pertussis must be hospitalized. Of those infants hospitalized with pertussis, 1 in 5 develop pneumonia, 1 in 100 have convulsions and 1 in 100 will die.

In 2011, Montana reported 134 cases of pertussis, including 10 cases among infants younger than 24 months of age.

“Vaccines are among the safest, most successful, and cost effective public health tools available for preventing disease and death,” states DPHHS Director, Anna Whiting Sorrell. “Vaccines not only help protect vaccinated individuals, but also help protect entire communities by preventing and reducing the spread of infectious diseases, and it’s easy for parents to do.”

“We encourage parents to talk with their child’s healthcare provider to be sure their child is up-to-date on immunizations,” emphasized Lisa Underwood, Manager of the State Immunization Program. She also noted, “Vaccines are often covered by health insurance. But if not, local health departments and programs such as the Vaccines for Children Program may be able to help.”

For more information about infant immunizations, contact your healthcare provider or local public health department.

Jon Ebelt, Public Information Officer, DPHHS, (406) 444-0936

CDA Renewal Requirements:

• 4.5 CEUs or 3 college-credit-hours of training within the last 5 years
• A recommendation from an ECE professional who is familiar with your professional work
• A pediatric first aid certificate
• Membership in an ECE professional membership organization
• A brief letter from a supervisor testifying that you have worked at least 80 hours in the past year

Apply online for a CDA Renewal, or contact the Council for further information:

Council for Professional Recognition 
2460 16th St. NW
Washington, DC 20009-3547
800-424-4310 
202-265-9090
Office hours: 8am – 5pm EST
www.cdacouncil.org

A public hearing is scheduled for April 11, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. in the Auditorium of the Department of Public Health and Human Services Building, 111 Sanders Avenue, Helena, Montana.

You may obtain a copy of the PROPOSED rule on the Internet here.

If you are unable to access the document using the Internet, you may call Suzi Graveley at 444-2012 to request a copy of the rule document.

1.    Go HERE.

2.    The next screen will require you to enter your PS#, and your password.

3.    Upon successful sign in, a subsequent screen will display a list of all CCUBS facilities for which you are currently the director.  Each facility link will indicate if a Provider Rights and Responsibilities agreement form is required or has already been completed.

4.    Click on each facility link that indicates an agreement is required.  A Provider Rights and Responsibilities agreement will be displayed, requiring you to check the box indicating your understanding and agreement with each statement.

5.    Click submit.

6.    Use the print icon to print a copy of the Provider Rights and Responsibilities for your records.

If you are having any difficulties, please contact us at 761-6010 with any questions you may have!

Read Policies Now

• Electronic banking is convenient. Payments can be deposited electronically by the State warrant writing system, in the same fashion that the bank, with the permission of the account holder, can withdraw funds to make mortgage, power, or phone bill payments electronically. Electronic payments, work well, as designed, as long as there are funds in the bank to cover the payments. This is the buffer.
• Child care payment batch schedule – Child Care Payments are scheduled to process on the 5th business day of each month, each Tuesday thereafter, and on the 2nd to last business day of each month. When everything works just right, checks/direct deposits are usually available to you two days after the date the payment was processed. For example: If your payment was processed in a Tuesday batch, your funds should be available by Thursday of that same week. Provided there are no issues in processing, payments take at least three days, including the batch run day, before the funds are available.
• 77% to 80% of all invoices for child care payments are paid in the first batch. At the beginning of each month, Child Care Resource and Referral agencies receive a flood of invoices for child care services performed in the previous month. An impressive statistic is that, 77 to 80 percent of these invoices, for prior month child care services, get processed by the 5th business day of the month after services where rendered.
• The timing of Child Care payments is not guaranteed by DPHHS. While the Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies and the Early Childhood Services Bureau strive to get child care payments approved in a timely manner, we cannot guarantee that they are processed accordingly. There are far too many variables involved in the processing of an invoice, from the data entry of Child Care Resource and Referral Agency, to the CCUBS System, to the state accounting systems, to the mail/banking system, for payment and ultimately delivery of the check or the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)/direct deposit.
• Your help is important.  You can help to receive your child care payment in a timely manner by getting your invoice in promptly at the beginning of the month and by making sure you have submitted a correct W-9 for address change or bank account change. Please remember, it is important that you do not make payments against funds that you are expecting, regardless of who they are from, until the funds are actually received.
  

Please remember, the timing of Child Care payments is not guaranteed by DPHHS.

Written data, views, or arguments may also be submitted in writing to Ken Mordan, DPHHS, Office of Legal Affairs, PO Box 4210 Helena, MT 59604-4210; faxed to 406-444-9744; or emailed to dphhslegal@mt.gov.  These must be received by the Office of Legal Affiars no later than 5:00 pm on December 23, 2011.

We highly recommend scheduling an appointment to receive either of these services.  You can contact us at 761-6010 to schedule an appointment.  We cannot guarantee that we will be able to fingerprint or notarize unless an appointment is scheduled as specific staff members are trained to provide these services.

Starting January 1, 2012 fingerprinting costs $10.00/person being fingerprinted (includes two cards) and notary services costs $2.00/visit.

Family Connections, Inc.

Professional Development Incentive Award-Higher Education (formerly called Higher Education Merit Pay) participants may receive $750 for completion of a minimum of 6 credits or $250 for completion of 2-5 credits for Fall Semester 2011. This award has been developed with the goal of improving the quality of early care and education for young children and families, by promoting early childhood education college coursework, certificate and degree attainment. For complete details and questions, please visit www.mtecp.org.  Deadline is no later than 4:00 pm on August 5, 2011.

Participants may only apply for one of the two PDIAs and must work a minimum of 15 hours/week in a state registered group or family child care home, or a state licensed child care center, or a Montana Head Start or Tribal Head Start, or a Montana Child Care Resource and Referral Agency.  Please remember to read the complete details of the awards on www.mtecp.org under the  “What’s New” link.

The online application and pre-screening tool are available at www.app.mt.gov/mtc.

Complete your annual training hours on your terms! ChildCareTraining.org offers an array of early childhood courses that can be completed anytime, anywhere with guaranteed grading in three business days.

With nearly 30 available courses in the Course Catalog, ChildCareTraining.org covers critical early childhood issues that are relevant to your program. Through course activities, students gain practical application and knowledge of the material, which we hope will inspire improvement in overall practice. Logon today and check out our newest course, Transition Magician, added in March 2011.

ChildCareTraining.org is the centralized distance learning agency for the state of Montana. All courses are approved by the Early Childhood Project and for licensing renewal.

Child Care payments from the scheduled batch on 2/22 are delayed.  The issue is in the State Accounting system and is not in CCUBS (the database in which payment amounts are generated), which performed as it should.  The technical difficulty has nothing to do with available authority to spend or cash to make that happen.  There is a technical dysfunction.  It now appears that the dysfunction has been addressed and payments are running.  We apologize for the inconvenience of the delay.

 Steps for every scenario:

1. Find the class you desire to register for.  The complete class listing can be most easily found by clicking the calendar icon on the top of our homepage.  The classes are in chronological order.

2.  Click on Title of the Class or the “Read More” button for the class you are interested in.  You can now see the full description and class information on the right hand side of the page with a registration form on the bottom.

3.  Fill in the registration form.  At this time each person must be registered one at a time.

4.  Click the “Register” button on the bottom of the registration form.  If any information was not provided, the site will prompt you to make any corrections.  From this point, you can complete registration or register for more classes.  The next steps assume you have registered for all the classes you are interested in. 

 Registering for ONLY free classes:

5.  Click on “Complete Registration” in order to complete the registration process.

6.  This screen is now showing your “Shopping Cart” and the total is zero dollars.

7.  Click the orange button “Register Free Items”

8.  Registration is complete when you see the green box that says “You registered for X events.  We’ve received your information and have added you to our registration list.”

 Registering for ONLY classes that cost:

5.  Click on “Complete Registration” in order to complete the registration process.

6.  This screen is now showing your “Shopping Cart” with the total cost on the bottom.

7.  Click the orange button “Proceed to Checkout” and it will direct you to PayPal where you can pay by logging into a PayPal account or without logging in and simply adding your card information.

8.  (If you log into your PayPal account, skip this step.) Type in your card information and click “Review and Continue” button.

9.  Review your purchase and click “Pay Now.”

10.  At this point, if you do not automatically get redirected to Family Connections Montana website, YOU MUST CLICK “Return to Family Connections, Inc” link and allow the browser open our site.

11. Registration is complete ONLY when you see the green box that says “Thank you for your payment.  Your transaction has been completed, and a receipt for your purchase has been emailed to you.”

 Registering for Free AND Cost Classes:

5.  Steps are identical to registering for classes that cost and your free classes will remain zero dollars.

 It is important to know that registration is not complete until you have seen a green rectangular box on your screen while on www.FamilyConnectionsMT.org. 

Please contact Family Connections Montana with any questions at ccsinfo@familyconnectionsmt.org or call 406-761-6010.