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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: December 3, 2007 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. ~- - r <br />SUBJECT: To Accept Annual Report and Recommendations on Child Care from the Social <br />Services Board <br />DEPARTMENT: Social Services PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Report <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Nancy Coston, 245-2800 <br />Denise Shaffer, 968-2000 <br />Joe Robbins 245-2800 <br />PURPOSE: To accept the annual report from the Social Services Board on the progress being <br />made in providing child subsidy for families in Orange County and to accept the <br />recommendations of the Social Services Board. <br />BACKGROUND: The Child Care Task Force, created by the Board of County Commissioners, <br />completed its work and made its final report to the Board in November 2006. The Social <br />Services Board was charged by the Board of Commissioners with reporting annually on the <br />progress in providing subsidies and in meeting the recommendations of the Task Force. <br />The Social Services Board is submitting its first annual report for acceptance by the Board of <br />Commissioners. This report was previously provided to the Board of County Commissioners <br />and discussed with the Social Services Board at an October 2007 joint meeting. Some. of the <br />findings in the report include: subsidy dollars increased last year with both local and state <br />contributions; more children are now being served; and the waiting time for employed parents <br />was reduced from 15 months to 3 months. The Task Force report recommended that <br />benchmarks be established in several areas and the Social Services Board recommends that <br />the following benchmarks be used for measuring progress: <br />1. The maximum length of time for working families to wait for subsidy is four months and <br />the Board of County Commissioners will be notified when the wait times exceed this <br />amount. <br />2. The total amount of subsidy funds available through Social Services to serve families will <br />increase annually. The total of amount of subsidy expenditures in Fiscal Year 2006-2007 <br />was $4,303,412. <br />