Q&A
Challenges with old payment systems for early childhood education providers
1:27:04
ยท
87 sec
Council Member Rita Joseph inquires about providers still affected by old payment systems. Deputy Chancellor Simone Hawkins acknowledges the issue but lacks specific data on affected providers. The discussion highlights broader challenges in the early childhood education system's administrative processes.
- The DOE commits to investigating how many providers are still impacted by the old system and the total amount owed.
- Hawkins emphasizes the need for improved communication, systems, and staffing to address these issues.
- The conversation reveals tensions between the administrative requirements of running early childhood programs and providers' primary focus on childcare.
Rita Joseph
1:27:04
The same question, how many providers are still stuck in that old system?
1:27:08
How many are still stuck there, do you know?
Simone Hawkins
1:27:10
I do not know.
1:27:11
Do not know.
1:27:11
And you get
Rita Joseph
1:27:11
that information to us and how much is owed to those providers, right?
1:27:15
This is 2020, none of us were here.
1:27:19
This is wild.
1:27:21
I agree.
Simone Hawkins
1:27:21
This is wild.
1:27:22
And so again we have to we will investigate that but also every situation is different.
Rita Joseph
1:27:28
We understand that.
Simone Hawkins
1:27:29
So it's my understanding this is not to point the finger, we need to do better at communicating and working with providers so they can do what they need to do in the back office.
1:27:39
But in some cases we also do not get information so we can do the part that we need to do to move the process forward.
1:27:45
And so again, having improved systems, having more staff, we need to improve customer service, we need to be able to proactively connect with programs and say, hey, we didn't get that invoice from about two months ago, what's going on?
1:27:58
And so I will be also, my experience as a provider also have an operations background, that is not the ministry of everyone doing this work.
1:28:06
Some of them come in wanting to take care of children.
1:28:09
And that's it.
1:28:09
And we are clear about that.
1:28:11
But there is a huge administrative part to this work and so as we together co create what the future of this system will look like, I really do invite you to have any suggestions around how we could support providers in the long term who are struggling with the admin part of the work because it is, it is causing some tension and I do want to figure out a holistic solution to this problem.