Gov. DeWine announces initiative to support children with special needs

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine

Ohioans with a special needs child will soon have more resources to help take care of them.

Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Children and Youth (DCY) Director Kara Wente have announced the creation of the Ohio Promote Resources, Opportunities and Meaningful Inclusion through Support and Education (PROMISE) program

The Initiative seeks to increase access to child care and support services for children with special needs.

"We've heard from families across the state regarding their struggle to find quality child care for children with special needs," DeWine said. "Providing training and a new provider credential, as well as program designations signal to parents where they can find child care prepared to include all children."

This program will offer several new things that will assist in this goal, including new provider credentials to provide training and support for early childhood educators to create and inclusive environment for all children. 

It will also offer a new program designation to let parents using the state's child care search tool that an educator in the program has earned the new credential.

Most notably, the program will build a Early Childhood Inclusion Center of Excellence to provide access to materials and equipment for child care professionals and the families they serve. It will also provide training and technical assistance to early childhood and education professionals.

A pilot scholarship program will also be launched that will provide assistance to special needs children whose families  live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level attending programs that have the Child Care Program designation.

This program is supported through federal ARPA Discretionary Funds.