INSIDE OKDHS IN THE NEWS, JANUARY 2014 (MUSIC PLAYS) Mark Beutler: Hello everybody and Happy New Year! I'm Mark Beutler from the Office of Communications and once again it's time to find out what's happening In The News. Our first two stories involve something of great interest to all state employees: salaries and benefits. Both of these items are big news. Beginning June 16, the Department of Human Services is converting to a bi-weekly pay system. Over the past few years, many other state agencies switched over to bi-weekly, with DHS being one of the remaining few to adhere to the old system. This change will allow employees to receive pay more frequently, eliminate the need to keep a minimum leave balance and allow all employees to be paid at the same time. Employees will be given the option of selling up to 80 hours of leave to make the transition as smooth as possible. The leave may be annual or sick, or a combination of the two, and is totally voluntary. Please continue to watch the Infonet, and the Finance Division will provide more details in the coming weeks and months. The next story involves salary and benefit news for all state employees. It's less immediate but no less interesting. For some time now, state officials have been discussing the state of public employee pay and how to efficiently run government yet afford a competitive wage to attract qualified staff. In order to make informed recommendations, the House of Representatives constructed House Bill 1717 to fund a study into how Oklahoma stacks up against other states in terms of salary and benefits. The results of this study will serve as a resource in discussions about employee compensation for the Legislature, the Governor's Office and the State Office of Finance. The international consulting corporation, The Hay Group, was contracted to compare the salaries in nine states and report on where Oklahoma stands. With that information, Neville Kenning of Kenning Consulting, authored a 5-year reformation plan. Many suggestions are made in the report. Some include moving away from legislative mandates regarding pay, changes in sick leave allotments and changes in the way we think of longevity pay. The report is detailed and comprehensive. You'll want to look at it for yourself. While no one expects these recommendations to be adopted across the board they will be a major resource in the changes to come. You can view the report online by logging onto the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services website. The report was released last month and the link is easily located on the front page of the site. In other news, Oklahoma is once again leading the way in protecting our children. Child Care Aware, a leader in child care advocacy and resources, among others, has touted Oklahoma's newest program to protect children in child care as one of the best. As a result of 2011 legislation DHS is now requiring a national fingerprint background check for anyone working in a child care center or home, anyone opening a new facility or anyone with unsupervised access to children in child care. Through the use of state-of-the-art fingerprint scanning and record searches, criminal history will be available much more quickly than ever before. Veronica Franks from Child Care Services told us a little about the new system. No Audio: Veronica Franks û Program Process Administrator, Child Care Services Veronica Franks: Child Care Services is very excited about the new fingerprint program. Implementing this allows the licensing records office to complete criminal history reviews using national results. The benefit of this is that we are protecting our children in child care but we are also allowing providers to use the same results to go from program to program. So if they work for more than one program they can use those same results. It also allows us to receive rap back on an individual, which means we will be able to get any future arrest. Mark Beutler: Oklahoma's DHS has long been at the forefront of child care licensing practices, and was the first in the nation to implement a quality rating and improvement system called "Reaching for the Stars." Following Oklahoma's lead, more than 40 other states have implemented a similar system. Now, with this new fingerprinting system our state again leads the way in making children safer. Next up, we want to offer our congratulations to our own Amy Roberts who has been named County Director for District 12 in Region 5. Amy has been with the agency for quite some time serving in county offices and the State Office. Currently, she's reporting for duty in Rogers, Mayes and Craig counties. Again, we offer our congratulations and we know these three counties will benefit from Amy's leadership abilities. Among the many areas addressed by the Pinnacle Plan, one is working toward improving child well-being. To this end, the Avedis Foundation in Shawnee has awarded grants in four communities. With a total of over $400,000, the grant will allow staffing of key health and counseling positions in the public school systems and communities of Asher, Maud, Wanette and McComb. Asher Public Schools will receive money to help fund a school-based service worker through DHS. DHS took the lead in assisting the Pottawatomie County Child Welfare Collaborative in the funding application process. The collaborative was established through the Oklahoma Pinnacle Plan and includes DHS and a host of service agencies in the county. This initiative puts in place services that help communities improve services for child welfare. If you'd like to learn more about the funding organization, the Avedis Foundation, visit their website at avedisfoundation.org. No Audio: Oklahoma DHS Black Heritage Celebration, 18 February 2014. 11:00a.m. û 1:00p.m. at the Metro Technology Center, 1900 Springlake Drive, Oklahoma City. Looking ahead, the DHS Black Heritage Celebration will be held on February 18th at 11:00 a.m. at the Metro Technology Center in Oklahoma City. This annual event honors the many contributions to Oklahoma by our African-American citizens. Food, entertainment and special awards will make this celebration a wonderful afternoon for all who attend. We'll send our cameras to the event and bring you highlights in an upcoming webcast. Our next story takes us back to December for the annual lighting of the State Christmas Tree at the Oklahoma State Capitol. This year, a special connection to DHS was celebrated. Amy and Brandon Paulson and their very special family were honored at the event. The Paulsons were DHS foster parents when they were asked by DHS to consider adopting six siblings who were in state custody. The Paulsons agreed and an instant forever-family was born. When Governor Fallin heard about this beautiful family, she requested the Paulsons attend the lighting ceremony so the world could meet these wonderful citizens. It was a very special evening, full of holiday spirit. The Paulson children got to enjoy a front row view of the tree lighting and log a little face time with Santa Claus. Our final story also takes us back to a December event. A very special celebration was held to commemorate The Foster Grandparents Program's 40th anniversary. Back in 1973, the Corporation for National and Community Service and our own Developmental Disabilities Services Division began the Senior Corps' Foster Grandparent Program. It connects volunteers over 55 years old with children who have special needs. The volunteers meet with the children in schools, head-start programs and child care facilities to share love and assistance helping the children improve physical, mental, social and academic development. This is a very special group of seniors and everyone enjoyed this 40th anniversary party. We'll leave you now with these photos and we'll see you again next month. (MUSIC PLAYS)