OAR 414-900-0020: Selection Criteria for Hub Contracts

The Early Learning Council may fund no more than seven Hub Demonstration Projects in fiscal year 2013-2014. The ELC will release a request for applications for Hubs in August 2013. A Hub may provide services to a geographic area or a community of interest. The ELC and Hubs, through either communities of geography or communities of interest, will serve no fewer than 50,000 at risk children in year one. (1) The ELC will award Hub Demonstration Project contracts based on the degree to which any individual Hub demonstrates the following application criteria: (a) Representation of the five functional sectors: health care services, human and social services, education services, early childhood services, and business in its governance (b) A defined service area and cross-sector coordination, including identifying a target population and high quality services for at-risk children and their families, (c) Accountability for outcomes and return on investment, including improving the results for at-risk children by the ability to identify, evaluate and implement coordinated strategies for ensuring that a child is ready to succeed at school, (d) Ability to coordinate the provision of early learning services across five functional sectors to the community served by the Hub through a governance model or community advisory body that was transparently selected and includes: (A) Formal partnership agreements from the following sectors: early childhood education, K-12 education, coordinated care organizations and other public health entities, human services, the private sector and local governments within the proposed service area. (B) Ability of governance body to initiate audits, recommend terms of contracts for service providers and provide outcome reports to the public and to the ELC. (e) Ability to demonstrate that parents of at-risk children have meaningfully participated in the creation of Hub strategies and plans and will serve an ongoing role as part of the entity’s governing structure and will be the foundation of Hub service design, reflecting the principle that children are best raised and supported in families. (f) Commitment and ability to serve at least 40% of the population of at-risk children in the entity’s proposed service area by the end of year 2. (g) Commitment to collect and track system and client level data using a unique identifier for each child served. (h) Demonstration of business acumen and operational stability, including: (A) Use of coordinated and transparent budgeting for all providers funded directly by the Hub, (B) Documentation of previous financial audits and cash reserves, as well as liability insurance as required by state law, (C) Ability to provide a match of 25% of funds distributed to the entity by the ELC, (D) Ability to keep administrative overhead at or below 15% across the Early Learning System, and (E) Ability to provide monthly financial reports to Department of Early Learning and Care staff. (F) Ability to identify with which federal, state or other funding streams if the lead applicant provides direct services to children covered by the Hub. (i) Identify any financial, role or function conflict of interest (ii) Provide a plan for how those conflicts will be managed (iii) Provide evidence of financial and functional separation and risk independence of the lead applicant’s direct service delivery function from the Hub function. (2) Any application that does not meet the criteria is not eligible for the award of a Hub contract.