Car Seats Now Only for CPS Week

The Florida OPRC car seat section of our program is wildly successful this year, with seats reaching needy families in more areas of Florida with new technicians ordering seats (through CPS instructors). Due to such high success, funds are depleting faster than previous years, thus remaining car seat orders for this grant year are now reserved for CPS Week events only.

When making a car seat order, please mark your CPS Week event information in the order notes for your order to be processed. All event orders will be held until the end of July, where the car seat funds will be divided up between orders to best meet most, if not all of the requested amounts, of all events. Orders will be placed at the beginning of August to be delivered by the end of August in time for September events.

Remember that all car seat recipients are required to participate in a CPS week event. See the CPS Week web post for more information on promoting your event, and NHTSA spreadsheets to turn in on your events. 

*We will have FHP car seats ($2 Difference seats) in shortly, and those can be ordered for general distribution.*

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6/13/14: There were several questions from you on this special ordering situation:

Why must seats be held only for CPS Week events?

If we continue at the current car seat ordering rate, funds will be depleted by the end of this month. The FDOT Safety Office has reporting requirements for CPS Week and if we have no car seats to distribute during September, Ralph will only get only a few CPS Week events to report to our funding source that helps pay for these car seats (NHTSA). Which means less money in future grant years. We need more money, so CPS Week events are VITAL to having funds for car seats.  This is why there is a CPS Week event requirement in this year’s car seat recipient agreement form, which all CPS Instructors digitally signed to order seats. This same requirement applies to all technicians who ordered seats through these CPS Instructors.

When is the end of the grant year?

September 30th. October will begin the new grant year, with funds and vendor purchase agreements usually in place and spendable in November.

Do we need to order seats now for CPS week?

To meet the need of CPS Week events across the state as best as possible, we will collect orders for CPS week event seats through July 31st. At that time we will divide the remaining funds and Distribution Center seats among the orders. Orders will be processed at the beginning of August in order for deliveries to be made by the end of August, in plenty of time for events.

We guarantee that all CPS week event orders placed through July 31st will receive most, if not all of their seat order quantities.

When can we order seats for general distribution?

Once CPS Week events are complete (September 20th), any remaining seats at Distribution Centers will be available for general distribution ordering. Dropship funds will be depleted by that time for this grant year. DC Seats may be depleted as well, so make plans now for what you will do for CPS Week events and place your order by July 31st.

Can we pick up seats from the Distribution Centers for general distribution?

Not until after September 20th. All DC seats are reserved for CPS Week events order fulfillment.

What do we do about car seats in the meantime?

All OPRC seat recipients are highly encouraged to ask for donations for any OPRC seats distributed to the general public. This is to assist your local program in purchasing items needed for your fitting stations, including more car seats. Evenflo is extending their bulk price rate to our Florida CPS personnel; contact Patsy Pilcher for more information. Also, child restraints will be tax exempt in Florida as of July 1st. Check your local CR vendors for specials.

Will the FHP seats be distributed county-by-county like last year?

Yes, the FHP seats will be divided up in proportion to the amount of donations that each county citizen donated. The quantity is expected to be the same as last year, and should be available by June 30th. CPS Instructors who assisted last year will be contacted to assist in their distribution this year. These seats must be distributed completely free (no donations accepted) and require a financial affidavit be signed by the family for each seat and delivered to the OPRC by August 31st.

What can we do to not be in this same short notice situation next grant year?

The current cap of 24 per order worked well the first couple of years. More and more technicians are ordering this year, reaching even more parts of the state. Which is a good thing! But it is depleting the funds quicker. Discussions will be made on how to better utilize caps for the next grant year, perhaps capping by organization or by county.  We encourage your thoughts on the matter by emailing the OPRC or leaving your thoughts on the anonymous feedback form on the OPRC website.

Thank you all for your understanding of the situation. We strive to assist you as best as we can to reach as many families as possible with the funds.