Interesting info about Child Care Development Fund

[Heidi]

If this goes through, it will affect all of us who accept subsidized families.

https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/05/20/2013-11673/child-care-and-development-fund-ccdf-program

[itlw8]

The way I read it my state already requires most of those things. Except 40 hours of training before starting Mo does one thing that I disagree with and this would solve it. Unlicensed people can provide subsidy care IF they have a background check and the fire marshall visit. they also can get the food program for the subsidy children and their own if the income qualifies.
BUT they do not have to have cpr fIRST AID or annual training and no surprise inspections from licensing or health depts. That is just SO WRONG.

[nanglgrl]

I didn't see any huge flags but I confess I skimmed through the article. One thing that caught my attention was getting rid of copays. I've not had one state assistance client in 10 years who couldn't afford their copays and in fact all of them could have afforded to pay much more for their childcare because they seem to always have extra money for nails, hair, trips and nice cars. I'm sure there are some people out there on assistance who barely get by but I've never met one that didn't have money for non needed items. In my state the copays gets larger when the family makes more and the hope is eventually they make enough to pay for daycare out of their own pocket. I think a gradually increasing copay is great as it teaches the parents that daycare and children aren't free and teaches them to be financially responsible.

[Heidi]

I didn't see any huge flags but I confess I skimmed through the article. One thing that caught my attention was getting rid of copays. I've not had one state assistance client in 10 years who couldn't afford their copays and in fact all of them could have afforded to pay much more for their childcare because they seem to always have extra money for nails, hair, trips and nice cars. I'm sure there are some people out there on assistance who barely get by but I've never met one that didn't have money for non needed items. In my state the copays gets larger when the family makes more and the hope is eventually they make enough to pay for daycare out of their own pocket. I think a gradually increasing copay is great as it teaches the parents that daycare and children aren't free and teaches them to be financially responsible.

WI has gotten pretty tight with giving out this assistance. Still, it's not set up at all for people to improve. Usually, a slightly better job gets you enough of a raise in co-pay that there's little incentive to improve. Also, an unregulated provider cannot get subsidy clients in WI. The way things are going, they will not change that.

I LIKE that they are considering doing this in a different way. I like that money set aside for childcare subsidy (hopefully) will be USED for subsidy so that people can work. I think it said 70% must go directly to paying for childcare, and that continuity of care will be considered. Right now, it's not. If a parent looses their job, they IMMEDIATELY loose daycare funding. Kind of hard to find a new job then, because even if you find a job, your kid's spot might be gone. This sets the kiddos up for failure because there is no stability in their lives. Also, less and less good providers are taking subsidy clients because the turnover is so high. You can have an authorization in place one day, and suddenly it's gone without notice. This is new-WI started doing that last year, and it stinks.

I don't know if education is addressed, but I would like to see parents be able to get some childcare assistance if they want to get a 2-year degree. There would be conditions as far as class load, minimum GPA, and length of time it is covered for school. In this way, people on assistance might be able to actually make some headway. The old "you can give a man a fish, or you can teach them to fish..."

[nanglgrl]

In Iowa assistance clients can get days approved for a job search and can use chilscare for 4 years while in school if they are considered a full time student. It would be nice if they would let part time students get childcare assistance because here if you go to school half-time and work 26 hours you can't get assustance. You can only get assistance if you work at least 28 hours for work and can only get assistance for school if you are in school full time. To me this encourages people to not work while in school or just to work and not take a few classes to get ahead.

[nanglgrl]

WI has gotten pretty tight with giving out this assistance. Still, it's not set up at all for people to improve. Usually, a slightly better job gets you enough of a raise in co-pay that there's little incentive to improve. Also, an unregulated provider cannot get subsidy clients in WI. The way things are going, they will not change that. ."

In Iowa unregistered providers can get paid by the state but they get a lower reimbursement. Unregistered providers don't have to do nearly as much in my state as registered providers so I think it's pretty fair.
I'm not 100% certain but I'm pretty sure we never run out of funding. I've never heard a single story of someone applying here and not getting approved (unless they made to much or weren't working at least 28 hours or going to school full time).
I guess I would look at getting a better paying job or a raise that resulted in my copay being higher as a good thing. I would think people should look at the being it that they are paying more of their bills and relying on the state.
We have our problems though. A lot of providers in my area don't take subsidy. It used to be because they paid so much less than the average rate but our union has worked hard and the state is now paying about the average rate. We aren't allowed to charge clients the difference. Also everything is streamlined online now which is so much easier for billing but we still have to print out the hours for parents to sign to keep for our records and the state can request them at any time. It's a lot of printing and we are supposed to keep them for 5 years I think so state pay clients cost me extra time because I have to bill them and extra money because if printing costs.

[Heidi]

In Iowa unregistered providers can get paid by the state but they get a lower reimbursement. Unregistered providers don't have to do nearly as much in my state as registered providers so I think it's pretty fair.
I'm not 100% certain but I'm pretty sure we never run out of funding. I've never heard a single story of someone applying here and not getting approved (unless they made to much or weren't working at least 28 hours or going to school full time).
I guess I would look at getting a better paying job or a raise that resulted in my copay being higher as a good thing. I would think people should look at the being it that they are paying more of their bills and relying on the state.
We have our problems though. A lot of providers in my area don't take subsidy. It used to be because they paid so much less than the average rate but our union has worked hard and the state is now paying about the average rate. We aren't allowed to charge clients the difference. Also everything is streamlined online now which is so much easier for billing but we still have to print out the hours for parents to sign to keep for our records and the state can request them at any time. It's a lot of printing and we are supposed to keep them for 5 years I think so state pay clients cost me extra time because I have to bill them and extra money because if printing costs.

You know, that is a healthy perspective, but for someone that's been "in the system" for a while, I don't think it connects that way. Here's my example:

My dcm has 2 kids, 20 months and 10 yo. She is in her late 20's. For the last two years, she has been going to the online college to get her AA degree (full-time) and working at fast-food place for as many hours as they'll give her. The hours there were unreliable.

Subsidy would only give her 25 hours or so (the average), and her-copay is almost nothing, except that they won't cover any absent time because I'm family childcare (full licensed). So, I take a hit because she made just about minimum wage, and if she doesn't get hours she doesn't get paid, and realistically cannot pay me for those hours. For him, I get no paid days off what-so-ever. She pays $15 per week as her co-pay, and I take whatever the state will cover when I submit my attendance hours. At most, that's $80. So, although he takes up a full-time slot (which would be $130), I get about $95.

The subsidy program will give her NO hours for study time, so she's up until 2 in the morning a lot of the time doing school work when her kiddos sleep.

She quit the fast food job and works in a nursing home because it's a raise of about $1.50 per hour. There, she must work weekends, so dcb is now here only 3 or 4 days per week. One weekends, she hires a neighbor out of pocket, or her mother or aunt take the kids. I'm not licensed on weekends, so even if I wanted to, I can't take them. Oh, and she leaves her house at 5:30 am to travel the 30 miles in her older-model car to get to work.

The outcome so far (after 5 weeks?):
-She's not ahead one penny financially because of the increased gas costs and the change in her co-pay. Her work hours have been a little more stable.

-dcb wakes up when she leaves for work and now has all sorts of behavioral issues because he doesn't get enough sleep. He was a sweet toddler, but one day last week he was actually hitting himself with toys (in the head) out of frustration. If you would have been observing him that day, you would have thought he had a major issue.
-10 year old's behavior has been awful because she hardly sees her mom (she was in summer school until last week, so even on mom's day's off, she was at school).
-mom is exhausted and crabby because she's not sleeping either, trying to get through her last semester of school. She WAS going to get her BA, but has decided she's going to take a break. Hopefully, this doesn't mean never going back.

This mother is absolutely trying to better her situation and that of her kids. I just wish they could have allowed her some hours for school. Then, she could have stayed at her other job while dcb consistently attended childcare. She could have finished school, gotten a much better job, and be off the system completely in a short time.

I am very concerned about what will happen if her car breaks down. This will set off a chain of events that will set her back years. She's exactly the kind of person that truly needs help and is willing to work her tushie off.

[nanglgrl]

I am very concerned about what will happen if her car breaks down. This will set off a chain of events that will set her back years. She's exactly the kind of person that truly needs help and is willing to work her tushie off.

I've been in the same predicament as your client. I was a single mother of 2 (even about the same ages as your client) who was working and going to school. It's not a fun place to be but it's workable.
One thing to think of is that because of the earned income tax credit your client most likely recieved a nice tax credit in January. My client with one child who works about 32 hours a week on average recieved over $5000. She went on a few trips and bought a few things with the money when it could have paid her daycare cost for the year, or went onto a rainy day fund for her car etc. 7 months later and it's gone. She gets rent assistance, electrical assistance, food stamps, free daycare, WIC, income from work and her school is paid for. If you were to add up the cost of all of her assistance and tax refund she probably makes more per year than I do.
Like any program there are problems though. In Iowa a person can go from having no copay for daycare and then loosing their daycare assistance after getting $1 raise. So they can go from paying nothing fir daycare and then they get a raise of $160 a month but have to start paying $500 a month for daycare.
I think the program needs changes but I don't think just throwing money at it and requiring providers to do more for state pay, even though the state usually pays less than private pay clients, is the solution.
I think assistance clients should always have some sort of copay (even if its a dollar a week) so they make the connection that daycare costs money. In Iowa we definitely need a better phase out program so people are encouraged to get better paying jobs. Clients who recieve assistance should have an income maintenance worker who actually handles all of their money. Their paychecks and tax returns should go into an account and bills should automatically be paid out of that account. Assistance should only cover what tax refunds and income doesn't. The client should be a part of this process so they know how much things cost and where their money goes. I think their should be a lifetime cap on the amount a person can receive that can be extended if the person is meeting certain requirements if staying employed.
A past client of mine was homeless and living in a shelter with 2 children. The shelter pretty much did things as I described above and it worked wonderfully. I recently bought an item online and when I went to pick it up the person lived in low rent housing. She had bought the item I was buying with her tax return but now her car broke down so she needed to sell it (for 1/3 of the price) for money to fix her car. I walked into her apartment and saw her food stamp card sitting on the table next to her iPad. She had a flat screen TV, expensive furniture and an iPhone. It was ridiculous and I've seen it time and time again.
It seems that there is so much assistance offered that people who make little enough to get assistance are doing much better than the lower middle class.
I'm sorry I just realized I'm totally off the topic of this thread! Lol!
I'm one if the few registered providers in my area that accepts subsidy and I've decided to only take subsidy if the client is a college student. Even the centers in my area cap the amount of subsidy clients they take.
I think by saying providers need to do more to be able to accept subsidy will hurt subsidy clients more than it will help. Do I think they are great ideas? Yes, but in reality they will just end up with less daycares that accept subsidy if they don't increase what they pay providers.

[Heidi]

I've been in the same predicament as your client. I was a single mother of 2 (even about the same ages as your client) who was working and going to school. It's not a fun place to be but it's workable.
One thing to think of is that because of the earned income tax credit your client most likely recieved a nice tax credit in January. My client with one child who works about 32 hours a week on average recieved over $5000. She went on a few trips and bought a few things with the money when it could have paid her daycare cost for the year, or went onto a rainy day fund for her car etc. 7 months later and it's gone. She gets rent assistance, electrical assistance, food stamps, free daycare, WIC, income from work and her school is paid for. If you were to add up the cost of all of her assistance and tax refund she probably makes more per year than I do.
Like any program there are problems though. In Iowa a person can go from having no copay for daycare and then loosing their daycare assistance after getting $1 raise. So they can go from paying nothing fir daycare and then they get a raise of $160 a month but have to start paying $500 a month for daycare.
I think the program needs changes but I don't think just throwing money at it and requiring providers to do more for state pay, even though the state usually pays less than private pay clients, is the solution.
I think assistance clients should always have some sort of copay (even if its a dollar a week) so they make the connection that daycare costs money. In Iowa we definitely need a better phase out program so people are encouraged to get better paying jobs. Clients who recieve assistance should have an income maintenance worker who actually handles all of their money. Their paychecks and tax returns should go into an account and bills should automatically be paid out of that account. Assistance should only cover what tax refunds and income doesn't. The client should be a part of this process so they know how much things cost and where their money goes. I think their should be a lifetime cap on the amount a person can receive that can be extended if the person is meeting certain requirements if staying employed.
A past client of mine was homeless and living in a shelter with 2 children. The shelter pretty much did things as I described above and it worked wonderfully. I recently bought an item online and when I went to pick it up the person lived in low rent housing. She had bought the item I was buying with her tax return but now her car broke down so she needed to sell it (for 1/3 of the price) for money to fix her car. I walked into her apartment and saw her food stamp card sitting on the table next to her iPad. She had a flat screen TV, expensive furniture and an iPhone. It was ridiculous and I've seen it time and time again.
It seems that there is so much assistance offered that people who make little enough to get assistance are doing much better than the lower middle class.
I'm sorry I just realized I'm totally off the topic of this thread! Lol!
I'm one if the few registered providers in my area that accepts subsidy and I've decided to only take subsidy if the client is a college student. Even the centers in my area cap the amount of subsidy clients they take.
I think by saying providers need to do more to be able to accept subsidy will hurt subsidy clients more than it will help. Do I think they are great ideas? Yes, but in reality they will just end up with less daycares that accept subsidy if they don't increase what they pay providers.

I think we're on the same page here. Personally, I think that EIC needs to be given out differently, or not at all. I'd rather see money given for college scholarships or in the form of grants for a working vehicle or towards a home-ownership fund or something. I'm not saying the working poor shouldn't have any luxuries at all; just, like you said, no one really NEEDS a big screen tv.

It's ok if we went off subject. I like a nice, civil discussion where we all solve all the world's problems. ::

[itlw8]

In Mo they pay so little unless you live in the city and attend a center. They base rates on surveys they send out and many providers do not return them expecially those who do not take subsidy.

$9 a day is what they pay so the parent has to pay the rest PLUS the copay. so for many they can not afford it so yes they go to a registered provider that does not have to follow the rules.... solution PAY MORE.

tHEN IF A CHILD IS IN fOSTER care you can not charge the rest of the fee. Ok they do pay a few more dollars a day but it is still Far under to going rate unless it is in a center. Then If a child is adopted from Foster care they can still get the subsidy but the provider may not charge the rest of the fee still.

[Cradle2crayons]

I'm sure you have all already heard my rant about subsidy

But here it is again.

Mississippi provides subsidy for college students, for those in a work program ( which basically means they go file papers at the local government offices for free labor and they call it community service).

They are required to work 25 hours a week unless their child has a medical exemption.

After six months, they get rechecked and re certified.

The state pays family daycare homes $8 a day. If you make low enough money, yu don't pay a copay though but the highest copay is only $30 a month anyway.

For a family of three (2 kids and one parent) the cut off income per month for guaranteed subsidy is approximately $2000 a month. After that they cut you off.

I'm legally unlicensed, but I only get $8 a day per child and the parent pays e rest. None of my families have to pay a co pay though.

There are very few centers that accept subsidy, but they get paid more. In my rural area, if parents choose a center to save money, they'd have to drive an hour one way for care. And since the only jobs available are shift work, that wouldn't work anyway.

I'm approved to keep subsidy kids any day of e week and any hour of the week. It's called "non traditional subsidy"