The federal Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Childcare has issued the final rule (89 Fed. Reg. 15366 (March 1, 2024) (codified as 45 CFR Part 98 and effective April 30, 2024) entitled Improving Access, Affordability, and Stability in the Child Care and Development Fund. Child Care Development Block Grants are the “primary Federal funding source devoted to supporting families with low incomes access child care and to increasing the quality of child care for all children.”
As part of these changes:
Lead Agencies may require parent contributions of no more than 7% of family income for childcare, regardless of the number of children in care (and can set the contribution lower).
Lead agencies may waive co-payments for additional families such as:
those whose incomes are at or below 150% of the Federal Poverty level $45,000 for a family of 4),
children in foster or kinship care,
children who receive protective services,
children experiencing homelessness,
children enrolled in Head Start or Early Head Start,
children with a disability; or
children who meet other criteria established by the Lead Agency.
Lead Agencies are encouraged to streamline eligibility as follows:
define minimum presumptive eligibility criteria and verification requirements for up to 3 months while full eligibility verification is underway for those children who can plausibly be assumed to meet the basic requirements (funds should only be recovered from the provider if found ineligible due to fraud or intentional violation);
use a family’s enrollment in other public benefits program(s) to verify eligibility for CCDF (i.e. TANF or Head Start/Early Head Start);
use a streamlined online application, and implement screening tools directly linked to relevant applications;
align multiple children’s eligibility periods to the most-recent eligibility period (even if this extends beyond 12 months)
Lead Agencies must provide some childcare services through grants and contracts for children in underserved geographic areas, infants and toddlers, and children with disabilities;
Lead Agencies must implement payment policies consistent with the private-pay market, such as paying prospectively based on enrollment (delinking provider payment rates from occasional absences) or an alternative equally stabilizing approach approved by OCC. Lead Agencies will have the option to collect attendance information, but it would not impact payment.
Lead Agencies should strive to pay the established subsidy rate, even if this exceeds the price the provider charges to private-pay families.
Lead Agencies must base provider rates based upon findings from a market rate survey and narrow cost analysis or alternative methodology approved by OCC.