Changes to Child Care Assistance Program

Jul 24, 2020

Effective July 1, the IDHS Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) is returning to normal policies and procedures with some modifications. The memo above is being released to provide information on these changes.

Income Eligibility and Co-Payments
All income eligibility levels have been re-indexed to the current Federal Poverty Level amounts effective July 1. In addition, all copayment amounts are being adjusted so a family will not pay more than 7% of their reported gross income. These new copayments will go into effect the next time a family’s eligibility is determined by the CCR&R or Site Administered provider. Until then, co-payments will be assessed at the level they were in March. The $1.00 co-payment ended in June. The new guidelines can be found at https://www.dhs.state.il.us/onenetlibrary/12/documents/Forms/IL444-3455B.pdf

Redeterminations
CCAP cases will no longer be auto-extended as they were for March, April, May and June. We are returning to our normal redetermination process. All cases ending after June 30 must have their eligibility redetermined to remain on CCAP.

Priority Essential Worker (PEW) Cases
The Priority Essential Worker designation for CCAP ended in June. Parents that were classified as Priority Essential Workers may apply for CCAP through the regular application process and must meet income guidelines to continue receiving child care assistance.

90-day Grace Period
Families who are no longer employed should report that to the CCR&R or Site Administered provider. If the job loss happened between 3/21 and 6/30 they will be given a 90-day job loss grace period that starts on 7/1.

Parent Signatures on Certificates
Child Care Certificates for home providers will once again require a parent signature. This requirement had been waived for the months of March through June.

Enrollment Attendance and Payment Policies
Effective July 1, a provider must be open and serving children in order to be paid for CCAP services.

Provider many not bill for more children than they can legally serve under DCFS emergency rules.
Line out children on the billing certificate that have dropped out or are no longer enrolled due to reduced capacity and list the last day of care or notify your CCR&R to have them removed.
Only children that are in attendance should be counted as “attended”. Distance learning activities to CCAP children that are not physically in attendance do not count as attended.
The 80% payment rule is being revised to 50%. Licensed and license-exempt centers and licensed home providers will be paid for all approved days of care if children attend at least 50% of the days.
Providers may request a waiver if attendance falls below 50% or if the program is forced to close due to COVID related reasons.

Child Care Restoration Grants
The Illinois General Assembly has directed at least $270 million of the state’s Coronavirus Urgent Remediation Emergency (CURE) Fund to support the economic health of child care providers as our economy reopens in the coming months. The Child Care Restoration Grant Program is designed to support licensed child care programs that lost revenue due to a restriction of their business as a result the COVID-19 public health emergency. Providers can get more information and apply on-line beginning July 24 at https://www.ilgateways.com/financialopportunities/restoration-grants.

Topics

CCAP