The Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning (OECOSL) will launch the IN Kids system this fall, which will store your private pay rates. Programs that accept Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and/or On My Way Pre-K (OMWPK) subsidies are being asked to share private pay rates by age group to allow the overages to be accurately reflected on a child's voucher.

Storing private pay rates in the IN Kids system will eliminate the requirement of completing the Provider Information Page for each family. It will also enable the system to display the correct difference between your private pay rates and the provider reimbursement rate, to be paid to you by the family as an "overage."

A survey link will be shared tomorrow via email. The CCDF Enrollment Reporting Survey will be open Tuesday, May 13 to Friday, May 16. Programs that fail to complete the survey by the deadline will have vouchers reflecting no overage or $0, as the system will apply the provider reimbursement rate as the private pay rate. Programs will have another opportunity to enter their private rates after the IN Kids system goes live on September 2, 2025.

Child care programs should review their attendance/absences and verify payments at least every two weeks. If you find a change that needs to be made, report it immediately to your local Eligibility Office using the Roster Clean Up form. For additional assistance, call the SPARK Help Desk at 1-800-299-1627.

CCDF/On My Way Pre-K Process Reminders:

Correcting Attendance Errors: When a child care program reports they entered attendance wrong, the State can make changes up to 60 days in the past. If there was an improper payment made to the child care program due to the mistake, it will also be corrected. The State will not make changes to attendance that is older than 60 days.

Late Voucher Payments: When the eligibility office adds a backdated voucher due to an error, child care programs have 60 days from the date the voucher was added to request payment. Once approved, it will be added to the program's next payment. Requests made after 60 days will not be processed.

Payback Requests for Errors: When a child care program receives payment for a child that was not attending, this should be reported to the State immediately. To report the error, email paymentquestions@fssa.in.gov or contact your Policy Consultant. The State will make these changes as far back as needed. However, it is best practice to check your payments bi-weekly and to address problems quickly.  

About Off Days: Child Care programs should only record Off Days for a child that does not come on the same day(s) every week. Child care programs should not use Off Days for planned or unplanned absences if a child usually comes full-time. These should be recorded as Absences.

Excessive Absences: As a reminder, providers and families receive excessive absence notification emails or letters for 10, 20, 30, and 35 absences. Providers should regularly check their attendance submissions for accuracy and encourage families to use the parent portal to monitor their absences.