|
Child Care Services is pleased to share an overview of legislative changes related to the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP).
In addition to the changes below, the 2023 legislature passed the creation of the new Department of Children, Youth, and Families. This new cabinet-level agency will be established in July 2024 and fully staffed by July 2025. For more information on the new department, visit https://mn.gov/mmb/dcyf-implementation/.
The 2023 legislative changes for the Child Care Assistance Program include:
- Increases Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) rates and registration fees to the 75th percentile of market rates with updates based on the market rate survey completed every three years. The first increase will occur on October 30, 2023 and then increases will occur every three years, starting in January 2025 based on most recent market rate survey results. The department will share more information this fall regarding the October rate changes.
- Clarifies that child care providers may provide discounts, scholarships or other financial assistance to families. Providers cannot charge families who use CCAP more than private, full paying families.
- Increases investment in the Basic Sliding Fee child care to increase access to an estimated 500 additional families, including 1,000 children. The additional funds are available to local agencies beginning in January 2024.
- Effective July 1, 2023, the Basic Sliding Fee child care waiting list was permanently reprioritized to expedite access to CCAP for families currently not receiving support.
- Beginning in August 2024, CCAP eligibility will expand to include foster parents and relative custodians, resulting in an estimated increase of 1,300 more families and 2,600 children.
- Beginning in May 2025, CCAP will provide up to 20 hours of child care assistance for children aged six and under in households accessing MFIP where the primary caregiver has a mental health diagnosis.
- Beginning in April 2025, CCAP will centralize and streamline provider registration and renewals and remove duplicative background studies for legal nonlicensed CCAP providers. Providers will register, renew and make changes to their registrations with state agency staff instead of local agencies.
- By July 2026, an implementation plan will be created for a new Great Start Scholarship Program. The new program would integrate administrative and funding structures of early care and learning programs by July 2028. This includes Early Learning Scholarships and CCAP, with the long-term goal to cap family contributions to child care costs at 7% of income.
- Create a cost-of-child care estimation model for early care and learning programs that could be used to make payments for programs like CCAP and Early Learning Scholarships.
- Effective July 1, 2023, changes that support program integrity include allowing:
- The department to stop payments or close a provider’s registration, when the state receives information about investigations, suspected fraud, or exclusions from any state or federally funded programs; and
- Child care providers to request reconsideration if they believe the department mistakenly cited child care assistance violations in an order of corrective action.
Questions?
Contact your local Child Care Assistance Program agency (county, Tribe or other agency that administers the program) with any questions. Local agencies must handle all specific case and payment actions.
For general policy questions, contact the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ Child Care Assistance Provider Line at 651-431-4848 or by email at DHS.CCAP@state.mn.us
|
