Child Care Policy for Children Affected by Hurricane Harvey
Discussion Paper
Background
On August 25, 2017, Texas took a direct hit from Hurricane Harvey. The severe flooding, storm surge, and damaging winds devastated our coastal communities, leaving Houston—the nation’s fourth-largest city—underwater and flooding even inland communities far from the coast. Thirty-nine Texas counties have been declared federal disaster areas. Seven local workforce development areas (workforce areas) have been approved for federal public and individual assistance. Additionally, four counties in four workforce areas with limited or no storm damage have been approved for federal public-assistance resources to help manage the influx of evacuees. Many communities and counties outside the declared disaster areas also have also been affected. Hurricane Harvey is likely the costliest natural disaster in Texas history.
The Texas Workforce Commission’s (TWC) three-member Commission (Commission) is scheduled to meet on September 21, 2017, to consider requesting the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to waive certain Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) regulations.The purpose of the waiver request is to:
- provide emergency and temporary (less than a 12-month period) child care services for children affected by the hurricane;
- allow children affected by the hurricane to be enrolled in child care services pending the documentation and eligibility verification process; and
- provide relief to the state with respect to thematching fund requirement because of the expected reductions of local public child care expenditures used as state match.
The waiver request states that unless otherwise indicated, the request is only for children who are:
- directly affected by Hurricane Harvey; and
- not in care before August 26, 2017.
Children in care before August 26, 2017, will continue to receive care through the 12-month period and will be eligible for redetermination of eligibility at the end of the current 12-month eligibility period pursuant to TWC rules.This discussion paper addresses issues related to continuity of care and provider payments for children enrolled in care before August 26, 2017.
Decision Points for Currently-Enrolled Children
Staff is seeking Commission guidance on the followingissues related to child care services for children affected by Hurricane Harvey who were enrolled in care or determined eligible for child care before August 26, 2017. The decision points for currently-enrolled children do not require HHS waiver approval and are not contingent upon additional federal emergency relief funding through HHS.
Issue 1: Continued Care for CurrentlyEnrolled Families
Pursuant to 45 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §98.21(a)(1), §809.51(a) of TWC’s Child Care Servicesrules requires that child care services must continue if the child’s parent experiences a temporary change in work, education or job training participation.Additionally, pursuant to 45 CFR §98.21(a)(2), §809.51(b) requires Local Workforce Development Boards (Boards) to end child care services if the parent experiences a permanent change in work, education, or training following three months of continued child care that was provided to enable the parent to look for work.Pursuant to CFR §98.21(a)(2)(ii), §809.51(c) of the Child Care rules requires that if the parent resumes participation in activities by the end of the three-month period, then child care continues through the end of the 12-month eligibility period.
For enrolled children affected by Hurricane Harvey, if the parent is displaced from work, training, or education activities because of the hurricane, then TWCcould consider this to be a temporary status change, and care would continue pursuant to §809.51(a)(1) from September 1, 2017 through November 30, 2017without being subject to termination.
However, if theparent is not participating or is not scheduled to participate in work, training, or education activities by December 1, 2017, then the temporary displacement would be considered a permanent loss of job, training, or education activities, and care would be subject to termination pending the three-month job search periodfrom December 1, 2017 through February 28, 2018 pursuant to §809.51(b).Pursuant to §809.51(c), care would continue through the remainder of the 12-month eligibility period if the parent resumes work, training, or education activities during the job search period.
Therefore, the parent would receive three months of continued assistance under the temporary displacement period from September 1, 2017, through November 30, 2017.If the parent remains displaced on December 1, 2017, the parent will receive an additional three months of child care for job search between December 1, 2017, and February 28, 2018.If the parent is not participating or is not scheduled to participate in work, training, or education activities by March 1, 2018, then care would be terminated.
Issue 2: Temporary Extension of the Recertification Period
Boards may extend the 12-month eligibility period if the parent is experiencing a temporary status change at the time of the scheduled eligibility redetermination.The new redetermination date occurs when the temporary status change ends.However, pursuant to §809.51, if a currentlyenrolled family is experiencing a permanent job loss at the time of the scheduled 12-month eligibility redetermination, then the family is not eligible for child care at redetermination.
Additionally, families in the federal disaster area whose eligibility redetermination is scheduled between and who are not experiencing a permanent loss of work, job training or education activities, may still have trouble in providing required documentation in order to have their eligibility redetermined.
The Commission could consider allowing Boards to extend the eligibility period for up to than fiveadditional months, not to exceed February 28, 2018 for families affected by the hurricane whose eligibility redetermination is scheduled to occur between September 1, 2017, and January 31, 2018.
Issue 3:Payments to Child Care Providers
Pursuant to 45 CFR §98.45(l)(2) regarding provider payment practices, §809.93(b) of the Child Care rules requiresthat reimbursements to providers be based on the monthly child enrollment.Therefore, if the child continues to be authorized for care by the Board and enrolled at the provider facility for September 2017, the provider will be reimbursed based on thatauthorization and enrollment, unless the parent requeststhat care be suspended or that the child care be transferred to a new provider or workforce area.
However, effective October 1, 2017, for providers that have either temporarily or permanently discontinued operations or have voluntarily removed children due to a reduction in the facilities operating capacity as confirmed and documented by Texas Health and Human Services Commission Child Care Licensing, the Commission could consider requiring that Boards end authorizations for care at that facility and work with the families to find placement with another eligible provider.If acceptable care cannot be found, then the Board should be directed to suspend care for the child.
Issue 4: Child Absences
Section 809.78(a) of the Child Care rules requires parents to ensure that children meet attendance standards for child care services based on the child’s authorization for enrollment, which requires fewer than:
- five consecutive absences during the month; and
- 10 total absences during the month.
Additionally, if a child exceeds 65 absences during the eligibility period, then the child is not eligible for care at the next eligibility determination and is not eligible for care for 12 months from the end of the most recent eligibility period.
Failure to meet monthly attendance standards may:
- result in suspension of care, at the concurrence of the parent; or
- be grounds for determining that a change in the parent's participation in work, job training, or an education program has occurred and care may be terminated pursuant to the requirements in §809.51(b).
However, §809.78(c) states that only absences due to a child’s documented chronic illness or absences for a child with disabilities are excluded from the attendance standards.Therefore, absences due to provider closure or other effects of Hurricane Harvey are not exempt from the absence count.This requirement could easily result in a child exceeding the federal absence thresholds and jeopardize continued care in this situation.
The Commission could consider excluding absencesthat are due to the hurricane from the absence count for the month of September 2017.
DP – Child Care for Children Impacted by Hurricane Harvey (9.21.17) Notebook1