f. Parent Fee and Financial Responsibilities

The parent shall be responsible for all costs not reimbursed by CCAP on behalf of the parent. In addition, families with earnings or self-employment income shall be responsible for paying a portion of the authorized cost of care based on a monthly sliding fee scale.

To determine the monthly fee, the family’s gross countable annual income shall be compared to the state median income standard (SMI) for the family size as promulgated annually by the Department of Health and Human Services. The fee shall be equal to the following percentage of the family’s gross countable income: for families with income below twenty percent of the SMI, two percent; for families with income of twenty percent to less than thirty percent of the SMI, four percent; for families with income of thirty percent to less than forty percent of the SMI, six percent; for families with income of forty percent to less than fifty percent of the SMI, eight percent; and for families with income of fifty percent of SMI to less than seventy-five percent of SMI, ten percent.

The fee may be rounded to the nearest whole dollar amount and applied against the approved cost of care as determined in subsection (a) of this section.

The fee shall be allocated to the youngest child first or in a manner that will avoid the need to allocate a portion of the fee across multiple certificates. If the fee exceeds the approved cost for a child, the remaining amount shall be allocated to the next oldest child until the full parent share has been allocated. If payment is terminated, the CCAP administrator shall apply the unallocated fee to the remaining active children or to the new certificate issued for the same child after giving appropriate notice to the parent and provider.

The family shall be ineligible if the monthly fee exceeds the approved cost for all of the eligible children.

The monthly fee shall be determined at the time of application and when a redetermination is conducted. The fee shall remain the same until the next redetermination, unless an ongoing decrease in income occurs that is expected to last for at least two or more months. The fee shall not be increased between redeterminations if the family’s income increases, except to correct an error in the prior calculation. Families shall be subject to the gross income limit and shall report increases in income exceeding fifty dollars per month even if the change does not immediately affect the fee.

Decreases in the monthly fee shall be implemented in the month following the month in which the change is reported if the change is verified timely. If the change is not verified timely, the decrease shall take effect in the month following the month in which the change is verified, unless good cause exist for not providing timely verification pursuant to subsection (e) of section 17b-749-06 of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies.

Parents shall be responsible for paying the fee to the provider. The family’s eligibility shall not be affected if the fee is not paid to the provider.