a. Supplements for Additional Hours of Care

Parents shall be entitled to request a supplemental payment for increased care with the same provider when the child care needs temporarily exceed the authorized hours of care reflected on the certificate by more than twenty hours in a calendar month as the result of the following circumstances and the parent is charged for the additional hours: school closes for vacation or other reasons; the child is required to attend child care instead of school for three or more consecutive days due to illness or other reasons; there is a temporary increase in work hours or the hours of an employment services activity; or there is a temporary change in the availability of a parent who usually provides care.

Supplemental payments for the additional hours of child care with the same provider shall be approved if all of the following conditions are satisfied: the additional hours of care needed exceed the authorized hours as determined in subsection (b) of section 17b-749-13 of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies by more than twenty hours in a calendar month; and the hours of care fall within the work or employment services activity schedule including travel time; and the hours do not coincide with hours covered by an existing certificate of payment; and the additional charges reflect the provider’s customary policy for all children attending the program.

In addition to supplemental payments authorized under subdivision (1) of this subsection, the CCAP administrator may approve payments for a temporary alternate child care provider for up to twenty hours in a calendar month if the parent is required to use a different provider for the following reasons: the child does not attend school due to illness or other reasons and the child’s regular provider can not provide the care; a temporary increase in work hours or the hours of the employment services activity that fall outside the normal operating hours of the child’s regular provider; or during holiday vacations or periods during which the child’s normal provider is closed or does not offer care.

The parent shall submit a child care agreement form for the alternate provider and have the provider enrolled pursuant to the requirements of section 17b-749-12 of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies.

In any calendar month, the parent shall be responsible for all costs associated with the first twenty hours of additional care. Payment shall be authorized only for the additional hours of care with the same or alternate provider that exceed twenty hours separately or in combination. The additional hours may be rounded to the nearest half hour.

The amount of the supplement shall be calculated by multiplying the additional needs in excess of the twenty hours by the special hourly supplemental payment rate. The hourly supplemental payment rate shall be the weekly payment rate for full-time care established in subdivision (c) of section 17b-749-13 of the Regulations of Connecticut State agencies, divided by forty. The payment amount shall be the lower of the calculated amount or the amount of the provider’s additional charges.

The total number of regularly authorized hours plus the additional hours shall not exceed sixty-five hours per calendar week or two hundred eighty hours in a calendar month. Once the approved additional hours of care exceed twenty hours, the additional hours approved for that month shall be eligible for payment.

Parents shall request supplemental payments by contacting the CCAP administrator by phone or in writing, except during periods of extended school vacations where the CCAP administrator shall have the discretion to authorize payments based on information submitted by the provider for a school age child already in the provider’s care. To be eligible for payment, all requests for supplemental payments shall be made within thirty days following the end of the month in which the additional hours were provided. The parent and provider shall submit any verification requested as a condition of payment eligibility. The CCAP administrator shall have thirty days to process the request for a supplemental payment once all required documentation has been submitted.