4.1 Access to Full Range of Provider Options

Lead Agencies must provide parents a choice of providers and offer assistance with child care services through a child care certificate (or voucher) or with a child care provider that has a grant or contract for the provision of child care services. Lead Agencies are reminded that policies and procedures should not restrict parental access to any type or category of care or provider (e.g., center care, home care, in-home care, for-profit provider, non-profit provider, or faith-based provider, etc.). 4.1.1 Parent choice a. Identify any barriers to provider participation, including barriers related to payment rates and practices, (including for family child care and in-home providers), based on provider feedback, public comment, and reports to the Lead Agency: Of the child care programs known to IdahoSTARS through the data in our RISE Application, 53% participate in the Idaho Child Care Program (ICCP). This is not an exhaustive list for all child care programs in Idaho because there is no requirement to be in our RISE Application unless participating in ICCP or state licensed. A significant number of programs that are not participating with subsidy are part-day, part-year programs that may not provide a sufficient amount of child care to support a parent working 40 hours per week, or do not have operating hours reasonably related to parents’ work schedules. Anecdotal provider feedback indicates that a small number of family and in-home childcare providers considering subsidy participation do not wish to comply with the minimum health and safety requirements and/or background check requirements for themselves or their household members. Health and safety are foundational to quality child care and at this time Idaho is not considering relaxing any of the health, safety, or background check standards in order to promote participation. Idaho's payment practices do not seem to be a barrier to subsidy participation. This topic has repeatedly been discussed with the ICCP Advisory Panel as well as during regular communication with providers. Providers seem satisfied with payment amounts, copays, and timeliness of subsidy payments. One consistently discernable barrier to subsidy participation is lack of child care availability: Child care programs are easily able to maintain full enrollment and long waitlists without accepting subsidy participating families. Until access to child care improves, there will continue to be a cohort of child care programs unwilling to participate with the subsidy program simply because they do not need it. b. Does the Lead Agency offer child care assistance through vouchers or certificates? [x] Yes. [ ] No. c. Does the Lead Agency offer child care assistance through grants or contracts? [ ] Yes. [x] No. d. Describe how the parent is informed that the child care certificate allows the option to choose from a variety of child care categories, such as private, not-for-profit, faith-based providers; centers; family child care homes; or in-home providers: The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW) conducts ￿informed choice interviews￿ with families who come into local offices or who call or mail forms to apply for child care services. During these interviews, families are provided information that they can use to make decisions regarding services. For child care specifically, families are referred to IdahoSTARS to search for an Idaho Child Care Program (ICCP) provider. e. Describe what information is included on the child care certificate: Once child care is found and the family and provider have signed and returned (via mail, fax, email) the monthly dependent care form to DHW, a Notice of Action is generated and provided to the family, identifying child eligibility status, income used to determine eligibility, qualified activity used to determine eligibility, billed amount by the provider, total payment from the child care program to the provider, and total amount family pays directly to the provider.