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61 Rule 8.7 Allowable Closures for Providers
Subsidy providers must be available to serve the needs of parents. A child care center shall remain open in accordance with the months, days, and hours of operation that was provided upon application for subsidy or is currently on file with the MS Department of Health, Division of Child Care Licensure, whichever is more recent. No additional voluntary closures are allowed other than those described in this section unless the child care provider receives approval from the Mississippi State Department of Health for additional closure dates.
A child care center shall remain open on days when children are taken on field trips, or any other day outside of the approved holiday list provided by MDHS and documented in the child care provider’s parent handbook, for any children who cannot attend the field trips or who still need child care during holidays not approved by MDHS.
Holidays and Professional Development Training Allowed Closures
MDHS will pay for up to eleven (11) holidays per year where the center may close in observance of these holidays.
Of those eleven (11) holidays, six (6) are fixed and cannot change. These six (6) days are New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day and the Friday after, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. Providers may opt to use the remining five (5) days as listed in the CCPP Policy Manual on the chart below or can flex those days for other holidays or any other local event for which the provider would like to voluntarily close. All holidays, including the six (6) fixed holidays and five (5) flexed holidays, must be listed in the child care provider’s parent handbook and employee handbook (if applicable). Providers cannot elect to close for any holidays not listed in their parent and/or employee handbook. Providers must upload the most current version of their parent handbook and/or employee handbook to the CCPP Provider Portal. Should the parent or employee handbook be updated, the current version must be uploaded to the CCPP Provider Portal within five (5) days of the handbook being issued to parents and/or employees.