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Child Care Scholarship Policy Manual 111

3.4 CHILD CARE INCOME STANDARDS When determining if an applicant meets the income requirements for initial approval for child care services through the Child Care Scholarship Program, the total family size, see Family Definition and the total gross income for the family must be at or below 85% SMI, see Child Care Income Standards (Appendix 1).

3.4.1 ASSESSMENT OF FEES Within the Child Care Scholarship Program, there are co-payments and registration fees. The co-pay is the parents share of the weekly child care costs and the registration fee is used to pay a portion of the enrollment costs to the child care provider. The Child Care Scholarship Program does not pay for activity, transportation, or other fees outside of the weekly child care or registration fees. Once it is determined that the client meets the income guidelines, the Child Development Fee Scale (Appendix 2) is used to determine the weekly co-pay for the client, if applicable. The copay is the fee that is to be paid by the client directly to the child care provider. The fee is per week, per child. The CCDF regulations require that copayments not be set above 7% of the family income. The Child Care Scholarship Program copayments are currently 2% or less. Copayment amounts can be found on the sliding fee scale at: https://www.scchildcare.org/media/gtvb1pqk/fee-scale-2024-2025.pdf Note: Clients that are under the protective service definition per the CCDF State Plan do not have co-pays.

If a copayment is assessed for a family, the copayment amount will not be increased at any time during the 12-month eligibility regardless of the changes in the household. If the change in the household would decrease the copay, the fee may be reassessed, when applicable, since a lower copayment would benefit the family.

Note: Effective 10/01/2024, clients that have income at or below 150% of federal poverty level, regardless of funding source, will not be assessed a copay.