Overview of the Child Care Assistance Program and Collaboration
The IDHS Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) provides low-income families access to quality, affordable child care that allows them to work and contribute to the healthy emotional and social development of the child. CCAP combines state and federal dollars and assesses parent fees to serve all working families whose incomes are below 50 percent of the state median income. All families are required to cost-share on a sliding scale based on income, family size, and number of children in care. In addition to helping working families, CCAP serves families who are receiving TANF and participating in education and/or training in accordance with their Responsibility and Service Plan and teen parents seeking a high school degree or its equivalent. CCAP also serves a limited number of families who work, do not receive TANF and are pursuing additional education to improve their job opportunities. Families may access CCAP services in two ways:

Site-Administered Contractors are early care and education programs located throughout the state that have a contract with the IDHS Bureau of Child Care & Development. Currently, there are 91 child care providers, serving 13,500 children. Child care services are provided for children from six (6) weeks to age thirteen (13). Site-administered contractors include both center-based and family child care home networks that are for-profit or nonprofit agencies. These contractors are licensed facilities that provide child care services for a specific number of eligible children full-time, part-time, before and after school. If a parent wishes to apply for child care assistance and appears to meet all the eligibility requirements, the site-administered program will give them an application and assist them in completing the application process.

Child Care Certificates are vouchers that approved families receive from their local Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) agency to access child care services. There are seventeen (17) Child Care Resource & Referral agencies located throughout the state. Child care is provided full-time, part-time, before and after school for children six (6) weeks to age thirteen (13) years of age. Parents should contact the CCR&R subsidy department to find out if they are eligible and request an application. The CCR&R referral department can provide parents with a list of providers with available CCAP slots so parents can choose the child care provider who best fits their individual needs. Families who use the CCAP certificate system can choose licensed or licensed-exempt child care centers, family child care homes, group child care homes or in-home/relative care. By request, the CCR&R subsidy staff will provide assistance on completing the application process. See Attachment A for a list of statewide CCR&R agencies.

Things To Think About in Collaborating with the Child Care Assistance Program Certificate System.

To collaborate with a site-administered contractor, contact the local child care provider and explain that you would like to collaborate to provide full day, full year early care and education services for children who are currently enrolled in a ½ day program, but need full day due to parent(s) working or going to school/training. Schedule a meeting to discuss the details of how this collaboration can work to meet the needs of children and families.

For example, while providing the family support and health services using E/HS staff, E/HS programs can subcontract with child care providers to provide full day, full year services at their site and pay a “per diem” rate for each child enrolled. Both early care programs can support this collaboration by braiding the E/HS and child care funding to provide full day/full year services. The plan would be based on the eligibility of the family, the number of available slots and the ability of the child care program to meet the Head Start Program Performance Standards.

Another example is where E/HS and the child care center share space and other resources, rather than paying a “per diem” cost for services. In a third scenario, the E/HS program could assist the parent in identifying a CCAP provider within their service delivery/transportation area and transport the child to and/or from the half-day program. All of these arrangements require careful planning and scheduling on the part of both parties and need to take into account what the parent decides is best for their child.

To collaborate with a CCR&R, contact the local CCR&R subsidy coordinator and explain that you are planning to serve children of working parents full day, full year and would like to schedule a meeting to discuss how the certificate system could be used to fund the collaboration services for those children identified. If other programs have space to expand slots to full day, full year and just need additional funding, they can assist parents in completing an application with the local CCR&R subsidy department. The CCR&R subsidy department is responsible for processing the child care application for the subsidy certificate. E/HS programs can provide the services and submit reports to the CCR&R for payment. This method allows children to stay at the E/HS site throughout the day.

It is imperative that programs collaborating with the CCAP system understand the following:

IDHS Child Care Assistance Program
Definitions:

“Family” means the applicant, his/her spouse, and the biological, adoptive, or stepchildren of the applicant or his/her spouse under the age of 21 living in the same household.

“Applicant” means parent for or recipients of child care assistance.

“Family Size” is determined by identifying only those people who fit into the definition of family stated above.

Eligibility:
To be eligible for child care, the family MUST reside in Illinois and be BOTH income eligible and service eligible.

Income Eligibility:
To be eligible for child care, a family must meet the income guidelines for their particular family size. The family income includes the income from all family members age 18 and older.

Service Eligibility:
In order to be “service eligible” for child care assistance, a family MUST be involved in one of the following activities:

Billing Process through the Site-Administered Contractor: Once the site-administered provider receives the completed application, they will send the information to IDHS Child Care & Development Bureau for approval. Once the family is approved the provider will receive a Monthly Enrollment Report for the child(ren) in the family. The site-administered provider will complete this form and submit to IDHS for payment each month.

Billing Process through the CCR&R.
Once application(s) are successfully submitted to the local CCR&R subsidy unit for processing, the program will receive a computerized list of the children who are approved for CCAP at the site. It is the programs responsibility to check for accuracy/make corrections/complete days of attendance and submit to the local CCR&R for payment processing.

Shared Cases. If a family has more than one provider, only one provider shall assess and collect the co-payment. If all providers are paid through the CCR&R, the CCR&R shall designate the provider receiving the greatest reimbursement from IDHS as the one to receive the family co-payment. The provider not collecting a co-payment will be reimbursed the full amount of the child care charges.

CCAP Case File Information:
Each case file must include the following:

CONCLUSION:
Tips For Successful Collaboration

Early/Head Start & State PreK families are often unfamiliar with parent fees and must be provided information and education on co-payments.
Child Care, Head Start, State PreK and CCR&R agencies that are collaborating to serve children and families should develop working relationships, have clear & open lines of communication, share training and professional development calendars, and increase knowledge of the others’ programs and policies. This can be done by scheduling joint meetings and by sharing newsletters, informational publications, and program reports.
All partners must become familiar and knowledgeable about the language, policies, and standards used in the respective programs.
Realize that in order to serve children and families, all parties must be willing to “conquer the barriers.”
Collaboration is not a quick fix for many of the vexing problems a program faces. It will not build affordable housing, end poverty, or stop the tragedy of abuse and neglect.
Collaboration is a means to an end in itself. Programs must ask what issues the collaboration is designed to solve prior to proposing collaboration as the means to solve them.
Developing interagency collaboration will not create resources. Collaboration is not always the best investment of resources; depending on local needs and circumstances, some services may be better provided without multiple agency involvement.
Collaboration occurs among people, not among institutions. Workers must be supported at each level of the organization where collaboration is expected to take place. Interagency agreements–important institutional mechanisms to clarify, formalize, and spell out relationships and avoid misunderstandings among agencies–must be structured to support interactions at all levels.
Creative problem-solving skills must be developed and nurtured in those expected to collaborate. If workers are expected to share responsibility, they must be provided with support and guidance to assure that this autonomy is wisely employed.
Collaboration is too important a concept to be trivialized. If the very real needs of children and families are to be met, service providers must find ways to meet these needs more comprehensively and more holistically. Ultimately, this will require more careful, considered, and extensive collaboration.

As of this printing there are more 50 successful Child Care Collaboration Programs in the state that are approved collaboration sites and benefit from three CCAP policy changes: 1) annual redetermination, 2) 90 day job loss grace period, and 3) indefinite early care services as long as it is part of the Family TANF Responsibility and Services Plan.

These programs are blending services at one location and braiding two or more funding resources from the three early care systems to develop collaborative partnerships in serving children full day, full year whose parents are working and/or participating in approved school/training activities. Attachment B is a map of the approved collaboration site locations across the state, as of May 2004. More collaborations are being approved every month.

COLLABORATION GLOSSARY

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