ECCLC March 2018 Newsletter

What is CCCAP?
The Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (CCCAP) provides child care assistance to families who meet the income guideline.  The eligible activities for CCCAP are employment, searching for employment, job training, and post-secondary education.  Also, teen parents and those families who are enrolled in the Colorado Works program, and need child care services to support their efforts towards self-sufficiency are eligible. CCCAP provides access to reduced-cost child care at licensed child care facilities or qualified (unlicensed) providers.  Currently, for Low-Income CCCAP, Larimer County has a waitlist, and is not accepting any new families onto the program.
In response to a recent survey of child care providers, about whether they accept enrollments of children qualifying for the Colorado Child Care Subsidies, we realized there is a little myth busting that needed to happen.  Below are some of the myths and truths regarding CCCAP in Larimer County Colorado:Myth: If my program offers part-day programming, it does not qualify to accept CCCAP.
Truth: CCCAP is meant to meet the needs of the parent/guardian to be involved in eligible activities, if your program helps them to meet this need, then the program may qualify to have a fiscal agreement to accept CCCAP payments.Myth: CCCAP does not pay for absences or holidays.
Truth:  CCCAP pays for up to six paid holidays (New Year’s, Memorial, Fourth of July, Labor, Thanksgiving and Christmas days and up to nine absences per year for each child.

Myth: It is too difficult to access the training to accept CCCAP.
Truth: Providers will no longer need to use the Point of Service (POS) machines for families to swipe their cards.  A new application based program has been developed which allows the use of mobile phones, tablets or computers to track children’s attendance.
It is much easier for a parent to verify their child’s attendance in this new system if they forget to sign them in.  A web-based training is available and many people feel it is intuitive.  This new system is called the Attendance Tracking System (ATS) and will go live in the near future.  The ATS is compatible with many other attendance tracking systems you may already use.

Myth: All children in the program must be tracked in the new system.
Truth: While you can use this new system to track all children, you are only required to track children receiving the CCCAP subsidy.  To avoid the stigma of singling out families who are receiving the subsidy, you may want all families to use the system, which helps you in tracking all attendance.Myth: With families being placed on a waiting list, there is no point in having a fiscal agreement to accept the enrollment of any child(ren) receiving the subsidy since there are any new children coming on.
Truth: There are a couple of reasons to consider having a fiscal agreement to accept CCCAP.  While families who qualify for  Low Income CCCAP are being placed on a waitlist in Larimer County, families who qualify for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) are funded through TANF to receive CCCAP and are notwaitlisted.  Having an agreement allows you to enroll a child more quickly if you are contacted by a family needing care and the situation is a match for your opening(s).
Additionally, having a fiscal agreement and being at a Colorado Shines Level 2 or higher allows your program to access quality improvement dollars and coaching support.  In Larimer County, the quality improvement fund allocations are as follows, with the potential for additional allocations depending on the number of programs participating:

Myth: CCCAP pays too little.
Truth: CCCAP pays rates based on the program type and the Colorado Shines Rating Level, or the maximum rate the provider charges, if it is less. Click the purple button below to see all Larimer County reimbursement rates.

Register for ECCLC trainings at ecclc.org or email Valerie with questions: [email protected]