News – Hot Topics

IMPORTANT NEWS FROM THE CHILD DEVELOPMENT BUREAU!

Are you aware that there is currently NO Wait List for Child Care Scholarship?  If you are eligible for assistance and/or you know someone who is eligible, please do not delay – apply for Child Care Scholarship if you are in need of child care.  You can view Child Care reimbursement rates and income eligibility levels by accessing the Income Eligibility Levels and Maximum Payment Rates.July 2011 .  Click here to find out how to apply for Child Care Scholarship.

*NEW*   boost NH Program – (Better Out-Of-School Time NH)

Looking for training for your after school staff?  Need no-cost consultation in your after school program?
Seeking assistance on understanding and completing the afterschool credential?  Help is on the way!  On July 1, 2011, boost NH (Better Out-Of-School Time NH) was launched as a project of SERESC funded by the Child Development Bureau.  Our goal is to provide technical assistance, training, and consultation, both phone and on-site, to after school program administrators and staff.  During the fall, boost NH will be creating a variety of training opportunities to offer programs statewide starting at the
end of 2011.  A toll-free number will also be available for phone consultations on topics related to after school programming.

Until then, if you have questions related to after school programming or have thoughts you’d like to share as we plan our trainings, please call Susan Gimilaro, boost NH Project Director at sgimilaro@seresc.net or Dian McCarthy, boost NH Project Assistant, at dian@seresc.net.  Both Susan and Dian can be reached at 206-6800.

The Children’s Alliance of New Hampshire is pleased to release the 2010/2011 New Hampshire Kids Count Data Book

To view the entire report, click here http://www.childrennh.org/web/index.html

An Important Reminder from the Child Development Bureau

Child care providers serving children receiving scholarship must bill the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) weekly.  This requirement is in both the Provider Agreement you signed upon enrolling in the Child Care Scholarship Program (and every 3 years thereafter) and in the Administrative Rules that govern the program.

Why is weekly billing such a big deal?

The Child Development Bureau (CDB) must know every week how much money is available for serving children.  The only way we can know that is by using weekly budget reports that show how much money was paid to child care providers.  We have to rely on these reports to determine if we have enough money to take children off the wait list and, if so, how many we can take off and pay for through the rest of the Fiscal Year.

In addition, we must use this information to report to the State and Federal Governments regarding how many children we serve and at what cost.  Our annual child care scholarship budget is built using this information.  If you don’t bill weekly, it may appear that we need less money for child care scholarship.

What could really happen to the Child Care Scholarship Program if child care providers don’t bill every week?

• If we don’t know that expenses are low due to not receiving all the invoices, we could release children from the wait list we can’t afford to serve.  Then, when providers submit all their back billing and we realize that we can’t pay for the children through the end of the Fiscal Year, we will be forced to cut services to all families and all child care providers to make up the difference.

• If we cannot rely on all providers to bill every week, we may not be able to release children from the wait list that we really could afford to serve.  Then children will remain on the wait list, which would result in CDB not spending all of the funding we have.  Then the State and Federal Governments assume that we don’t need as much funding next year.

• If we don’t have all the invoices from all of the providers every week, our answers to questions such as “How much money do you need per child per month?” will be wrong and will be a lesser amount than it should be.  Then the State and Federal Governments will not understand why we ultimately need more money than it seemed we needed, and they will take action against DHHS including reducing funding.

What will CDB do regarding child care providers who are not billing weekly?

• There will be no payments for dates of service provided 90 or more days previously and there will be no exceptions to this rule.

• Beginning in January 2011, CDB will contact child care providers with patterns of not billing weekly.  These providers will be required, within 20 business days, to attend a child care scholarship billing and payment webinar or come to Concord for an in-person training, as stated in the administrative rules.  If they do not attend the webinar or training, their child care scholarship program enrollment will be terminated.

• If a provider has attended the webinar or training and continues to not bill weekly, the provider’s child care scholarship program enrollment will be terminated.

Wait a minute!  Sometimes, staff who do the billing go on vacations!  What will happen to the child care providers who miss a week once or twice per year?

Absolutely nothing!  We will, initially, be looking for child care providers who have patterns of not billing weekly.  Child care providers who continue to bill monthly should expect to hear from us in the near future.  Providers who continue to bill twice per month should expect to hear from us by the end of the winter.

Providers may avoid potential problems simply by billing weekly.

We recognize that child care program administration is a difficult job and so, to all those who already bill weekly, we thank you for your consistency.  We value all of the child care providers who open their services to children receiving child care scholarship.  Thank you for everything you do for children and their families.