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Q&A
Childcare assistance and challenges with overnight care
1:44:14
·
137 sec
Council Member Stevens raises concerns about the lack of overnight childcare options for families receiving preventive services. ACS officials explain the current childcare assistance programs and their limitations.
- Families in preventive services can receive childcare vouchers for use at registered or licensed providers
- There is a shortage of providers offering nontraditional hours or overnight care
- Families may be eligible for vouchers to use informal providers (friends, family) for overnight care, but this comes with additional eligibility criteria and restrictions
- Council Member Stevens emphasizes the need for more flexible childcare options to prevent potential child welfare issues
Althea V. Stevens
1:44:14
in house childcare?
1:44:16
Preventive services provide overnight or in house home childcare for families?
Jess Dannhauser
1:44:20
Yeah.
1:44:21
There's 2 ways we can support this.
1:44:22
It it is somewhat limited.
1:44:24
1 is homemaking.
1:44:26
I'm also gonna ask, Liz to speak a little bit about how childcare can be used in this instance.
Liz Wolkomir
1:44:32
So when a family is in prevention services and receives childcare assistance through a voucher, they can use that voucher at any registered, or licensed childcare provider in the city, and that can include providers that have nontraditional hours, which might be overnight.
1:44:47
But I'll There's not
Althea V. Stevens
1:44:47
a lot of providers that provide that.
Liz Wolkomir
1:44:49
There aren't a lot.
1:44:50
The other option Nonexistent.
1:44:52
Yep.
1:44:53
So a lot of, a lot of, sort of, the bounds around how child care assistance vouchers can be used is dictated by, state and federal rules related to how they're funded.
1:45:05
So families and prevention services are receiving a voucher that is funded with, state prevention stream, and that requires that the child care voucher be used at a licensed center or a registered home based provider.
1:45:21
If a family in prevention services is interested in using a voucher with an informal provider, meaning a friend, a family member, a neighbor, to watch that child overnight in their own home, they can apply for a different type of voucher, which is funded by the state childcare block grant, which includes a lot of federal funds, and therefore, federal and state rules apply.
1:45:42
So in order to have that type of voucher, a family would have to have certain, income eligibility criteria be engaged in certain activities.
1:45:49
So that is another path
Althea V. Stevens
1:45:51
for that activity be?
Liz Wolkomir
1:45:52
So, they need to be working, in job search, engaged in particular types of services, for example, substance misuse services, services around intimate partner violence, or be in an educational program.
1:46:12
Also, importantly, those vouchers are limited based on federal rules to children that are citizens or have legal permanent residents.
1:46:19
So there is, a limited sort of population of children that we can support with those.
1:46:23
But in instances where families are available, having that access to informal care is really critical to serving that overnight need.