WSR 17-18-009 PERMANENT RULES DEPARTMENT OF EARLY LEARNING [Filed August 24, 2017, 12:46 p.m., effective September 24, 2017] Effective Date of Rule: Thirty-one days after filing. Purpose: Establish units of care thresholds for working connections child care that require the department of social and health services' supervisor approval; limit family, friends, and neighbor child care providers' authorizations under the one hundred ten hour rule when the child needs less than five hours of care per day; and prevent provider billing errors by ensuring authorizations for care are appropriate for families' needs. Citation of Rules Affected by this Order: Amending WAC 170-290-0190. Adopted under notice filed as WSR 17-15-090 on July 18, 2017. Changes Other than Editing from Proposed to Adopted Version: The date of September 1, 2017, was changed to October 1, 2017, in subsection (2)(c). Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0. Number of Sections Adopted at the Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0. Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's own Initiative: New 0, Amended 1, Repealed 0. Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 1, Repealed 0. Number of Sections Adopted using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0. Date Adopted: August 24, 2017. Heather Moss Director
AMENDATORY SECTION (Amending WSR 16-19-107, filed 9/21/16, effective 10/22/16)
WAC 170-290-0190 WCCC authorized and additional payments—Determining units of care.
(1) DSHS ((may)) will authorize ((and pay for)) the following:
(a) Full-day child care to licensed or certified facilities and DEL contracted seasonal day camps when a consumer's children need care between five and ten hours per day;
(b) Half-day child care to licensed or certified facilities and DEL contracted seasonal day camps when a consumer's children need care for less than five hours per day;
(c) Hourly child care for in-home/relative child care;
(d) Full-time care when the consumer participates in one hundred ten hours or more of approved activities per calendar month based on the consumer's approved activity schedule. Full-time care means the following:
(i) For licensed care or certified facilities, twenty-three full-day units if the child needs five or more hours of care per day, or thirty half-day units if the child needs fewer than five hours of care per day; and
(ii) Two hundred thirty hours for in-home/relative child care((;)) if the child needs five or more hours of care per day or one hundred fifteen hours for in-home/relative child care if the child needs fewer than five hours of care per day. Supervisor approval is required for DSHS to authorize more than two hundred thirty hours of in-home/relative child care in a calendar month for a single child.
(e) A registration fee (under WAC 170-290-0245);
(f) A field trip fee (under WAC 170-290-0247);
(g) Special needs care when the child has a documented need for a higher level of care (under WAC 170-290-0220, 170-290-0225, 170-290-0230, and 170-290-0235); and
(h) A nonstandard hours bonus under WAC 170-290-0249.
(2) Beginning September 1, 2016, and applicable to school-age children, DSHS will authorize and pay for child care as follows:
(a) DSHS will automatically increase half-day authorizations to full-day authorizations beginning the month of June when the child needs full-day care; ((and))
(b) DSHS will automatically decrease full-day authorizations to half-day authorizations beginning the month of September unless the child continues to need full-day care during the school year until the following June. If the consumer's schedule has changed and more care is needed, the consumer must request an increase, and DSHS will verify the need for increased care. DSHS will send the consumer notification of the decrease as stated in WAC 170-290-0025; and
(c) Beginning October 1, 2017, DSHS will authorize one hundred fifteen hours of child care for the in-home/relative provider and DSHS will authorize additional contingency hours of care needed for the school-aged child by the in-home/relative provider when the child needs full-time care. Contingency hours will have a variable monthly limit and be available for each month of the calendar year. Supervisor approval is required when a school-aged child needs more than two hundred thirty hours of in-home/relative child care a month.
(3) DSHS may authorize up to the provider's private pay rate if:
(a) The parent is a WorkFirst participant; and
(b) Appropriate child care, at the state rate, is not available within a reasonable distance from the approved activity site.
"Appropriate" means licensed or certified child care under WAC 170-290-0125, or an approved in-home/relative provider under WAC 170-290-0130.
"Reasonable distance" is determined by comparing what other local families must travel to access appropriate child care.
(4) DSHS authorizes overtime care if:
(a) More than ten hours of care is provided per day (up to a maximum of sixteen hours a day); and
(b) The provider's written policy is to charge all families for these hours of care in excess of ten hours per day.
(5) In-home/relative providers who are paid child care subsidies to care for children receiving WCCC benefits cannot receive those benefits for their own children during the hours in which they provide subsidized child care.
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