Vermont § 3512 - Child Care Financial Assistance Program; eligibility

§ 3512. Child Care Financial Assistance Program; eligibility

• (a)(1) The Child Care Financial Assistance Program is established to subsidize the costs
  of child care for families that need child care services in order to obtain employment,
  to retain employment, or to obtain training leading to employment. Families seeking
  employment shall be entitled to participate in the Program for up to three months
  and the Commissioner may further extend that period. (2) The subsidy authorized by this subsection and the corresponding family contribution
  shall be established by the Commissioner, by rule, and shall bear a reasonable relationship
  to income and family size. The Commissioner may adjust the subsidy and family contribution
  by rule to account for increasing child care costs not to exceed 1.5 times the most
  recent annual increase in the NAICS code 611, Educational Services. Families shall
  be found eligible using an income eligibility scale based on the current federal poverty
  level and adjusted for the size of the family. Co-payments shall be assigned to the
  whole family and shall not increase if more than one eligible child is enrolled in
  child care. Families with an annual gross income of less than or equal to 175 percent
  of the current federal poverty guidelines shall not have a family co-payment. Families
  with an annual gross income up to and including 575 percent of current federal poverty
  guidelines, adjusted for family size, shall be eligible for a subsidy authorized by
  this subsection. The scale shall be structured so that it encourages employment. If
  the federal poverty guidelines decrease in a given year, the Division shall maintain
  the previous year’s federal poverty guidelines for the purpose of determining eligibility
  and benefit amount under this subsection. (3) Earnings deposited in a qualified child education savings account, such as the Vermont
  Higher Education Investment Plan, established in 16 V.S.A. § 2877, or any similar plan qualified under 26 U.S.C. § 529, shall be disregarded in determining the amount of a family’s income for the purpose
  of determining continuing eligibility. (4) Nothing in this subsection shall preclude a child care provider from establishing
  tuition rates that are lower than the provider reimbursement rate in the Child Care
  Financial Assistance Program (5) The Department shall ensure that applications for the Child Care Financial Assistance
  Program use a simple, plain-language format. Applications shall be available in both
  electronic and paper formats and shall comply with the Office of Racial Equity’s most
  recent Language Access Report. (6) A Vermont resident who has a citizenship status that would otherwise exclude the resident
  from participating in the Child Care Financial Assistance Program shall be served
  under this Program, provided that the benefit for these residents is solely State-funded.
  The Department shall not retain data on the citizenship status of any applicant or
  participant once a child is no longer participating in the program, and it shall not
  request the citizenship status of any members of the applicant’s or participant’s
  family. Any records created pursuant to this subsection shall be exempt from public
  inspection and copying under the Public Records Act. (b)(1) An Enhanced Child Care Services Subsidy Program is established for families participating
  in the Reach Ahead program. (2) The Enhanced Child Care Services Subsidy Program established by this subsection shall
  be administered by the Department’s Child Development Division. The Commissioner shall
  adopt rules necessary for the administration of the Program pursuant to 3 V.S.A. chapter
  25. (3) The subsidy authorized by this subsection shall be no greater than 100 percent of
  the subsidy provided in subsection