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Officials recommend revamping eligibility requirements for child-care assistance program Thursday, May 1, 2008 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The administrator of a state-subsidized child care program for low-income families recommended Wednesday that eligibility requirements for the program be tightened to reduce costs. The Child Care and Early Childhood Education Division at the state Department of Human Services is facing a nearly $5 million shortfall because more people are participating in the program and fewer people are dropping off the program over time, Tonya Russell, the division director, told a legislative committee. Russell proposed reduce the program's income eligibility limit from 85 percent of the state's median income, which is about $41,000 for a family of four, to 60 percent of median income, or about $29,000 for a family of four. DHS increased the income eligibility levels Jan. 1, 2007, because the agency had carryover funding to apply to the program. Russell also recommended limiting participation in the program to five years. "These are cost containment measures," she said, adding the new eligibility requirements would take effect July 1 and affect about 1,300 children who are now eligible and receive the child care. Rep. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, urged Russell and Artee Williams, director of the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services, to continue looking for a revenue source to offset the shortfall. Williams told the House and Senate children and youth committees his agency had worked out a plan to transfer about $4.5 million to the Child Care and Early Childhood Education Division to help cover child care costs for families in a federally subsidized Work Pays program. That program provides cash assistance to former welfare recipients who are employed but make less than the federal poverty level. Williams said Workforce Services already provides the state with $7.5 million annually for the program. DHS Director John Selig said the state and federal child-care programs are intertwined because more people are seeking the service and staying on programs longer. During the meeting, Rep. Ed Garner, D-Maumelle, questioned the decision to raise the income eligibility requirements for the state program in January 2007, saying DHS had "one-time money" and used it for an on-going program. Selig defended the decision, saying the reason for the shortfall was not the number of clients, but that the attrition rate for those in the program is normally 40 percent a month and that since last fall that has dropped to 20 percent. "People are just staying on, and obviously that shows that they need child care," Selig said after the meeting. "We raised (the eligibility level) because of a surplus we had built up. People just aren't dropping off like we thought they would." |
