Beginning July 1, 2018, DHS and the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) introduced The Early Learning Resource Centers (ELRC) to administer child care subsidies and supports, replacing the Child Care Information Services (CCIS) agencies. This unification created a partnership in which the process for providing allowances for child care is shared by the County Assistance Offices (CAOs) and ELRCs. Each office has a role in assuring that parents receive timely child care.
The CAO:
Determines initial and continuing eligibility for TANF and SNAP programs and for child care allowances related to those programs.
Determines financial eligibility based on household composition, employment and training participation, and income.
Processes reported changes timely concerning household composition, employment and training participation, and income.
Refers parents/caretakers to employment and training programs and tracks participation.
Issues transportation and other needed allowances to support the parent’s/caretaker’s efforts.
Refers eligible parents/caretakers to the ELRC agency to receive help with child care costs and to find care.
Identifies and processes child care overpayments based on total program ineligibility using the Automated Restitution, Referral and Computation (ARRC) system.
Provides participation and support in appeals received by both agencies.
The ELRC Agency:
Creates child care enrollments with an eligible provider of the parent’s choosing.
Offers resources and referral services, parent counseling and information about early care and education.
Gathers provider data, interviews providers and establishes provider agreements.
Issues child care payments.
Processes provider and client overpayments unrelated to total program ineligibility.
Continues partnerships with the CAO to facilitate communication and support TANF and SNAP recipients.
Provides participation and support in appeals received by both agencies.
This chapter explains how the CAO determines a TANF participant's eligibility for a child care special allowance. A SNAP participant in an approved unpaid Employment and Training Program (ETP) activity may receive a child care allowance.
A system-generated referral is made to an ELRC when the CAO determines that a TANF recipient has a need for and is eligible for a child care allowance to enable the parent/caretaker to participate in an approved work-related activity. To qualify for a child care allowance, the TANF budget group must:
Be eligible for TANF, including a budget group that does not receive the monthly minimum benefit or a budget group that is eligible for an NCE only.
Include the eligible TANF dependent child or a child who would qualify as an eligible TANF dependent child except for receipt of SSI or Foster Care benefits. See Chapter 105, Category.
Have a need for child care. See Section 183.24.
The CAO will inform applicants and recipients of the availability of child care allowances at application, renewal and whenever the Agreement of Mutual Responsibility (AMR) is developed or revised and reflects a need for child care.
Budget group – A group of persons receiving TANF. See Chapter 110, Budget Groups.
NOTE: A child receiving SSI or in Foster Care benefits and for whom child care payments are requested is included in the budget group for child care purposes.
Child Care – Care in lieu of parental care for part of a 24-hour day.
Early Learning Resource Center (ELRC) – A public or private agency with which the Department has a contract to manage the subsidized child care program in part of a county or several counties. The subsidized child care program is for all requesting families.
Co-payment – The weekly amount an employed family/budget group pays for subsidized child care.
Former TANF – A family that is no longer eligible for TANF cash assistance benefits or a family that voluntarily left TANF and meets certain eligibility requirements within the 183-day period after TANF benefits end (See Section 183.711 – Child Care Assistance for Former TANF Recipients).
Parent/Caretaker –The ELRC uses the term “parent/caretaker” when working with families to determine enrollment. The ELRC defines a parent as the biological or adoptive mother or father, stepmother or stepfather who exercises care and control of the child for whom subsidy is requested. The ELRC defines a caretaker as an individual who has legal custody of the child, a foster parent, a grandparent, an aunt or an uncle who lives with and exercises care and control of a child.
PELICAN – Pennsylvania’s Enterprise to Link Information for Children across Networks. The system is the Office of Child Development and Early Learning’s (OCDEL) information management system used for payment monitoring and accountability purposes for all OCDEL programs, which are under the purview of DHS and the Department of Education.
Provider – An organization, business or individual that directly delivers child care services.
Relative care – Care provided by a relative neighbor who is unrelated to and does not live in the household with the child. Relative care is limited to care for no more than three children.
Satisfactory arrangement – The plan made by the family/budget group to pay an overdue co-payment which is acceptable to the ELRC agency and provider.
Reissued November 6, 2020, replacing November 24, 2014