During a recent Wisconsin Policy Forum webinar, state Department of Children and Families (DCF) Secretary Emilie Amundsen strongly encouraged school districts that are beginning the school year using hybrid or virtual instructional models to collaborate with individuals and organizations providing child care in their districts to find ways to meet family needs.
A consequence of some schools moving away from in-person instruction is that this increases the need for child care services for school-age children. Unfortunately, this increased need comes at a time when child care availability is greatly reduced statewide.
Numerous child care centers closed during the statewide “Safer at Some” order as parents who were laid off couldn’t afford child care and parents who were working from home no longer needed child care. Many other child care centers were forced to operate at reduced capacity by public health orders.
As a result, the undersupply of child care that predated the pandemic has now worsened as large numbers of child care centers remain closed or have not fully reopened (are operating below capacity). According to this Wisconsin Public Radio story, only 80 percent of child care centers are back up and running, and finding child care remains a struggle for many families. And how to pay for child care remains an issue for many families.
Typically, child care programs are geared to support very young children (i.e., infants and toddlers). Many lower-income parents rely on Wisconsin SHARES subsidies to be able to afford quality child care. Those subsidies are largely funded by federal Child Care Development Block Grant funds.
Complicating matters in the present situation has been that Wisconsin SHARES subsidies for older children (i.e., school-age children have normally not been available for child care services provided during the school day but have only been available for services provided before or after the school day.
Recently, however, the Federal Office of Child Care released new guidance on states’ abilities to use federal Child Care Development Block Grant funds to subsidize care for school-age children during the school year. (See especially items #27 and #28.) This guidance could be good news for many parents in essential occupations who must work during normal school hours and for child care operators.
The bottom line is that the feds are allowing states the flexibility to opt to use subsidy dollars, like Wisconsin SHARES, for care when children are completing remote, virtual or online schoolwork; however, the subsidy cannot be used to pay for care where actual educational instruction is happening. Children can be approved for a full-time subsidy as long as parents are participating in an approved subsidy activity (e.g., working).
In response to this federal flexibility guidance, the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families has informed child care providers that for the 2020-21 school year, “parents can receive child care authorizations during the day when school is delivered virtually and child care is needed for parents to participate in their approved activity.”
Specifically, the DCF guidance states:
“Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy for the 2020-2021 School Year
“For the 2020-2021 school year, parents can receive child care authorizations during the day when school is delivered virtually and child care is needed for parents to participate in their approved activity. This change means that school-age children could potentially receive full-time authorizations during the day. Parents may receive authorizations even if they are working from home; however, they must be participating in their approved activity during the times when care is needed. Parents cannot receive authorizations for time when the child is physically attending school for in-person instruction. Parents cannot receive authorizations for time when the child is attending class virtually at a location other than the child care provider location, or time when the parent is not participating in their approved activity. (emphasis added)
“Child care providers must ensure that they do not provide any instructional services that supplant or duplicate the academic program of any public or private school. This means that providers cannot provide the main instruction, but may assist with school work as they would any other homework.” (emphasis added.)
