CHILD CARE SERVICES AVAILABLE TO TAFDC RECIPIENTS AND FORMER RECIPIENTS1
TAFDC recipients and former recipients qualify for child care services paid for by the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) when child care is needed so that a parent2 can participate in DTA-approved education/training programs or go to work. Being able to access free child care can significantly improve a family’s ability to meet program requirements, and therefore maintain benefits. Free child care services may also make it possible for a family transitioning off of benefits to remain off of benefits.
Eligibility Criteria
Current TAFDC recipients may access free child care services for children age 12 and under; for children with special needs, child care services are available up to age 16.3 To qualify for child care services, TAFDC recipients must also meet one of the following criteria, showing that they have a service need:
- Live in Emergency Assistance shelter4
- Work (part- or full-time)
- Participate in a DTA-approved education/training program
- Be a parent who is not receiving benefits due to her immigrant status, but is required by DTA to participate in a community service activity
- Be actively seeking employment through an employment development plan (EDP)
- Attend high school to pursue a diploma or a GED and comply with the teen parent school attendance guidelines
- Need child care for up to two weeks while waiting to start an approved activity
- Need child care for up to four months after one activity has ended or is interrupted and while waiting for the next activity to begin, if without the child care, the family would lose placement in the activity.
Transitional Child Care
Some former TAFDC recipient families are also eligible for child care services known as Transitional Child Care (TCC). Families in need of TCC must either include a parent who is currently employed and whose TAFDC case closed within the past 12 months, or include a parent who is completing a DTA-approved education or training activity for up to six months after the family’s benefits ended because it reached the 24-month time limit. Transitional Child Care is available to former recipients for up to 12 months. Other than the exception for parents who are completing an education and training program for up to six months, TCC can be used for work only. Families accessing TCC are charged a sliding scale fee.
Obtaining Child Care Services Through DTA
TAFDC recipients and families seeking TCC who demonstrate a service need must ask their current or most recent DTA worker for a child care referral to access services. The parent then takes the child care referral form to the local Child Care Resource and Referral Agency where a child care voucher is issued for a specific number of hours and days per week, if child care is available to meet the family’s need.5
Child Care for Homeless Families
Homeless families living in EA shelter, or eligible for EA but housed in a non-EA shelter such as a DV shelter, substance abuse shelter, or other non-EA shelter, are automatically approved for full-time child care. 6Despite automatic approval, these families must formally request a child care referral from their DTA worker in order to access the services. The DTA worker should then fax the Child Care Referral Notice for Homeless Families form and the BEACON Child Care Referral notice to the shelter where the family resides. Once the shelter staff receives the child care services referral, shelter staff will be responsible for referring that family to the local child care referral agency.7 The referral agency will then issue the voucher if child care services are available.
Part-time and Full-time Child Care
DTA will authorize child care for up to 50 hours per week per child. Whether a family secures part-time or full-time child care depends on the number of hours per week the parent spends in education/training programs or at work. For example, a parent who participates in a DTA-approved activity for at least 20 hours but for fewer than 30 hours per week is eligible for part-time child care. A parent who participates in a qualifying activity for 30 or more hours per week is eligible for full-time child care. For education and training programs other than college, one hour of care will be approved for each hour of class. A parent who takes 12 or more college credits in a semester is considered to have a full-time service need. DTA will approve full-time child care for parents in college taking fewer than 12 credits if work-study hours, class hours, clinical/practical internships and travel time added together totals 30 hours or more per week.
A family has the right to count up to five hours per week of a parent’s travel time between work/approved activity and the child care provider when tallying the number of hours she spends each week participating in an activity. For some families, counting the five hours of transportation is the difference between being denied child care or being approved for part-time child care. For others, counting this travel time may affect whether a family is authorized for full-time or part-time child care.
Types of Child Care Services Covered by DTA
DTA will authorize both formal and informal child care services for TAFDC recipients and former recipients. A licensed day care center is considered “formal child care.” “Informal child care” includes licensed family day care in the child care provider’s home, or unlicensed child care by a relative or a babysitter as long as the child is cared for in his/her own home. The “informal” caregiver must be at least 16 years old to receive payment for her services and must be registered with the Child Care Resource and Referral Agency. Informal caregivers are paid approximately $15 per child per eight hour day.8
Many current and former recipients of TAFDC are unaware that they are eligible for free child care services. If you are working with a parent who is a TAFDC recipient or former recipient, screen the parent for child care eligibility criteria and explain that she may be eligible for free child care services. If she can demonstrate a service need, encourage her to ask her DTA worker (or former worker) for a child care services referral as soon as possible.
References:
1. This article is adapted from the MLRI Basic Benefits Training entitled “Supports for Working Families” (Laura Gallant and Ellen Shachter, Boston, March 12, 2008).
2. For the purposes of this article, “parent” also includes caretaker relatives and grantee relatives.
3. Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) Field Operations Memo (FOM) 2007-62, p. 2.
4. Emergency Assistance (EA) shelter is the state’s principal safety net program for families experiencing, or at imminent risk of experiencing, homelessness. The EA program is administered by DTA. EA residents are automatically authorized for and entitled to full-time child care services for each age-eligible child upon entering shelter even if they are not receiving TAFDC benefits. Families who are eligible for EA, but who are housed in a non-EA shelter such as a domestic violence shelter, substance abuse shelter or other non-EA shelter, are also automatically authorized for full-time child care. FOM 2007-62, pp. 1-2.
5. Sometimes it is not possible for a family to find child care that meets its needs. If you are helping a family eligible for services who cannot find appropriate child care, contact the Department of Early Education and Care at 617-655-6600 or online at www.eec.state.ma.us. Or, fax a referral to the SEALS program at Greater Boston Legal Services at 617-371-1222. Although SEALS may not be able to take on the case for full representation, we will be able to strategize about how to obtain free child care services or how to access alternatives to DTA-based child care.
8. Informal child care is not available to families accessing child care through the homeless voucher program. “Streamlining Access to child care for DTA Homeless Families: Homeless child care Frequently Asked Questions.” http://www.eec.state.ma.us/kr_subsidy_homeless.aspx. Updated 6.11.08.
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