The Child Care Assistance Program

The Child Care Assistance Program can help families pay childcare costs for children up to age 13, and for children with special needs up to age 18. The program pays childcare costs for qualifying families while they work, look for work, or attend school. To qualify for assistance the families have to comply with child support enforcement if applicable for all children in the family. Care for the children must be provided by a licensed child care facility, a certified child care provider, or an approved registered provider. Children must live with family whose income does not exceed 150 percent of the federal poverty level. To promote parental responsibility, families with a monthly income above $900 may have to pay a co-payment. The families who receive child care assistance are responsible for paying the payment directly to the child care provider. Assistance is also provided parents who receives, or needs to receive, protective or preventive services without regard to income and the parental co-payment may be waived. Some of the work requirements are that the parent must be employed for a minimum of 20 hours per week or be enrolled in an education or training program and works for wages at least 20 hours per week. When applying for child care assistance be sure to have verification of income for all household members, names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and copies of current immunization records for children needing care.