ARTICLE AD BOX
The federal government is freezing child care funding to Minnesota in response to claims of fraud by some providers. State officials say they are looking into the allegations but so far haven’t substantiated the fraud claims.
The Child Care Assistance Program, known as CCAP, helps families with low incomes pay for child care. In Minnesota, at least 23,000 children use the program per year. And 4,000 child care centers are providers. As of September of this year, the federal government has given Minnesota $185 million in child care funding.
There are processes in place to disburse that funding and make sure that the right amount is going to the right place.
“I'm really confused to hear the narrative that's out there now about it maybe being easy to commit this kind of fraud, because it's hard to do it,” said Maria Snider, vice president of the Minnesota Child Care Association. She also runs a child care center in St. Paul where more than half of her kids receive federal assistance.
Snider just renewed her center’s application to be a provider for CCAP. It happens every two years. Care centers have to provide the state with several documents including payment policies, child care licenses and safety procedures.
As for the reimbursement process, child care centers submit for payment to the federal government retroactively, for either two or four weeks of service at a time. The reimbursement amount is based on attendance of CCAP families. Snider has her center’s assistant director look through attendance and billing. Then, Snider goes through it herself before sending data to the county. Centers are then reimbursed within 21 days.
“It's really important to us that we get it right, because we know that these are public funds that we want to be put to good use,” said Snider.
Additionally, Snider said her center gets unannounced visits from the state and county, who can ask to see attendance records and do quality checks.
“We don’t have a problem with that,” said Snider. “We know that that's part of our job, and we take that really seriously.”
On the beneficiary side, families have to be eligible to have some or all of their child care cost covered. That includes an income limit and job requirements. Snider said families have to fill out a 30-page application. But, even if a family is eligible, there are waitlists. Hennepin County currently has one. Snider said the strain on the system is even more reason to make sure money benefits people who need it most.
“I think that there are bad actors in every system, but it doesn't wipe out the fact that there's thousands of people legitimately accessing the system right now,” said Snider.
Snider said she’s open to new ways of tamping down fraud and ultimately wants the money to go children who need it most. But the impact of the freeze could be detrimental. If the center doesn’t get reimbursed, they can’t provide care for the family, which means that family may have to miss work to care for a child.
And for providers, if they don’t have kids, they ultimately could have to lay off teachers and close their doors.
English (US) ·