CFS-30-09-00007-P Child Support Requirements for Low Income Child Care Recipients

7/29/09 N.Y. St. Reg. CFS-30-09-00007-P

NEW YORK STATE REGISTER

VOLUME XXXI, ISSUE 30

July 29, 2009

RULE MAKING ACTIVITIES

OFFICE OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES

PROPOSED RULE MAKING

NO HEARING(S) SCHEDULED

 

I.D No. CFS-30-09-00007-P

Child Support Requirements for Low Income Child Care Recipients

PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE State Administrative Procedure Act, NOTICE is hereby given of the following proposed rule:

Proposed Action:

Amendment of section 415.3 of Title 18 NYCRR.

Statutory authority:

Social Services Law, sections 20(3)(d), 410 and title 5-C

Subject:

Child Support Requirements for Low Income Child Care Recipients.

Purpose:

To eliminate the requirement that recipients of low income child care subsidies pursue child support.

Text of proposed rule:

Subdivision (c) of section 415.3 is repealed and subdivisions (d), (e), (f) and (g) are re-lettered to read (c), (d), (e) and (f) respectively.

Text of proposed rule and any required statements and analyses may be obtained from:

Public Information Office, NYS Office of Children and Family Services, 52 Washington Street, Rensselaer, N.Y. 12144, [phone]

Data, views or arguments may be submitted to:

Same as above.

Public comment will be received until:

45 days after publication of this notice.

Regulatory Impact Statement

1. Statutory authority:

Section 20(3)(d) of the Social Services Law (SSL) authorizes the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) to establish rules and regulations to carry out its duties pursuant to the provisions of the SSL.

Section 410 of the SSL authorizes social services districts to provide subsidized child care services to families determined eligible in accordance with criteria established by OCFS. This section only governs child care services provided under the Title XX Social Service Block Grant and those provided as preventive services and child protective services under certain circumstances. All other child care services are governed by Title 5-C of the SSL.

Title 5-C (§ 410-u through 410-z) of the SSL governs the New York State Child Care Block Grant (NYSCCBG). Section 410-u of the SSL requires OCFS to establish a NYSCCBG comprised of all the federal funds appropriated for child care under Title IV-A of the federal Social Security Act and under the federal Child Care and Development Fund, any additional funds transferred to the NYSCCBG by the State from the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families block grant, and any State funds appropriated for child care services. Section 410-w of the SSL prescribes the families for whom social services districts may use allocated NYSCCBG funds to provide child care assistance. The section sets forth which families must be guaranteed child care services, which families must be served as long as funds are available, and which families a social services district may elect to serve in accordance with criteria established by OCFS.

2. Legislative objectives:

The regulations support the legislative objectives underlying Section 410 and Title 5-C of the SSL to provide child care services to low-income families when necessary to promote self-sufficiency and to protect children. They also support the legislative objective to make access to child care services easier for families and to reduce local administrative burdens.

3. Needs and benefits:

A compelling argument has been made that an unknown number of low income families, which do not receive public assistance, may not be taking advantage of the State's child care subsidy program due to the requirement to pursue child support.

For many custodial parents, especially those who have been in domestic violence situations with the non-custodial parent, seeking child support is an experience they forgo for fear of the potential repercussions. In addition, many custodial parents work in low paying jobs without the benefit of paid time off. These parents experience the possibility of lost wages or potential termination of employment for taking time off to go to Family Court to apply for child support or to seek modification or enforcement of child support orders. Other custodial parents have informal arrangements with their children's non-custodial parents and feel it would be counterproductive to take the time and effort to formalize those requirements. Furthermore, if a non-custodial parent is in the United States legally but is involved with immigration proceedings, the non-custodial parent may be concerned that a Family Court appearance may jeopardize his or her ability to stay in the country.

Low-income parents that choose not to seek child care subsidies because of the child support requirement may place their children in unsafe, unregulated care. For low income children who could benefit emotionally and educationally from enrollment in an early childhood program being denied access to subsidized child care is an unfortunate potentially long-term consequence of the parent's decision not to seek child support.

Additionally, implementation of the requirement to pursue child support has added to the workload for social services districts. Districts must track compliance with the requirement and recalculate child care benefit amounts when there is a change in the payment of child support or the share of child care costs made by the non-custodial parent. Repeal of this requirement would ease an administrative burden on districts.

Implementation of the existing child support requirement also places administrative and financial burdens on child care providers serving low-income subsidy recipients. The child care providers must obtain the child care portion of the child support collections from the non-custodial or custodial parents. If those payments are delayed or not paid for a particular family, then the child care provider must decide between continuing to provide care to the family until the payments are made or the applicable social services district adjusts the subsidy payments to reflect the non-payments or requiring the family to leave the child care program. Repeal of this requirement also would ease this administrative burden on child care providers serving families receiving low income child care subsidies.

For all of these reasons, OCFS believes it is in the best interest of low income families in New York that the child support requirement be eliminated.

4. Costs:

The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) estimates the amount of child support collections in 2007 that applied to the costs of child care for those families who have never received public assistance at a little over $480,000 statewide. As these collections are from existing child support orders, OCFS does not expect any significant loss in these child care collections or in child support income collections to result from the repeal of the child support requirement for low-income child care subsidy recipients. However, there may be a small annual adverse impact on the number of low income child care subsidies some social services districts are able to fund or the amount of funding some social services districts choose to contribute towards low-income child care subsidies if some low income child care recipients already in receipt of child support decide to forgo such support in the future or if some new families applying for low income child care subsidies chose not to apply for child support services. This potential impact would result from the districts having to make higher child care subsidy payments to those families due to the lack of child care collections from child support to off set the districts' child care costs or from lower family fees for child care resulting from some families' incomes being lower than if they were receiving child support income. However, local social services districts have the ability to manage any changes in child care subsidy costs within the State and federal funds made available to them for child care services.

State reimbursement for child care services is made from the State and/or federal funds allocated to the NYSCCBG and is limited on an annual basis to each local district's NYSCCBG allocation for that year. Under section 410-v(2) of the SSL, the State is responsible for reimbursing social services districts for 100 percent of the costs of providing child care services to eligible low income families that are not in receipt of public assistance up to each district's NYSCCBG allocation. Under the State Budget for SFY 2007-2008, each social services district received its allocations of $713,220,629 in federal and State NYSCCBG funds. While this allocation is the primary resource available for additional child care subsidies that may result from the implementation of this regulatory change, social services districts also have the option to transfer a portion of their Flexible Fund for Family Services (FFFS) allocations to the NYSCCBG to use for the child care subsidy program.

Administrative costs to OCFS in implementing the repeal of this regulation are expected to be negligible and are manageable within the State's NYSCCBG budget.

5. Local government mandates:

The repeal of this regulation removes a local government mandate.

6. Paperwork:

Social services districts may have to modify local forms that include the requirement for the parent/caretaker to actively pursue child support.

7. Duplication:

There are no rules, or other legal requirements that will duplicate, overlap or conflict with the repeal of this regulation.

8. Alternatives:

As alternatives, OCFS considered maintaining the existing requirement; removing the requirement to return to court to modify the order to add child care costs to the order; and limiting the requirement to pursue child support for only that child needing child care services in the family unit. OCFS believes these alternative approaches do not adequately promote access to child care subsidies for vulnerable low income families in New York State.

9. Federal standards:

The rule does not exceed any minimum standards of the federal government.

10. Compliance schedule:

Social services districts may need 30 days to modify any local forms or publications which discuss the requirement on the parent/caretaker to actively pursue child support. Social services districts may need more than 30 days to determine the impact of this change on their caseload. Some districts may wish to modify their Child and Family Services plan to revise their priorities for child care funding.

Regulatory Flexibility Analysis

1. Effect of Rule:

The proposed regulation will affect all 58 social services districts in the State and those child care programs operated by small businesses that serve low-income child care recipients. Some social services districts have suggested this requirement acts as a barrier to families applying for low-income child care subsidies and, thereby, assists the districts in managing the number of families served with their limited child care subsidy dollars. Should the proposed regulation result in a significant increase in the number of families applying for low-income subsidized child care services in some social services districts, those districts may create waiting lists for such services or revise the child care portion of their Child and Family Services Plans to establish or change their child care priorities and/or the income level for any child care set asides.

We would encourage local social services districts to utilize fraud detection methods to ensure that applicants for child care subsidies report accurate household composition information.

Implementation of the existing requirement to pursue child support has added to the workload for social services districts and child care providers. Districts must track recipient's compliance with the requirement and recalculate child care benefit amounts when there is a change in the payment of child support or the share of child care costs made by the non-custodial parents. The child care providers must obtain the child care portion of the child support collections from the non-custodial or custodial parents. If those payments are delayed or not paid for a particular family, then the child care provider must decide between continuing to provide care to the family until the payments are made or the applicable social services district adjusts the subsidy payments to reflect the non-payments or requiring the family to leave the child care program. The elimination of the child support requirement will ease these administrative burdens.

2. Compliance Requirement:

There will be no impact on reporting or recordkeeping requirements for social services districts or child care providers imposed by the rule. The rule will eliminate the requirement that local social services districts track recipients' compliance with the existing child support requirements. Some districts will need to modify local forms or publications that refer to the requirement to actively pursue child support.

3. Professional Services:

No professional services will be needed to comply with this change in rule.

4. Compliance Costs:

The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) estimates the amount of child support collections in 2007 that applied to the costs of child care for those families who have never received public assistance at a little over $480,000 statewide. As these collections are from existing child support orders, OCFS does not expect any significant loss in these child are collections or in child support income collections to result from the repeal of the child support requirement for low-income child care subsidy recipients. However, there may be a small annual adverse impact on the number of low-income child care subsidies some social services districts are able to fund or the amount of funding some social services districts choose to contribute towards low-income child care subsidies if some low-income child care recipients already in receipt of child support decide to forgo such support in the future or if some new families applying for low-income child care subsidies chose not to apply for child support services. This potential impact would result from the districts having to make higher child care subsidies payments to those families due to the lack of child care collections from child support to off set the districts' child care costs or from lower family fees for child care resulting from some families' incomes being lower than if they were receiving child support income. However, local social services districts have the ability to manage any changes in child are subsidy costs within the State and federal funds made available to them for child care services.

State reimbursement for child care services is made from the State and/or federal funds allocated to the NYSCCBG and is limited on an annual basis to each local district's NYSCCBG allocation for that year. Under section 410-v(2) of the Social Services Law, the State is responsible for reimbursing social services districts for 100 percent of the costs of providing child care services to eligible low income families that are not in receipt of public assistance up to each district's NYSCCBG allocation. Under the State Budget for SFY 2007-2008, each social services district received its allocations of $713,220,629 in federal and State NYSCCBG funds. While this allocation is the primary resource available for additional child are subsidies that may result from the implementation of this regulatory change, social services districts also have the option to transfer a portion of their Flexible Fund for Family Services (FFFS) allocations to the NYSCCBG to use for the child care subsidy program.

Administrative costs to OCFS in implementing the repeal of this regulation are expected to be negligible and are management within the State's NYSCCBG budget.

5. Economic and Technological Feasibility:

This change in rule will be both economically and technologically feasible. However, some districts that estimate they will have insufficient funds to serve all eligible families may institute a waiting list for families that seek funding, and/or limit intake to families with incomes at a level below 200% of poverty.

6. Minimizing Adverse Impact:

Repeal of this requirement would ease an administrative burden on social services districts and child care programs operated by small businesses for the reasons discussed in the first section of this statement.

In addition, OCFS, in conjunction with OTDA, will develop public information materials to be used by child care providers to inform parents of the benefits of child support. The materials will also explain the child support services available through the social services districts and the process to obtain child support for individuals who wish to pursue child support on their own behalf. OCFS will also increase its audit work in the child care subsidy program so that controls are in place to identify potential fraud.

7. Small Business and Local Government Participation:

OCFS and OTDA held a roundtable discussion in June 2007 with advocates and local district commissioners to help inform our thinking about this requirement. In addition, issues related to the child support requirement have been discussed with social services districts and advocates in a number of forums over the last six months. Further, a survey was sent to the local districts requesting feedback and data on the child support requirement.

Rural Area Flexibility Analysis

1. Types and Estimated Numbers of Rural Areas:

The regulation will affect the 44 social services districts located in rural areas of the State and those child care providers located in those areas which are operated by small businesses that serve low income child care recipients.

2. Reporting, Recordkeeping and Other Compliance Requirements and Professional Services:

There will no significant impact on reporting or recordkeeping requirements for social services districts or child care providers imposed by the rule. The rule will eliminate the requirement that local social services districts track recipients' compliance with the existing child support requirements. Some social services districts will need to modify local forms or publications that refer to the requirement to actively pursue child support. No professional services will be needed to comply with this change in rule.

3. Costs:

The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) estimates the amount of child support collections in 2007 that applied to the costs of child care for those families who have never received public assistance at a little over $480,000 statewide. As these collections are from existing child support orders, OCFS does not expect any significant loss in these child care collections or in child support income collections to result from the repeal of the child support requirement for low income child care subsidy recipients. However, there may be a small annual adverse impact on the number of low income child care subsidies some social services districts are able to fund or the amount of funding some social services districts choose to contribute towards low income child care subsidies if some low income child care recipients already in receipt of child support decide to forgo such support in the future or if some new families applying for low income child care subsidies chose not to apply for child support services. This potential impact would result from the districts having to make higher child care subsidies payments to those families due to the lack of child care collections from child support to off set the districts' child care costs or from lower family fees for child care resulting from some families' incomes being lower than if they were receiving child support income. However, local social services districts have the ability to manage any changes in child care subsidy costs within the State and federal funds made available to them for child care services.

State reimbursement for child care services is made from the State and/or federal funds allocated to the NYSCCBG and is limited on an annual basis to each local district's NYSCCBG allocation for that year. Under section 410-v(2) of the SSL, the State is responsible for reimbursing social services districts for 100 percent of the costs of providing child care services to eligible low income families that are not in receipt of public assistance up to each district's NYSCCBG allocation. Under the State Budget for SFY 2007-2008, each social services district received its allocations of $713,220,629 in federal and State NYSCCBG funds. While this allocation is the primary resource available for additional child care subsidies that may result from the implementation of this regulatory change, social services districts also have the option to transfer a portion of their Flexible Fund for Family Services (FFFS) allocations to the NYSCCBG to use for the child care subsidy program.

Administrative costs to OCFS in implementing the repeal of this regulation are expected to be negligible and are manageable within the State's NYSCCBG budget.

4. Minimizing Adverse Impact:

Implementation of the existing requirement to pursue child support has added to the workload for social services districts and child care providers. Districts must track recipient's compliance with the requirement and recalculate child care benefit amounts when there is a change in the payment of child support or the share of child care costs made by the non-custodial parents. The child care providers must obtain the child care portion of the child support collections from the non-custodial or custodial parents. If those payments are delayed or not paid for a particular family, then the child care provider must decide between continuing to provide care to the family until the payments are made or the applicable social services district adjusts the subsidy payments to reflect the non-payments or requiring the family to leave the child care program. The elimination of the child support requirement will ease these administrative burdens.

In addition, OCFS, in conjunction with OTDA, will develop public information materials to be used by child care providers to inform parents of the benefits of child support. The materials will also explain the child support services available through the social services districts and the process to obtain child support for individuals who wish to pursue child care on their own behalf.

5. Rural Area Participation:

OCFS and OTDA held a roundtable discussion in June 2007 with advocates and local district commissioners to help inform our thinking about this requirement. Four social services commissioners from districts in rural areas attended the roundtable. In addition, issues related to the child support requirement have been discussed with social services districts and advocates in a number of forums over the last six months. Further, a survey was sent to the local districts requesting feedback and data on the child support requirement.

Job Impact Statement

1. Nature of Impact:

The proposed rule will increase the number of individuals applying for and eligible for a low income child care subsidies. Many of these individuals will be those who are seeking employment or are already employed. Some of them may be better able to take advantage of job opportunities if they are able to receive child care subsidies without having to pursue child support.

2. Categories and Numbers Affected:

The number of families that may be affected by the proposed rule is unknown. Approximately 37,000 families currently receive low-income child care subsidies each month under the New York State Child Care Block Grant. Most of these families already are pursuing child support under the existing requirement. Similarly, any new families seeking low-income child care subsidies that previously received public assistance will already have met the requirement to actively pursue child support because it is a condition of receiving public assistance.

3. Regions of Adverse Impact:

There are no regions where the rule would have a disproportionate adverse impact on jobs or employment opportunities.

4. Minimizing Adverse Impact:

Not applicable.

5. Self-employment Opportunities:

No measurable impact on opportunities for self-employment is expected.