Background
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of
2021 was signed into law on March 11, 2021, issuing three streams of federal
funding to states through the Child Care and Development Fund which includes
Supplemental Discretionary, Stabilization, and Mandatory/Matching funds.
Stabilization funds support states in providing financial relief to child care
programs by helping to defray unexpected business costs associated with the
pandemic and to help stabilize child care program operations. As a result of
House Bill 169 of the 134th General Assembly, the Ohio Department of Job and
Family Services (ODJFS), Office of Family Assistance, was authorized to spend
additional ARPA funding.
Phase 2 and Phase 3
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) has
established several child care stabilization sub-grant opportunities. These
sub-grants are available for ODJFS regulated child care centers, family child
care (FCC) type A and type B homes, in-home aides (IHA), and approved day
camps, as well as Ohio Department of Education (ODE) licensed preschool (PS)
and school-age (SA) programs that are approved to provide publicly funded child
care (PFCC). ODJFS regulated child care programs do not
need to be participating in PFCC to be eligible to apply for these
sub-grants, however, ODE programs must be approved to provide PFCC at the time
of application.
The sub-grant opportunities include: Operating/New Pandemic Costs,
Workforce Recruitment/Retention, Access Development, and Mental Health
Workforce and Family Support. The chart below indicates maximum funding amounts
for each phase of sub-grants, based on size and program type. For example: a
licensed child care center who serves 300 children can utilize $138,086 of
funding from any of the sub-grant opportunities in Phase 2 and $165,702 in
Phase 3. Phases will continue until June 30, 2023 depending on the availability
of funds.
Program Type by Capacity (1/28/2022) | Maximum Funding Amount for Phase 2 | Maximum Funding Amount for Phase 3 |
Centers - XX Large (200+)
|
$138,086
|
$165,702
|
Centers - X-Large (151- 199)
|
$99,148
|
$118,978
|
Centers - Large (100 - 150)
|
$27,817
|
$33,380
|
Centers - Medium (50 to 99)
|
$22,873
|
$27,448
|
Centers - Small (49 or less)
|
$20,600
|
$24,720
|
FCC - Type A
|
$16,238
|
$19,486
|
FCC - Type B
|
$4,384
|
$5,262
|
Approved Day Camps
|
$1,842
|
$2,210
|
In-Home Aides
|
$1,090
|
$1,308
|
Programs can utilize none, some or all of the sub-grants but cannot
exceed the maximum funding amount for each phase. Additionally, these funds cannot
be used toward an expense previously paid for with stabilization grant funding.
Unused funds per phase cannot be carried forward.
Sub-Grant Opportunities
Operating/New
Pandemic Costs Sub-Grant (Centers, FCC, Approved Day Camps, IHA, and ODE PFCC
PS and SA): Child care programs will be eligible for funds
intended to assist with costs incurred as a result of the federal public health
emergency. This sub-grant can be used for:
- Paying personnel costs; including wages or
benefits such as health, dental, vision, paid sick leave or family leave,
retirement contributions
- Paying ongoing costs including rent, mortgage,
utilities, insurance
- Conducting facility maintenance, renovations,
including those that address COVID-19 concerns as well as improvements that
make child care programs inclusive and accessible for children and families
with disabilities. Note: Construction or major renovations are not permitted.
- Purchasing personal protective equipment (PPE)
worn to minimize exposure to hazards that cause workplace injuries and
illnesses must be either approved by the National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health (NIOSH) or authorized for use by the United States Food and
Drug Administration (FDA), including under emergency use authorization.
- Purchasing sanitizer, classroom dividers,
cleaning supplies, temporary sinks, thermometers, and COVID-19 testing,
covering other expenses that facilitate business practices consistent with
safety protocols.
Workforce
Recruitment/Retention Sub-Grant (Centers, FCC, Approved Day Camps, and ODE PFCC
PS and SA): This sub-grant can be used for personnel costs
including:
- Providing increased wages
- Providing benefits such as health, dental,
vision, paid sick leave or family leave, retirement contributions
- Paying sign-on and retention bonuses, ongoing
premium or hazard pay, transportation costs to/from work
- Creating substitute pools, providing
administrative support
- Funding recruitment activities
- Supporting early childhood professionals through
coaching as well as training and professional development on topics including:
communicable disease, first aid, CPR, sudden infant death syndrome, medication
administration, shaken baby syndrome, emergency preparedness and response
planning, transportation, handling and storage of hazardous materials. This
includes Ohio Approved training.
- Supporting staff access to COVID-19 vaccinations
including paid time off for vaccine appointments and to manage side effects,
transportation cost to appointments
- Assisting with background check expenses
Access
Development Sub-Grant (Eligible program types are noted by each sub-grant):
These sub-grants can be used for costs incurred when:
- Expanding the number of current classrooms or
reopening classrooms closed due to the pandemic to serve additional children or
serve new age groups. This does not include construction to build a program or
construct a new room.
- Adding or expanding infant/toddler, or
school-age care, or care for children with special needs (Centers, FCC, or
Approved Day Camps)
- Expanding hours of operation to include non-traditional
hours weekdays 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. or between 12:00 a.m. Saturday to 6:00
a.m. Monday (Centers and FCC)
- Increasing technology access by purchasing
technology and new equipment for learning and development (Centers and FCC)
- Supporting programs serving school-age children
in addressing learning gaps and meeting the social and emotional needs of
school-age children. (Examples: after hours tutoring, partnering with speech
and hearing, etc.) (Centers, FCC, Approved Day Camps, IHA, ODE PFCC SA
programs)
- Supporting programs with a status in OCLQS of
"temporary closed" on or after March 26, 2020 that plan to reopen no
later than 6 months after the sub-grant award date. (Centers, FCC) Phase 3 only
- Engaging in the expansion of programming to
include therapeutic child care by partnering with an Ohio Mental Health and
Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) certified community mental health agency to
provide ongoing mental health services to children and staff. Child care
programs identified by the community mental health agency to participate in the
pilot program will enter into a partnership agreement/MOU with the community
mental health agency. This includes community mental health agencies that
operate a child care program. All selected child care programs will implement
therapeutic child care built upon evidence-based mental health practices.
(Centers)
Mental
Health Workforce and Family Support Sub-Grant: (Centers and ODE PFCC PS and SA)
Programs may use sub-grant funds to support costs related to the mental health
and well-being of their children and employees. This sub-grant can be used for
the following:
- Coaching, training, local team building,
resiliency, stress reduction and developing staff in mental health and
social-emotional development topics
- Organizing stress reduction and wellness
experiences for children
- Addressing staffing patterns and schedules to
support staff mental health
- Purchasing program materials, and supplies to
promote mental health and social-emotional learning in the classroom
- Providing family engagement activities to
strengthen mental health and wellness, like take-home toolkits and family game
nights
- Providing childhood mental health supports
(e.g., infant/toddler and early childhood mental health consultation services,
targeted programming, etc.)
- Utilizing the Mental Health Bridge. This pilot
project is currently being established and is anticipated to be available by
March of 2022. The Mental Health Bridge will support cohorts of child care
programs with access to mental health agency services available to each
program. This includes creating private, comfortable, HIPPA-compliant spaces
within child care centers for families and staff to use for telehealth
services, purchasing technology for telehealth mental health services, including
tablets for real-time medical assessments and assisting with fees for
telehealth services obtained for children and staff
Qualification
Stabilization sub-grants are available by application to Ohio
child care programs who qualify by meeting basic criteria outlined by the
federal government. Child care programs are to be:
- Licensed/certified/approved
by ODJFS or ODE PFCC.
- In “Open”
status as verified in the Ohio Child Licensing and Quality System (OCLQS) and
serving children. For phase 3 funding only, programs may
submit an application if they are in “Temporary Closed” status on or after
March 26, 2020 as a result of the Pandemic, with plans to reopen the program
within 6 months of receipt of the grant dollars. The award will be based on the
license capacity at the time of closure. Note: If a temporary closed
program applies for and receives funding but does not open within the 6-month
period, the awarded dollars must be returned.
- In good standing as of the date of application
- Programs not in good standing who are not
eligible include:
- Programs in enforcement during the qualification
period
- Programs who have had their Provider Agreement
for Publicly Funded Child Care terminated, within the five years prior to this
application, due to misuse of funds.
- If a program is in good standing at the time of
application but is later determined not in good standing prior to the funds
being awarded, the funds will not be awarded.
- Compliant with
all applicable Ohio Administrative Code and Ohio Revised Code requirements
which include Child Care and Development Fund health and safety requirements
and the completion of comprehensive background checks.
- In agreement
with sub-grant terms by certifying that the child care program will, for the
duration of the sub-grant:
- Use funds only for the categories and purposes
indicated
- Implement required ODJFS policies including Ohio
Administrative Code and Ohio Revised Code, orders from the State of Ohio, and
to the greatest extent possible, implement policies in line with guidance from
the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC).
- Pay full compensation and maintain full benefits
to staff and agree not to involuntarily furlough employees
- Implement a hiring bonus and a retention policy
if this option is selected. This policy should include:
- A 6-month period that the staff member agrees to
remain with the program in exchange for receipt of Workforce
Recruitment/Retention funds.
- Document the date the hiring and retention bonus
is issued.
- A written agreement between the professional and
program articulating that the professional agrees to remain employed by the
program for at least 6 months from the date of hiring bonus and/or retention.
Application, Payment and Expenditure
The application for these sub-grants will be accessed in the
Ohio Professional Registry (OPR). Guidance and requirements will be available
on OCCRRA’s website February 1, 2022 at www.occrra.org.
Eligible providers must submit an application through the OPR, via a program’s organization
dashboard at https://registry.occrra.org/.
An application is required for each phase.
When applying for the ARPA stabilization sub-grants, applicants
are required to provide the program’s owner/administrator demographics,
operational status, and estimated monthly expense data (these items are
federally required by ARPA).
The chart below is a summary of the application and allowable
expense periods. Funds are dispersed according to this schedule and
reconciliation for the full amount issued in each phase is required prior to
applying for the next payment. The Phase 4, dollar amounts will be issued in
another MPL but will be, at a minimum, equal to Phase 3 funding amounts. If a
program does not request all eligible funding in one phase, they may return to
the OPR and request up to the total amount, as long as the application period
is still open.
Phase
|
Sub-Grants
| Application Period | Expense Period |
Reconciliation Due
|
2
|
Operating/New Pandemic Costs
|
February 1, 2022 – May 31, 2022
| July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022 |
July 31, 2022
|
Workforce Retention/Recruitment Access Development Mental Health Workforce and Family Support |
February 1, 2022 – May 31, 2022
|
February 1, 2022 – June 30, 2022
|
July 31, 2022
|
3
|
All Sub-Grants
|
July 1, 2022 – November 30, 2022
|
July 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022
|
January 31, 2023
|
Payments are based on the program's license
capacity on January 28, 2022 for child care centers, and for ODE PFCC PS and SA
programs. License capacity requests must have been submitted in OCLQS before January
14, 2022. If a program is licensed after that date, the payment is based on the
capacity at the time of licensure. Payments will be processed approximately four
weeks to six weeks after the date the application is approved. Programs can see
the status of their application in the program’s organizational dashboard in the
OPR. Sub-grants will be awarded as long as ARPA funding is available and appropriation
to spend the funding is provided to ODJFS.
Reconciliation
Programs are required to submit a reconciliation for each sub-grant
phase. For Phase 2, reconciliations must be submitted no later than July 31, 2022
and for Phase 3, reconciliations must be submitted no later than January 31, 2023.
Reconciliations will be located in the OPR. Programs should retain receipts, invoices
and documentation for expenses used toward these sub-grants. Reconciliation guidance
will be located at www.occrra.org.
Questions
Please contact OCCRRA with questions at support@occrra.org or 1-877-547-6978.