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.

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:

1. Licensed/certified/approved by ODJFS or ODE PFCC.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

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.