CCMPL 103 (September 2016 Publicly Funded Child Care Rates)
Child Care Manual Procedure Letter No. 103
August 30, 2016
TO: All Child Care Manual Holders
FROM: Cynthia C. Dungey, Director
SUBJECT: September 2016 Publicly Funded Child Care Rates

Background:

Currently, publicly funded child care base rates are set by provider type, age of child, and county of provider. Programs participating in Step Up To Quality do not have separate base rates - the enhanced rates for Step Up To Quality build upon the base rates.

New Procedure:

Effective Sunday, September 4, 2016, the base rates will be increased by four percent for all Step Up To Quality rated programs. Additionally, the payment enhancements will be updated as follows:

  • Three-star rated programs will increase from 18% to 21%
  • Four-star rated programs will increase from 25% to 29%
  • Five-star rated programs will increase from 31% to 35%

These changes are an effort by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to maintain overall investment of any estimated funding as a result of the recent extended day clarification. This is part of the department's continued commitment of investing in quality care within the publicly funded child care program and ensuring that children served at every level of quality are benefiting from the investment.

Implementation:

In an effort to implement this new policy as expeditiously as possible, both the increase to the base rate for all rated programs and the enhanced rate for quality programs rated 3, 4, or 5-stars will initially show in the provider portal as an increase to the SUTQ enhancement, not as an increase to the base rate.  This will be corrected in a future system release.  Appendix A to rule 5101:2-16-41 of the Ohio Administrative Code will also be updated in the near future to reflect the new base rates and the Step Up To Quality rated program enhancements.