No Longer Accepting CCA

[Miss A]

Have any of you ever stopped accepting Child Care Assistance? When I opened for business, I opted to apply to accept CCA through the state of Iowa. I am legally unregistered, but was able to accept CCA. Since opening, I have had no families apply for CCA, only one family showed interest in applying but never followed through. Due to the new Iowa laws and requirements placed on those who accept CCA, I have opted to withdraw from the program. I will be informing my families with a written notice today, and do not expect any backlash as none of the use it. I was just wondering if anyone else had once offered CCA and then withdrawn from the program.

[nanglgrl]

I predicted this was going to happen and I'm sure you will be one of many. Since you don't have any CCA clients I can't see why your clients would have a problem with it. The entire thing is destined to create more problems than solutions but they had to change requirements because of the federal government.
I'm registered and do accept CCA but since they will now be requiring a ton more training that doesn't count towards our training hours I will not be accepting CCA. My normal rate is a lot more than CCA pays and since we aren't allowed to charge the difference it doesn't make business sense for me. I will still have to do all of the extra training even though I won't be accepting CCA but since I have to spend all that extra time doing business related activities I will only accept private pay since I'm paid more per slot and it will help offset the extra time I'm spending working.
I'm sure most unregistered will stop accepting CCA since it basically requires them to complete the same requirements as registered and most registered will eventually raise their rates to make up for the increased work and give priority to private pay families. None of these things will help low income Iowans have more access to quality care and will probably make it even harder for them to find care at all. I already know that a lot of providers don't accept it. I've always reserve one spot for CCA clients because I feel it's my way of giving back but I have a long waiting list of clients who are private pay and will pay more for the slot than what I get from CCA.
I wish I knew why the government always thinks it's ok to put more restrictions and requirements on us and expects us just to sit back and take it. They keep taking up more and more of of free time and a huge factor of being a good provider is a work/life balance because you can't be good for children when you don't have down time. When they keep eating away at our down time they set us up to fail.

[Miss A]

I am so glad someone understands! I choose to be unregistered, not because I am lazy, but because the few restrictions allow me time to create and implement a quality program, with all the benefits of a licensed program, without the paperwork headache for me. I understand the government restrictions, but you are right, it does make it hard for a CCA approved Childcare to even want to continue. And the rates are ridiculous! They were only willing to pay $7.19 for 5 hours of care. Not per hour, for a half day. I am sorry, but I can not provide care with activities and meals and snacks for that price. Thank you for understanding!

[thrivingchildcarecom]

I'm California and the program might be a little different. But I decided to stop taking families that use the subsided care program here as well. It was more due to a few factors; they didn't pay my rate, the paperwork was monstrous and the families tended to want to bend the rules too much. I don't think my business has suffered based on the decision. Whenever I do get a client using the program, I simply refer them to colleagues that accept it.

[DaveA]

I don't take it anymore either. For the reasons you and others have posted. Also, the last state "financial crisis" we got letter basically telling us they would pay us when whenever they could (no timeframe at all) but providers should keep caring for CCAP children. Providers who said they wouldn't do it were told there could be "repercussions" for dropping the enrollments. So I'll never deal with it again.

[LysesKids]

Originally Posted by DaveArmour

I don't take it anymore either. For the reasons you and others have posted. Also, the last state "financial crisis" we got letter basically telling us they would pay us when whenever they could (no timeframe at all) but providers should keep caring for CCAP children. Providers who said they wouldn't do it were told there could be "repercussions" for dropping the enrollments. So I'll never deal with it again.

I stopped accepting subsidy altogether after my Illinois fiasco... I was one of the providers that was caught in the non payment of Subsidy for months in 2009;saw many a center & home close after that. Nope, I didn't take it in AR & I don't take it here in TN either...

[Second Home]

I was willing to accept subsidy clients until the state came up with new regs for providers if you accepted subsidy . That is when I decided to no longer accept it .

I stopped taking cca families because they repeatedly lost paperwork from both me and my last cca family. They didn't pay for some days and nobody wants to solve a problem, only place blame. So what am I supposed to think when they have lost paperwork from both of us? I think *they lost it because I know I mailed mine.

Did I read somewhere that if you do QRIS you have to accept families on subsidy?

Now if I have a family in need, I scholarship them myself. Either for a small amount, or for a limited timeframe. And there is no additional paperwork involved.

[Thriftylady]

Originally Posted by Miss A

I am so glad someone understands! I choose to be unregistered, not because I am lazy, but because the few restrictions allow me time to create and implement a quality program, with all the benefits of a licensed program, without the paperwork headache for me. I understand the government restrictions, but you are right, it does make it hard for a CCA approved Childcare to even want to continue. And the rates are ridiculous! They were only willing to pay $7.19 for 5 hours of care. Not per hour, for a half day. I am sorry, but I can not provide care with activities and meals and snacks for that price. Thank you for understanding!

This is why I am unlicensed. I choose to put my energy and money towards my program.

[lovemydaycare0912]

Originally Posted by DaveArmour

I don't take it anymore either. For the reasons you and others have posted. Also, the last state "financial crisis" we got letter basically telling us they would pay us when whenever they could (no timeframe at all) but providers should keep caring for CCAP children. Providers who said they wouldn't do it were told there could be "repercussions" for dropping the enrollments. So I'll never deal with it again.

That is beyond crazy. Imagine them hearing from their boss that they'll get paid WHENEVER. See how well they'll take that.

[AmyKidsCo]

I used to accept WI Shares (CCA) families but only had a couple - like 3-4 in 16 years. When they required participation in YoungStar (our QRS) in order to accept WI Shares I decided to opt out. Since then I've only had a handful of calls from WI Shares parents so it's really not had an impact.

Since none of your parents are CCA I don't think you'll get any backlash from them.

[midaycare]

I've only had one dcf that used it, but I have a rule that dcf's on assistance have to pay me first, and then I will credit their account.

So...I don't have to worry about non-payment.

It's a hassle though.