I am interviewing 2 parents who are on assistance and I was wondering, why do some people not take them. I know you have to fill out a form or something and wait for the state to pay you. Do they still pay for holidays, sick days?

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I do not have any kids on assistance but I know that the amount they qualify for is not always your rate. Then, it is up to you whether or not they must make up the difference (and some of them can't). I believe you also get paid monthly, which is an issue for some people. Not sure about holidays.

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Most providers will not take them because their system is pain in the butt! They wouldn't pay you for holidays and sick days unless it is federal holidays that you will get paid. It may take 1 or 2 months to get paid from the state assistance. Trust me, it is NOT worth it.

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I accept assistance and I charge the diffrence in rates. I also charge extra if the kids miss a day and it results in me not getting full time pay from the state. ts all stated in my contract. The state here is supposed to pay every 2 weeks. I have waited many times atleast 6 months to get paid. For some reason my state doesnt like to pay in the winter. They claim they're short staffed?!

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I have never had a call for a family on assistance yet so I have no idea about the logistics of getting the assistance. I am sure the providers who do get calls though think up some excuse if they are worried about getting less money than they want. I my be wrong but I think my state does not allow discrimination based on assistance, so you would have to give a different and valid reason.

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You get paid once a month, generally the middle of the month for the previous months care. The assistance will not pay for holidays or any missed days of care. The parent will be responsible, which if they need help paying their bill, chances are they aren't going to be able to afford to pay for missed days. When I get families on assistance I generally don't worry about the missed days. Yes, it sucks, but atleast through the state you don't have to worry about bounced checks or not getting paid.
Here, there is a program that enrolled tribe members can go through, and I have 2 families on it and I hate it!! They are not consistent on when they pay and can pretty much do it whenever they get around to it. I have yet to be paid for September! All i can do is hope that they will pay this friday, and if they don't hope for next friday! Can't drop them as they are the bulk of my kids right now. So, bottom line, state assistance is a guaranteed payment, but don't count on getting paid for vacation, holiday or missed days. If you charge for holidays you are closed and your vacation days, you could set up a payment plan monthly, where they parents pay a portion of the holidays and vacation every month. Just figure out how many holidays you expect payment for, add in your paid vacation and divide by 12, then add that to their monthly portion.

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where i'm from, welfare is very high and very much abused. i know alot of providers who refuse to take in those who need assistance. i've wouldnt however i have never been asked to either. the providers i talk with say that alot of times those who are on welfare (atleast thats what its called here) comes alot of unwanted things...not the childrens fault. its great theres help for parents but here its so frustrating when someone claims they need help for daycare but surely have $ for unneeded luxury items. i guess it all depends on your areas ??
if i were in this situation i guess it would depend on alot for me. tho im not sure i could deal w/the late payment from the state,etc...that would stink

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I was burned by state-aided children once. I was watching my cousin's kids once, taking them to school in back (my gas) and feeding them (my food) and it took 4 months(!!!) AND me calling the supervisor to start getting paid! The ONLY way I'll take them is if they have letter in hand saying they've been approved.

Oh, and in MI, there is now a forced union. DCP's don't get any benefits from this union, like most unions are set up to do, but we do have our "dues" taken out of state payments!

And like pp's said, you don't get paid for any missed days, vacations, sick days, etc. They pay by the hour, and usually less than what you would charge. Now (again, in MI, not sure if it's all over) not only do WE have to report the hours children were in our care, but the parents also have to report, and if the two don't match up, that's a delay in getting paid. Also, childcare is only paid if parent(s) is working or in school. If they take off but leave the child with you, you can't claim that.

In most cases, it's more of a pain than it's worth.

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I personally wouldn't ever take state children again!!
There were a bunch of reasons-
I wasn't getting paid near enough- I was getting paid $14.00 per day per child- I was charging $25.00 per day per child. I asked the parent to pay the difference. Then she went and told her case worker, that she couldn't afford to pay me even $1.00 more a day, let alone $11.00 a day. I guess it is illegal in my state to ask the parents to pay the remainder, which I didn't know about.
Then the 2 children stole from myself and my 4 yr. old daughter!!
You wouldn't receive any payment, on when they weren't here, when mom didn't work, any Holidays, vac. or anything else.
Then you had to wait 6-7 weeks for your payment. They were always a month behind, you sign, they sign for the month prior, then in 2-3 weeks, you would receive a check!! It was all together awful!!!

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I have a family on state assistance, It was a pain right away but now its fine, I turn in billing forms every 2 weeks, so every other friday I mail in the billing form, and I have the money direct deposited into my account the following wednesday, like today I had the money for the previous two weeks, The mom does pay me an additional $20 every two weeks, to make up for what I would be charging, but she is still actually even with that paying less, but only like $10/week, but I dont mind, And they dont pay for my vacations or days I close, but I DO get paid for the federal holidays, And anything else, I just let it go.

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I accept state pay and haven't had a problem with it. I have one child enrolled in it now. I get paid the 1st of the month for that month. The state pays me $260 per month and it's there either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd always. I charge $120 a week so if it's a 4 week month the parent owes the remaining $220 and it's a 5 week month the parent owes the remaining $340. I just divide it up and tell them how much they need to pay every week. So, on a 4 week month they pay me $55 and a 5 week month they pay me $68 a week. They always pay and it works out great.

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I think in MN you can ask them to pay the difference but I am not certain on that.
So if I make a contract with my hourly rates being in line with a regular day pay and if I write in it that any holidays or vacation days that fall on their schedule they are required to pay for.
Ask for form or paperwork..(what exactly is the paperwork or form called) to make sure they have been accepted....
CAre will not be offered if not at work or school unless parent is willing to pay out of pocket for that day...

I figure I am new and need clients so I am willing to give assistance a try but if my contract states all the major issues I can hopefully have a successful experience and if not I can just given them a 2 week notice.

Ok what am I forgetting to put in the contract...??

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I had to be approved by my county before accepting payments so you may want to check your county and make sure you approved. Also getting in touch with the case worker that you will need to be in contact with is a good idea. In St. Louis county there is a case worker just for providers so that she can help the provider talk to families and other case workers when needed as she knows all the rules. You can ask that the parents pay the difference and you can talk to the county worker if they do not pay. If they don't pay and you tell the county worker than they will have to pay or loose their assistance. I make the parents pay in advance and won't let them stop paying me until I have the paperwork through the mail from the county. I let them know that I will pay them any extra back or count it toward their co-pay once I get the paperwork and whatever money they have given me is cleared by the bank. And at least in St. Louis county they are very good at being on time every two weeks provided you are on time with returning forms and such.

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Here is the link for the Child Care Assistance Program handbook for providers in Minnesota. It explains how everything works. I currently have over half my families on CCAP. I always get paid, on-time, they pay up to 10 sick/absent days per six months and ALL holidays. I also get direct deposit bi-weekly. I don't mind the program one bit. I actually have more problems with the self payers.

http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/idcp...ame=id_008688#

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I live in wright county mn, my child gets 25 sick/absent days per year, I get paid bi-weekly, and I can ask my parents to pay the differece, so I think its a fine program.
Bonnie

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They don't pay for sick days, they don't pay for vacations, they only pay actual hours you have the child. They only pay so much per hour, so if you charge by the spot, you may still have to bill the family. It has been a nightmare. I have three families on it and I won't take any more, when these families are gone, I am done taking families on assistance. Total nightmare.

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I could never refuse someone that was qualifying for assistance that WANTED to work.

I make the parents pay me my full tuition every week and then when I receive the state check (which is a large portion of my tuition) I then cash it and write them a check for the full amount of the state check.

I did it the other way before and waited 6 months or more for my check so my ONLY condition is that parents pay every week and I'll give them what the state gives me.

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here in Nebraska you don't get paid any vacation, holiday or days they are just not here. you also can NOT ask the parents to pay the difference. i lost alot of money from the kids i did take assistance on. plus once they lost it they left. so then all of a sudden i had 3 open spots and now 4 months later i have finally filled one spot out of the three.

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I did this once and I was living in the state of Maryland I didnt have to make sure I was approved to accept Subsidy just had to be licensed the parent had the paperwork with her when we interviewed it showed how much they would pay monthly and the parents where responsiable for paying any remaining balance so I signed the paper and SHE had to mail it to dss not me they paid my 250 every 2 weeks and yes it was always a month behind but I had the parent pay her 100 buck co pay on the 1st of the month ahead of time they only paid for when she was in school I didnt get paid for holidays because school was closed so she had to make up for it and they only paid up to a certian amount of days he was absent we never went over that for the time he was in care but it ended where she was off for like a month before her next classes started and they wouldnt pay for it and she couldnt afford it so I told her to give me notice and if I wasnt full when she went back to school I would take him needless to say I did not take him back and I will NEVER accept subsidy again.

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I'm in CA and accept assistance but currently none of my clients are on it. I don't mind accepting it as I can usually weed out any bad seeds in the interview process. Here what they payfor childcare doesn't cover my entire fee and so in my contract I have it that the parent must pay the difference, for holidays etc. BUT not all state assistant programs allow you to do this so make sure that you'll be able to charge the parents for these and late fees first.

Also, it pays monthly which is a drag but since I can get by with just 2 regular paying clients I don't mind it. It can also take up to a month before you even get your first payment from them so I require that the parent give me my 2-week deposit and 1st week of care in advance like the rest of my clients do and then they pay weekly in advance like the rest of my clients until I get my first payment. Once I get it that payment becomes a credit in their favor and instead of reimbursing them back I just deduct the fees from this balance until it's all gone, then the family starts to pay the difference on a regular basis. I always show them what I get and give receipts etc. so that they can see what the assistance pays and what the difference is so that they can get an idea as to how much they will be paying monthly out if their own pocket so they can be used to it and there are no surprises later. I don't reimburse what they pay because I figure that if they are going to turn around end eventually just give it right back to me then there's no point. Doing it this way also helps prevent me from getting burned.

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I was wondering...I live in Illinois and the State funding this year is already on its 2nd delay. I've had two families that I allow to use state funding for and haven't had any issues with delays from the state until this year. My checks also come once a month. Back in Feb, the funding ran out and my checks were 2-3 months behind. Now, it looks like the funding is again running out and I'm wondering if I should just make the parents pay me out of pocket until its resolved or wait it out? Luckily, my husband works, so I'm not desperately needing the $ but again not sure if I should wait it out or not?

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I also have and had parents who received some state assistance. My policy is tuition is due by the first of the month no matter what or no services will be given until payment is made. The parents understand that they need to pay if payment from the state doesn't come in on time. However, once the state payment comes in I will refund their payment. So far state payments have been going directly to the parents so the parents pay me as usual, and I haven't had to deal with payments directly from the state.

You should have them pay if the state money doesn't come in. When I worked in a center we had a lot of parents on state assistance. They kept insisting the payment was coming but sometimes it never did because the parents were not fulfilling the requirements the state asked for or lost their assistance and did not inform us, so the center lost out on a lot of money.

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I gave up on taking Vouchers when I did care in IL; I was there in 09-10 when providers didn't get paid for 6 months or more and the parents would refuse to pay... it got so bad I told them no more subsidy clients (I was a single mom). I'm not about to go under because the state wants to play games with my $. I don't take it here in TN either because a lot of the parents don't bother to turn in the families first paperwork etc. Not going thru the hassle again

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It varies so much by state. In some states you can't charge them any more than the state pays. Some of those same states don't pay for absences. That is why some of us won't mess with it. Also, here in Ohio the standards for the state to accept subsidy kids are over and above licensing standards.

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