Anyone In California That Does CDA?

[MamaBear]

So I've been a daycare provider for 5+ years and never have had a client that uses CDA payments (California Development Associates) "alternative payments program". I always had families pay me out of pocket and never thru the state or anything.

I had a family with two children tour at my daycare today who want to use CDA payments and I told them that I've never done it before and I'd like to research it before I say okay. I've looked at it online but didnt get a lot of info on it... I'm just wondering from fellow daycare providers if its something worth getting involved in... like what are the pro's and cons?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated! :-)

[daycare]

Ive always been private pay. I have avoided it because of the non payment that happened last year for months on end. Several daycare shut down when the payments stopped.

Maybe you could call and ask what you coubty what you will need to do.

[Michelle]

Whenever the budget goes unsigned, they don't pay you, It can go on for months and they are always cutting our pay due to the budget.
I do take these programs but I am always stressed out.

[MarinaVanessa]

Yes, be careful. It's a little touchy. This is my first year accepting any help whatsoever in a form of a subsidy from the government and so far so good but I got a letter in the mail yesterday that read like this:

"As we move forward to the new 2010-2012 fiscal year, the State Budget may be delayed, therefore, provider reimbursements may also be delayed. Providers are encouraged to start considering back up plans in the event the State Budget is not approved by July 1, 2011 and we are forced to delay provider reimbursements."

Good thing for me that I only have 1 client that gets assistance and all of my other families are private pay. Unfortunately for the parent on the program they are on (subsidy assistance for foster parents) is being dissolved completely so they will again be private pay.

Last year here in CA there was a horrible problem with the budget being delayed. LOTS of providers were stuck waiting and waiting for months for their payments. Many of them had all or most clients on some sort of subsidy and had to shut down because they lost the clients. A friend of mine has a large (12 capacity) family daycare and she lost half of her clients all in the same week. She had to lay off her assistant and everything. It was a mess. What she did was figure out how much she actually needed to survive and make her house and utility payments, food etc. and figured out how many clients that would take. Those "slots" and 2 extras would be for private pay clients only and the rest of the "slots" were the number of clients she could have on subsidy (4 I think). This way even if it happened again she would be ok. She also changed her policies and urged me to change mine (which I did) to include conditions for subsidy clients about how any fees that the subsidy doesn't cover is the responsibility of the parent. This way if the payments are delayed, the parent pays and when she receives the check from subsidy she can reimburse the parent back. Not everyone can do this however. In my area we can ask parents to pay late payment, late pick-up and other fees and any differences that subsidy doesn't cover. That's not true everywhere however. Sorry so long .

[MamaBear]

Thanks so much for all your advice. I think I'm going to pass on it. I've never done it because I've heard those things before about payments not coming thru and whatnot. I like knowing that my daycare families that pay regularly will never be late and their checks are always good. Thanks for your help!!!

[Michelle]

wow, I didn't hear about that, you are saying that the daycare for foster parents program is being eliminated?
I will lose 4 kids then.

[MarinaVanessa]

Originally Posted by Michelle

wow, I didn't hear about that, you are saying that the daycare for foster parents program is being eliminated?
I will lose 4 kids then.

I don't know if the state-wide program or if it's just a program for foster parents through this particular agency that the foster parent has signed up with. I got a letter so if you didn't I wouldn't be overly concerned. I'll see if I can fish the letter out.

Yes, I have. But I always require the parents to pay me weekly, THen when the refund comes in I pay them

[Michelle]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yes, I have. But I always require the parents to pay me weekly, THen when the refund comes in I pay them

that would NEVER work with us, these moms are on welfare and have nothing!!

[Michelle]

Originally Posted by MarinaVanessa

I don't know if the state-wide program or if it's just a program for foster parents through this particular agency that the foster parent has signed up with. I got a letter so if you didn't I wouldn't be overly concerned. I'll see if I can fish the letter out.

I am L.A. county, maybe it's different. At least I hope . I haven't got a letter yet.
So, for you guys they are saying that foster parents have to pay for childcare out of their own pockets?
They barely get enough money for the kids for clothes, shoes, food, etc.

It's like they are saying, take care of these poor abused children that we took away but you have to give up your careers to do it.
There is already a shortage of good foster homes...wow

[MarinaVanessa]

I havn't found the letter yet but I have a few more places to check as soon as I get the opportunity to. I'm not sure how it all works with foster parents but I'm assuming that they get help for paying for their childcare also. In my case the foster child is in her uncles care. I don't know the details however there was an incident when she was very small and she was taken out of the home. Her uncle asked her to be placed under his care and she was, then she was later (not sure how much later) placed back into her parent's care and then removed from the parents care again and returned to him. He is now in the process of trying to adopt her and the mother is not in the picture at all however the dad (uncle and dad are brothers) is but I have never met him. So ... I'm not sure if it's because he's not technically a real foster parent or what but his childcare assistance is being stopped and I specifically remember reading the word "program".

He signed up with CDR (child development program) so the letter od action that I got was from them. They get money from the government so may it's just this specific agency that has cut their foster parent program.

[Michelle]

It's probably Kinship.
make sure he checks into all the stuff kinship can do for him such as help with furniture, adoption grants etc.
That's good that he's going to adopt her.
The Kinship program is only for relatives and the program I'm on is for licensed foster homes.
But ALL programs are being scaled down in Ca.
We used to make so much money on subsidized programs.
Now it's like ug, not worth all the paperwork, stress, and getting payed once a month from them.... if at all!

It's really a good program to pay for foster kids daycare because that way the money they get for the kids can be used for clothes, lessons, food, etc.
whether it's a relative or not.