Relating to payments to child care providers participating in the state child care assistance program

This bill relates to payments to child care providers participating in the state child care assistance (CCA) program. At least once every two years, the department of health and human services (HHS) conducts a statewide reimbursement rate survey to evaluate the market rate of child care services offered throughout the state and adjust the reimbursement rates paid to child care providers through the CCA program accordingly. The bill requires HHS to reimburse each provider providing child care services to a child participating in the CCA program at a rate equal to the 85th percentile of the most recent market rate survey. Under current law, HHS must set rates between the 65th and 80th percentile of the 2020 market rate survey. The bill removes child care providers’ ability to collect from a family participating in the CCA program the difference between the CCA reimbursement rate and the rate the provider would typically charge a private-pay family for child care.