Committee hears plan to align child-care payment rules with federal guidance in H.248

Janet McLaughlin, deputy commissioner at the Department for Children and Families (DCF), told the House Human Services Committee that H.248 would change how the Child Care Financial Assistance Program (CCFAP) pays providers so payments occur at the start of a service period rather than as reimbursements after services are rendered.

McLaughlin said the changes are intended to align state statute with federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) requirements and to reduce confusion about what “payment on enrollment” means. She said legislative counsel drafted language that “the payment schedule shall ensure timely payment by requiring the payment in advance of, or at the beginning of the delivery of childcare services,” and that committee staff and DCF staff are planning implementation steps.

The bill’s provisions would create two pathways for providing supports to eligible children, McLaughlin said, and DCF plans to design, pilot and scale the approaches. For children with disabilities or additional needs, DCF currently uses several grant-based supports and would likely consolidate some of those into a single grant or contract in order to simplify administration.

On payments, McLaughlin said the department proposes removing statutory language that refers to “reimbursement” and replacing it with language referring to “payment,” so the statute matches the federal direction to pay at or before the beginning of a service period. She described the operational work that change requires: updating the Child Development Division information system (CDDIS) to trigger payments on authorized enrollment rather than on attendance reports, revising program-integrity procedures that audit payments, and defining how to handle children who unenroll after payment is issued. McLaughlin said, “We need the same plan for all little children,” explaining the goal is consistent payment practice regardless of whether a child is funded with federal CCDF dollars or state-only funds.

Lawmakers asked about fiscal impacts and timing. McLaughlin said moving to advance payments could require a one-time cash-flow adjustment for the business office — essentially advancing one payroll — but she did not expect a major ongoing budget increase. She said DCF is working with IT vendors and that an implementation target is late 2025, with a request that any firm statutory compliance deadline be no earlier than Jan. 1, 2026, if practicable. The committee’s chair said the Joint Fiscal Office could review any fiscal impacts.

Committee members also sought clarity on the phrase “pay on enrollment.” McLaughlin explained that CCFAP eligibility is authorized for a period just over 12 months and families must reapply annually; payment on enrollment in statute is being clarified to mean payment on a child’s “authorized enrollment” in the program rather than a provider’s internal headcount.

No formal vote was recorded during the testimony; the committee indicated it would continue work on H.248 with possible markup at a future meeting.

The committee resumed testimony after a prior Zoom outage interrupted the session on H.248.