Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Childcare Subsidy Reform topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee considers reforms to New Hampshire Child Care Scholarship program to reduce paperwork and speed payments
Summary
Senate Bill 243 would let eligible families receive up to 60 days of scholarship funding while an application is pending, switch to prospective payments for providers and remove mandatory per-day arrival/departure reporting; providers, early-childhood advocates and DHHS supported changes but DHHS sought a modest appropriation for IT and a pilot.
Senate Bill 243, a package of technical changes to the New Hampshire Child Care Scholarship program, moved through a public hearing before the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee with broad support from providers, operators and legislative sponsors.
The bill’s aims are pragmatic: (1) allow up to 60 days of scholarship coverage while an application is pending (presumptive eligibility), (2) establish prospective payments for providers (so providers can receive scholarship funds at the start of a billing period rather than waiting for retroactive payment) and (3) remove the requirement that providers submit daily arrival and departure times for enrolled scholarship children when an enrollment-based payment model is used.
Department of Health and Human Services staff said these changes align with federal guidance and best practices and would reduce paperwork burden for providers and families. Karen Hebert, Director of the Division of Economic Stability, described the department’s plan to implement enrollment-based payments and the need for one-time IT work and a small pilot to test presumptive eligibility; the department offered an amendment with a combined biennial appropriation request (roughly $171,600 for system changes plus $200,000 for the proposed study/pilot) to implement the technical work.
Child-care providers and associations — the YMCA, The Arc Learning Center, family-childcare owners, and other center operators — urged passage. Providers described the administrative cost of manual attendance reporting, the financial strain of retroactive payments and the harm to families who cannot start a new job because scholarship approval is delayed. Representative Paige Beauchmin (a registered maternal-child health nurse) and multiple community providers testified the changes would help families and local employers.
What’s next: The department’s proposed appropriation will be considered by the committee and may be folded into budget reconciliation. Committee members asked technical questions about presumptive eligibility, federal match rules and whether the proposed system work could be incorporated in the current budget process.
