Presenters: Louise Hayes, Community Legal Services and Peter Zurflieh, Community Justice Project

2020 PLAN Virtual Statewide Conference.

Congress several years ago reauthorized the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act. The Reauthorization included numerous family friendly changes to eligibility requirements for subsidized child care, which DHS and OCDEL are still in the process of implementing.

In this session we will review these important changes. We will also cover child care subsidy eligibility, including "doors to child care," i.e., who is served by each of PA's three subsidized child care programs - TANF, SNAP, and ELRC (formerly CCIS) - as well as how and under what circumstances parents can transition from one program to another.

Child care programs have been severely impacted by the COVID pandemic, which has affected both the supply and the capacity of providers to serve children. This at a time when there will be greater demands for child care as many schools are relying on distance learning as part of their plans to reopen safely. The session will include discussion of these issues.