947 Payment for Absentee/Closure Hours (FAM)

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NH Child Care Scholarship payment may be made when a child is absent. Each child will receive a DHHS determined monthly allotment of absentee hours based on the child’s authorized service level. The absentee allotment renews the first Monday of each month and can be used when a child is absent until the monthly  allotment is exhausted.

Monthly absentee allotment hours are designated as follows:

No absentee hours are needed for the part time service level because a child only has to attend 1 hour for the child care provider to be paid the part time rate for the week.

The monthly absentee allotment hours are connected to each child and will be prorated up or down when the child’s service level changes.

Example 1: From January 1-15, a child with a full-time service level used 21 hours of the monthly absentee allotment hours. On January 16, the authorized service level decreased  to half-time due to parent request. Since more than 13 hours were already used, zero absentee hours are remaining for January.

Example 2: A child with a part-time service level did not use any absentee hours. The authorized service level changed to half-time due to new employment. Since no absentee hours were used, the monthly absentee allotment will be reset to 13 hours.

Example 3:  A child with a half-time service level used 10 absentee hours. The service level changed to full-time due to school vacation. The annual absentee allotment will be reset to 11 hours (e.g. 21-10=11).

If a child used all the monthly absentee hours and moved to a new child care provider, the new child care provider cannot be paid for any absentee hours.

A child care provider is required to bill weekly via the DHHS web billing application.  The billing invoice must include the child’s attendance schedule, including absent and present hours. If the present hours billed do not meet the minimum authorized service level hours (31 hours for full time and 16 hours for half time) and if:

·         there are enough absentee hours available, the system will automatically use only enough absentee hours to bring the child up to their authorized service level and the child care provider will be paid at the child’s authorized service level; or

·         there are not enough absentee hours available, the system will not use any absentee hours and the child care provider will be paid at the service level determined by the number of present hours billed. The service level will drop.

No payment will be made to the child care provider if there are no present hours billed for the week.

When not enough absentee hours are available to meet the authorized service level or when the absentee allotment is exhausted, the parent is responsible to pay the child care provider the difference between the authorized service level and the actual service level for that week plus any co-pay if the child care provider chooses to charge one.

When the monthly absentee allotment is exhausted, it may result in a lower service level determination for that week, which will affect the DHHS payment made to the child care provider.

DHHS will allow a child care provider to bill NH Child Care Scholarship for designated closures. The following closures, per calendar year are:  Thanksgiving day; Christmas day; New Year’s day; 12 hours of staff professional development; 12 hours of program closures; or federal, state, or DHHS Administrator declared disaster closures.

References: He-C 6918.05(a)-(c), RSA 167:83,II(o), 45 CFR 98.20