2022 -- H 7988

========

LC005499

========

     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2022

____________

H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

RESPECTFULLY REQUESTING THE RHODE ISLAND DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN

SERVICES TO USE ITS REGULATORY AUTHORITY TO IMMEDIATELY REDUCE

FAMILY COPAYMENTS FOR THE CHILD CARE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

     Introduced By: Representatives Ruggiero, Diaz, Caldwell, McEntee, Morales, Kislak,
Casimiro, Cassar, Williams, and Vella-Wilkinson

     Date Introduced: March 16, 2022

     Referred To: House Finance

     WHEREAS, On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a

global pandemic, requiring rapid, necessary public health risk mitigation efforts around the world,

including Rhode Island; and

     WHEREAS, The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in disruptions to workplaces, schools and

child care facilities throughout the State; and

     WHEREAS, In the two years since that declaration, Rhode Island’s early childhood

sector has experienced widespread instability, in part due to mandated facility closures,

decreasing enrollment throughout the pandemic, workforce shortages, and financial strain; and

     WHEREAS, Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, child care providers in Rhode

Island’s child care assistance program faced historically low reimbursement rates for their

services, particularly for infant and toddler care, that fell well below the federal equal access

standard, a national benchmark set to ensure all families have access to high-quality child care;

and

     WHEREAS, Rhode Island families rely on the child care system in order to work, and to

ensure their children can develop, thrive and enter school ready to keep learning; and

     WHEREAS, Child care is often the biggest household expense incurred by families;

according to Rhode Island Kids Count’s most recent fact book, a Rhode Island family would need

to earn at least $155,757 annually to afford the average yearly cost for a three-year-old placed in a

licensed child care center; and

     WHEREAS, During the COVID-19 pandemic, the state used its administrative authority

to implement policies that would ensure child care providers could keep their doors open, and

parents could continue to afford care, all while implementing CDC guidance for keeping children,

workers, and families healthy; and

     WHEREAS, One of those important policies was waiving family copayments in the child

care assistance program, while temporarily increasing reimbursement rates to providers to

simultaneously make child care more affordable for families and minimize the financial burden

placed on providers; and

     WHEREAS, In February of 2022, the Department of Human Services notified child care

providers that beginning March 6, 2022, family copayments would be reinstated and providers

would be expected to collect weekly copayments directly from families; and

     WHEREAS, Reinstating family copayments presents an immediate, unreasonable, and

unnecessary financial burden to families, particularly since children under the age of five are not

eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine and the CDC still recommends strict isolation and quarantine

guidance for child care facilities, leaving families with the likelihood that essential child care

services will not be consistently available in the event of additional COVID-19 cases and

exposure; and

     WHEREAS, The financial burden put on families increases the risk that parents will be

forced to leave the workforce to care for children because they can no longer afford child care,

which will put further strain on Rhode Island businesses and the state’s economic recovery; and

     WHEREAS, Reinstating family copayments also presents an immediate risk to child care

providers, who cannot absorb the cost of unpaid copayments or withstand further enrollment

declines; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island hereby

respectfully requests that the Rhode Island Department of Human Services use its regulatory

authority to immediately reduce family copayments for the Child Care Assistance Program to the

lowest sliding-scale rates legally allowable under federal and state law, and that those reduced

rates remain in place through June 30, 2022; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to His Excellency Governor Dan McKee, and to

Womazetta Jones, Secretary of the Executive of Office Health and Human Services, and to

Yvette Mendes, Interim Director of the Department of Human Services.

========

LC005499

========

LC005499 - Page 2 of 2