Funding found for low-income child care

Friday, April 30, 2004 | 9:35 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state Welfare Division says it should finally be able to whittle down its waiting list over the next couple of months after lining up funding for child care subsidies to low-income parents of up to 1,400 more youngsters in Southern Nevada.

Because of a lack of money, the waiting list for child care payments had been started in July 2002 and had steadily grown.

But the division was able to find ways to save enough money to provide the subsidies to more people, state officials said Thursday.

"All eligible families on the waiting list will be able to receive child care subsidy support," and the waiting list will be eliminated by the end of May or mid-June, Welfare Administrator Nancy Ford said. She said many of the families who had been on the list no longer need the help or can't be located because they apparently moved out of the area.

The division, in the federal year ending Oct. 31, provided support payments to 14,000 children statewide.

The state pays anywhere from 15 percent to 95 percent of the cost of child care, depending on the income of the families. For instance a family of three that has an income of $1,272 a month and is not on welfare would get all but 5 percent of its child care cost covered by the state.

Gerald J. Allen, in charge of the program, said Thursday that in most cases the state pays the 95 percent of the child care because so many of the families participating in the program have such low incomes.

Once a family is deemed eligible, the parent picks a child care facility. The state then issues a certificate to the parent and the center regarding the size of the subsidy.

A family on welfare automatically qualifies for subsidies that cover 100 percent of its child care expense. But other low-income families must apply and have had to wait for the payments in Southern Nevada. There was no waiting list in Northern Nevada.

For instance, a family of three with a mother and two children that had a monthly income of $3,112 could qualify for a 15 percent subsidy. As the income fell, the grant increased. But if the income exceeded $3,112, by even $1, the family became ineligible for the grant.

Allen said the program made some changes last July that saved money and enabled the division to reopen its subsidy program.

Allen said the division more aggressively pursued overpayments; eliminated subsidies to parents who worked at home; redefined the eligibility standard so that all of the income earned by family members was counted; and stopped providing subsidies to the families at the upper end of the qualifying income scale.

There have been enough savings to allow for the upper scale families to be permitted back into the program, Allen said.