Tag: Texas Workforce Commission

Child care programs in Tarrant County faced the potential for a delay in subsidy funding last week in the wake of a national crackdown on child care funding, putting families and early educators in limbo. Now, local providers are breathing sighs of relief.

Funding is no longer expected to be interrupted to providers who serve children with subsidies after officials initially warned them of potential delays from new “defend the spend” requirements. The additional layer of red tape was announced nationwide after fraud allegations arose in Minnesota. States draw down the federal funding that eventually reaches child care providers who serve families qualifying for financial assistance.

The update means Tarrant County families will continue to access the child care they need for parents to go to work while providers, typically operating on thin margins, can keep their staff and services intact.

Paulette Byars, owner of Perfect Praise Academy in Fort Worth’s Morningside neighborhood, said funding delays would’ve created a negative domino effect to all sides of her program. Although the period of uncertainty was short, she did have to inform her staff of potential cuts to their work hours.

Byars said she’s relieved it’s no longer an issue, as about 60% of the families she serves receive this financial assistance that goes toward her payroll and other costs.

“If the families don’t have child care, they can’t work, and they’re already struggling. A lot of families are low income, they’re already making a little bit over minimum wage. So it would kind of be like a domino effect. We can’t provide child care, we’re not getting paid. We can’t pay our staff as well,” Byars explained. “We’re just grateful that everything has kind of come into play, and everything’s okay right now.”

The Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County — one of multiple workforce boards statewide that distributes this funding on behalf of the Texas Workforce Commission — shared Friday that subsidy payments are expected to be issued as normal, which is every two weeks. The update comes four days after the workforce board cautioned providers of possible delays as they awaited more information and clarity on what the new federal requirements would entail. The local workforce board assured providers it would share more information as it comes forward.

“(Texas Workforce Commission) has submitted additional (child care funding) requests to (the Administration for Children and Families), and those requests are currently pending ACF approval. TWC is working with ACF on providing any updated justifications necessary to process funding requests for the child care program,” according to the Friday update. “Neither (the) Board nor Child Care Services providers are being asked to provide any additional documentation at this time.”

A spokesperson for the Texas Workforce Commission, which oversees the state’s child care subsidy program, said in a statement that the agency is dedicated to preserving the financial integrity of the program.

“TWC takes fraud, waste, and abuse in the child care program very seriously. TWC is dedicated to continuing to root out waste, fraud, and abuse that might occur despite our strong fraud protections,” said spokesperson Sarah Fischer.

Other child care providers, advocates react to new federal rules

Monicha Neal, owner of Treasure Chest Learning Center in east Fort Worth, said she was still planning to provide care to families to the best of her ability while trusting that state officials would find a solution to keep the funding flowing.

Neal and Byars, of Perfect Praise Academy, said there’s already a system in place for tracking attendance of students who receive subsidies that’s regularly submitted to the local workforce board. Parents sign-in daily with an identification code or their personal information. Neal noted that her program keeps attendance records virtually and on paper.

“Sometimes our internet is not up and running, so that way the parents already know that they have to sign in and out on paper. The teachers are signing in and out on paper as well. So we at least have two systems for sure, because technology is not always working,” Neal said.

Tim Kaminski, president of the Texas Licensed Child Care Association, reiterated the relief felt by child care providers moving forward. The association will be working with the Texas Workforce Commission to give updates to providers if subsidy payment schedules are changed in the future, he said.

“The ‘Workforce Behind the Workforce’ can continue to provide a safe and quality learning environment for our youngest Texans and their hardworking parents,” Kaminski said.

Walter Gilliam, executive director of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska, compared the new federal requirements to closing down every grocery store in a state because a few cashiers stole money. He noted fraud allegations need to be taken seriously, but “collective punishment isn’t accountability.”

“What we really need to be focusing on is how we make systems easier and clearer so that fraud doesn’t happen in the first place. And right now, the amount of paperwork that child care providers have to go through is a significant deterrent for people even providing this essential service that makes it possible for other people to go to work,” he said.

Gilliam called child care an essential infrastructure that every state needs to have in order to have a thriving economy. The implementation process of the new federal rules have prompted panic to a fragile early education system, he said.

“When information comes out this piecemeal and this reactively, it has a tendency — a predictable tendency — for others to not quite be sure what to make out of it. And that is what sets up panic and concern. In most cases, it’s completely avoidable,” Gilliam said. “I realize that we always have to be thoughtful about crime and fraud, but it should not be done in a way that puts the expense of that policing on babies.”