e. The employment changes substantially from the terms of hire, such as a change in work hours, work shift, or decrease in pay rate.
(4) Instances when problems of participation could negatively impact the client's achievement of self-sufficiency. There may be instances where staff determine that a participant's problems of participation are not described, but may be circumstances which could negatively impact the participant's achievement of self-sufficiency.
Michigan. For the first instance that a worker determines a recipient to be noncompliant the department shall notify the recipient in writing within 3 business days of determining that the recipient is noncompliant. The notification shall include the reason the recipient has been determined to be noncompliant, the penalty that will be imposed for the noncompliance an opportunity for the recipient to meet in person with a caseworker within 10 business days of the determination. If the recipient meets with a caseworker within 10 business days, the caseworker and the recipient shall review and modify the family self-sufficiency plan as determined necessary. The caseworker shall discuss and provide an official warning regarding penalties that shall be imposed if the recipient continues to be noncompliant. The caseworker shall inform the recipient that he or she must verify compliance with his or her family self-sufficiency plan within 10 business days.
For any instance of noncompliance, the recipient shall receive not less than 12 days' notice before penalties are imposed. If the recipient demonstrates good cause for the noncompliance during this period, a penalty shall not be imposed. Good cause is one or more of the following:
•
The applicant or recipient suffers from a temporary debilitating illness or injury or an immediate family member has a debilitating illness or injury and the applicant or recipient is needed in the home to care for the family member.
•
The applicant or employee lacks child care.
•
Either employment or training commuting time is more than 2 hours per day or is more than 3 hours per day when there are unique and compelling circumstances, such as a salary at least twice the applicable minimum wage or the job is the only available job placement within a 3 hour commute per day, not including the time necessary to transport a child to child care facilities.
•
Transportation is not available to the participant at reasonable cost.
•
The employment or participation involves illegal activities.
•
The applicant or recipient is physically or mentally unfit to perform the job, as documented by medical evidence or by reliable information from other sources.
•
The applicant or recipient is illegally discriminated against on the basis of age, race, disability, gender, color, national origin, or religious beliefs.
•
Credible information or evidence establishes one or more unplanned or unexpected events or factors that reasonably could be expected to prevent, or significantly interfere with, the individual's compliance with employment and training requirements, such as domestic violence, health or safety risk, religion, or homelessness.
•
The applicant or recipient quit employment to obtain comparable employment.
Analysis used to determine effect on small businesses
The notice of W-2 payment reductions or case closures does increase the workload of W-2 agency financial and employment planners (FEPs), but there is no significant increase in the cost of administering the W-2 program due to either the notice of payment reductions or good cause amendments.
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
The proposed rules affect private W-2 agencies but do not have substantial economic effect on these agencies. The DWD Small Business Regulatory Coordinator is Elaine Pridgen,
elaine.pridgen@dwd.state.wi.us, (608) 267-9403.
Fiscal Estimate
Summary
The notice of W-2 payment reductions or case closures does increase the workload of W-2 agency financial and employment planners (FEPs), but there is no significant increase in the cost of administering the W-2 program due to either the notice of payment reductions or good cause amendments.
State fiscal effect
None
Local fiscal effect
None
Long-range fiscal implications
None
Notice of Hearing
Workforce Development
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to ss.
49.155 and
227.11 (2) (a), Stats., the Department of Workforce Development proposes to hold a public hearing to consider rules revising s.
DWD 56.04, relating to child care enrollment underutilization and affecting small businesses.
Hearing Information
May 19, 2008
|
MADISON
|
Monday
1:30 p.m.
|
G.E.F. 1 Building
Room D203
201 E. Washington Avenue
|
Visitors to the GEF 1 building are requested to enter through the left East Washington Avenue door and register with the customer service desk. The entrance is accessible via a ramp from the corner of Webster Street and East Washington Avenue. If you have special needs or circumstances regarding communication or accessibility at the hearing, please call (608) 267-9403 at least 10 days prior to the hearing date. Accommodations such as ASL interpreters, English translators, or materials in an alternative format will be made available on request to the fullest extent possible.
Interested persons are invited to appear at the hearing and will be afforded the opportunity to make an oral presentation of their positions. Persons making oral presentations are requested to submit their facts, views, and suggested rewording in writing.
Copies of Proposed Rule and Submission of Written Comments
A copy of the proposed rules is also available at
http://adminrules.wisconsin.gov. This site allows you to view documents associated with this rule's promulgation, register to receive email notification whenever the Department posts new information about this rulemaking order, and submit comments and view comments by others during the public comment period. You may receive a paper copy of the rule or fiscal estimate by contacting:
Elaine Pridgen
Office of Legal Counsel
Dept. of Workforce Development
P.O. Box 7946
Madison, WI 53707-7946
(608) 267-9403
Written comments on the proposed rules received at the above address, email, or through the http://adminrules. wisconsin.gov web site no later than May 20, 2008, will be given the same consideration as testimony presented at the hearing.
Agency Contact Person
Analysis Prepared by the Department of Workforce Development
Statutory authority
Statutes interpreted
Related statutes or rules
Explanation of agency authority
The Department administers the child care subsidy program under s.
49.155, Stats., and reimburses child care providers for services provided pursuant to s.
49.155 (3m), Stats.
Plain language analysis
The current s.
DWD 56.04 (2) (d) provides that a child care administrative agency shall authorize payment to licensed group and family day care centers based on authorized units of service except as follows:
•
The agency may authorize payment to licensed providers based on units of service used by each child up to the maximum number of authorized units, with the reimbursement rate increased by 10% to account for absent days, if the schedule of child care to be used is expected to vary widely.
•
The agency may authorize payment to licensed providers based on units of service used by each child, up to the maximum number of authorized units, if the agency has documented 3 separate occasions where the provider significantly overreported the attendance of a child.
The current methodology for authorizing payment to licensed providers has caused the child care subsidy program to pay for significant amounts of time when care is not actually being provided. The emergency and proposed rules attempt to control costs by reducing payments to licensed child care providers for authorized child care services that are significantly underused. The emergency and proposed rules repeal the presumption of enrollment authorization for licensed providers and provides that a local child care administrative agency shall authorize on either an enrollment or attendance basis as follows:
•
The agency shall authorize the number of hours needed on an enrollment basis if the need for care is anticipated to be approximately the same number of hours each week.
•
The agency shall authorize payment based on the hours of actual attendance by each child if the need for care is anticipated to vary from week to week or if the child has a history of variable attendance.
•
The agency may authorize payment on the hours of actual attendance if the agency has documented 3 separate occasions where the provider significantly overreported the attendance of a child.
For any week in which a child whose authorized payments are on an enrollment basis attends less than 50% of the authorized hours of care, payment shall be made on the basis of actual hours of attendance used, unless the agency determines that the absence is for a reason approved by the Department, such as short-term illness of the child or death in the family. This policy does not apply to a child with a special needs authorization.
Payment to certified providers is based on a child's attendance and remains unchanged in this rule.
The emergency and proposed rules also increase the penalties for a provider who submits false or inaccurate attendance reports. The current s.
DWD 56.04 (5) (c) allows for the child care administrative agency to refuse to issue new child care authorizations to a provider for a period of time not to exceed 6 months, revoke existing child care authorizations to the provider, or refuse to issue payment to the provider until the violation is corrected. The rule will also provide additional penalties in the following situations:
•
If it is the provider's second documented instance of submitting an inaccurate attendance report or the inaccurate report resulted in or would have resulted in an overpayment of $1,000 or more, the agency may refuse to issue new child care authorizations to a provider for a period of time not to exceed 1 year.
•
If it is the provider's third or subsequent documented instance of submitting an inaccurate attendance report or the inaccurate report resulted in or would have resulted in an overpayment of $5,000 or more, the agency may refuse to issue new child care authorizations to a provider for a period of time not to exceed 5 years.
The emergency rule was effective March 30, 2008.
Summary of factual data and analytical methodologies
The Department has reestimated the potential current year deficit in the child care subsidy program to be slightly less than the estimate from February (which was included with the emergency rule filed on March 18th). In the intervening 2 1/2 months, based on additional weeks of actual subsidy expenditures we have seen a slight decrease in costs and are now projecting a State Fiscal Year deficit of $16.2 million. This reduction, while meaningful as a $2.4 million decrease to the deficit, represents a change of less than 1.0% (0.7%) of the total projected subsidy expenditures for the fiscal year.
Due to this projected budget shortfall, the Department is reinstating the child care enrollment underutilization policy that was in effect April to October 2007. The underutilization policy was implemented in response to a significant 06-07 budget shortfall and was withdrawn in October 2007 upon passage of
2007 Wisconsin Act 20, although Act 20 does not affect the Department's authority for the policy. The
Legislative Fiscal Bureau: Summary of Budget Provisions states “DWD will be permitted to continue the attendance-based policy and to modify recipients' co-payments, as under prior law." (page 589,
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lfb/2007-09budget/Act%2020/dwd.pdf)
By paying the hourly rate for actual attendance to child care providers when attendance is under 50% of the authorized level for the child care subsidy program, the Department will avoid paying for significant amounts of time where care is not actually being provided. The Department has revised the estimate of annual savings from implementing the child care enrollment underutilization policy. This revised savings estimate reflects further analysis of the interaction of other child care payment policies on the proposed underutilization policy. Based on adjustments for these interactions, when comparing the amount currently paid for enrollment authorizations against the amount that would be paid if underutilized authorizations of 50% or less are paid for actual hours of care, the Department is revising the estimate of annual savings from $18.5 million to $13.0 million.
Comparison with federal regulations
There are no applicable federal regulations.
Comparison with rules in adjacent states
Michigan. A provider may only receive payment for a child's hours of attendance, except for absences due to the child's illness, not to exceed 2 consecutive weeks, and state holidays.
Illinois. Payment to licensed and license-exempt child care centers are based on authorized days if the total of days attended for all publicly-funded children at a center location are 80% of the authorized days for the month.
Payment to licensed home providers are based on authorized days if the total of days attended for all children in a family are 80% of the family's authorized days for the month.
Payment to license-exempt home providers are based only on attendance.
Iowa. Payment is based on authorized days with payment allowed for a child not in attendance not to exceed 4 days per calendar month.
Minnesota. Payment is based on authorized days except child care providers may not be reimbursed for more than 25 full-day absent days per child, excluding holidays, in a fiscal year, or for more than 10 consecutive full-day absent days, unless the child has a documented medical condition that causes more frequent absences.
Analysis used to determine effect on small businesses
The Legislature and Governor set the funding level for the Wisconsin Shares child care subsidy program. These rules do not affect the amount of funding for the program. All of the allocated funding will be spent as subsidies for child care for the children of working families. We do not anticipate that the proposed rules will in any way change the extent to which these dollars are spent on small businesses.
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
The rule will affect small businesses but will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small businesses as defined in s.
227.114 (1), Stats.
Fiscal Estimate
Summary
