FIRST REGULAR SESSION
95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE SCHAAF.
2360L.01I D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal section 208.044, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to child care subsidies.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Section 208.044, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 208.044, to read as follows:
208.044. 1. The family support division [of family services] shall provide child day care services to any person who meets the qualifications set forth at sections 301 and 302 of the Family Support Act of 1988 (P.L. 100-485).
2. The division [of family services] shall purchase the child day care services required by this section by making payments directly to any providers of day care services licensed pursuant to chapter 210, RSMo, or to providers of day care services who are not required by chapter 210, RSMo, to be licensed because they are providing care to relative children or no more than four children.
3. When a person who has been eligible and receiving day care services under this section becomes ineligible due to the end of the twelve-month period of transitional day care, as defined in section 208.400, such person may receive day care services from the division [of family services] if otherwise eligible for such services. [Until October 1, 1992, participants eligible for income eligible day care services, as defined by the division of family services, will continue to receive such services in the same proportion as that provided in fiscal year 1989, subject to appropriation.]
4. In order to more effectively transition persons receiving child day care services benefits under this section, the division shall implement a step reduction in benefits method to transition recipients. Beginning January 1, 2010, the allocation of benefits under this section shall be calculated as follows:
(1) The maximum child day care services benefit allowed under this section shall be determined based on the dollar value in the current benefit year of the actual dollar amount of the maximum child day care services benefit allowed on July 1, 2009;
(2) From the maximum child day care services benefit allowed, benefits shall be gradually reduced from the maximum dollar benefit to zero. The step reductions of benefits shall be based on incomes of zero to eighty-five percent of the median income in Missouri. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed as altering or otherwise increasing the income eligibility levels for the receipt of child day care services benefits under this section. The income levels utilized in this subdivision shall not be used to determine eligibility for benefits, but for the sole purpose of calculating the proportional step reduction in benefits received by recipients;
(3) The division shall, by rule, establish the number of step reductions necessary, not to exceed twenty, that will result in a gradual reduction in benefits from the maximum benefit to zero based on the income levels set forth in subdivision (2) of this subsection; and
(4) The resulting step reductions in benefits based on the calculation in subdivision (2) of this subsection and in the number of steps required by rule under subdivision (3) of this subsection shall be applied proportionally to the actual income eligibility levels of persons receiving benefits under this section.
Nothing in this subsection shall apply if the implementation of the provisions of this subsection results in loss of federal child day care services grant moneys.
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