M E M O R A N D U M

TO:                 EES Program Administrators

FROM:           Carla Whiteside- Hicks, PhD

DATE:            September 13, 2023

SUBJECT:     Implementation Instructions - KEESM Revision 113

This memo provides implementation instructions and information for the following December 1, 2023, policy changes in the Kansas Economic and Employment Services Manual (KEESM).

I.    Child Care

1. DCF Rates
   
   Effective with the December 2023 Child Care benefits, rates will be adjusted for some of the county and age groupings.  The adjustments are being made based on a recent narrow cost analysis that analyzed the cost of providing child care services that meet basic health/safety/quality and staffing requirements.
   
   Timeline of Events:
   
   
   • 9/23: KEES will be updated with the table changes effective 12/1/23.  New plans written after this date will reflect the new provider rates in benefits for December 2023 and after.
     
     
   • 10/20: Come-up month becomes available.  Any cases processed for December benefits will have the table changes applied.

• The weekend of 10/20: Active Family Plans – Active Family Plans will be recalculated, EDBC will be run and appropriate notices will be sent. 
  
  
• Overridden Family Plans will be skipped for each month that is overridden.  EDBC will run and a NOA will be sent.

• 11/15: Regular Child Care EDBC – Run any Child Care program that has not yet had EDBC run.

With this rate adjustment, all Child Care benefits will be calculated using the DCF maximum hourly benefit rate, regardless of the rate child care providers charge.  EES staff also need to be aware that in addition, policy regarding how much child care providers may charge families for child care services is also changing.  If a provider charges their private pay families less than the maximum DCF benefit rate, they may choose to charge families receiving DCF Child Care benefits up to that maximum DCF benefit rate.  If a provider charges private pay families more than the DCF maximum benefit rate, they may also charge that higher rate to families receiving DCF Child Care benefits.