M E M O R A N D U M

TO: EES Program Administrators, All Asst. Regional Directors, EES Staff

FROM: Sandra Kimmons

DATE: March 25, 2016

SUBJECT: Implementation Instructions for Poverty Level Changes Effective May 1, 2016

This memo provides implementation instructions for the increases in the federal poverty level standards which take effect May 1, 2016.

Child Care

The monthly gross income amounts will be updated on the Child Care Family Income and Share Schedule to reflect changes in the new federal poverty guidelines. KsCares will be updated at 7:00 am on Thursday, April 21, 2016 with the changes effective May 1, 2016. Staff will need to make sure they do not sign on to KsCares until they receive the message from Helpdesk letting them know that the updating of the tables is complete. The changes will not affect Family Shares already attached to existing child care plans on CHCP. In order to have the Family Share recalculated in INEL with the new income levels, it will be necessary to press PF12 on INEL, however, it is not necessary to change any of the income on INEL first.

Staff should be reminded that any time a change has occurred which may affect the family share - income level table changes, adding a household member, removing a household member, changing income - it is necessary to press PF12 in INEL in order to accurately update the case. Once INEL is updated, any pre-existing child care plans will also need to be updated on CHCP accordingly. Cases have been seen where an income change was reported, INEL updated, but the existing child care plans were not updated and continued to show/assign the old family share amount.

With annual poverty level adjustments, changes to existing child care plans will be implemented at the next review (which may be as far as 12 months in the future) unless requested/required earlier. Any cases processed after the table changes will use the new Family Share table on KsCares with the new income levels. This includes new plans with an effective date prior to May 1, 2016 if initial eligibility is completed on or after the date of the table changes. Poverty level updates are a positive change, so staff need not be concerned that some plans with a start date prior to May 1, but processed after the table changes will use the new income/share amounts. Since there will be no mass change to child care plans, no mass notice is necessary.

Note: Staff should be aware that there was a transposed figure in the 2015 table that affected households of 4 with incomes between $1,416 and $1,451 per month (in the column under Level I 70% of Poverty). Due to this error, some families who should have had a $27 family share deduction were not assigned a family share deduction at all. The May 1, 2016 table change will have the correct figure, which will be lower than that listed on the May 1, 2015 table for that household size. This is not to be considered as an overpayment for affected families. However, when processing changes or reviews for some families whose incomes still fall in that range, a family share deduction will result. If there are questions about this, please contact Sally Hargis at (785)296-6753 or at Sally.Hargis@ks.gov.