Report 2017-116 Recommendation 6 Responses
Report 2017-116: Community Child Care Council of Santa Clara County: Because It Disadvantaged Some Families and Misused State Funds, It Could Benefit From Increased Monitoring by the California Department of Education (Release Date: April 2018)
Recommendation #6 To: Community Child Care Council of Santa Clara County
To ensure that the amount of benefits it provides to families is justifiable, 4Cs should develop formal procedures by October 2018 for its eligibility determinations, including a policy to retain in the family case files the documentation it uses to determine eligibility.
6-Month Agency Response
The agency has made extensive improvements in this area and developed formal procedures, visual training tools, and audit checklists to ensure
documentation used to determine eligibility of family for services is included and retained in the case file. Supporting documentation: "Contents and Organization of Family Data File"; "Determining Eligibility & Documentation Retention"; "Case File Audit Forms"; "Case Manager Training Modules_Eligibility Determination"; "Color Coding Rubric for Case Files".
- Completion Date: July 2018
- Response Date: October 2018
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented
4Cs provided documentation of its formal procedures for determining eligibility and its policy for retaining the documentation used to make that determination.
60-Day Agency Response
The agency has convened a team of staff to develop procedures for eligibility determination and the policy that specifies the documentation kept in the family case file used to determine eligibility. Due to changes at the State level with regulations and new laws governing eligibility determination of families, effective January 12, 2018, the 4C Council is updating and modifying its case management practices. On January 12, 2018, Santa Clara County was designated as a Pilot County by the California Department of Education (CDE) for the 24-month eligibility of families for child development programs. As such, the agency has designated two staff to participate in the 24-month eligibility workgroup consisting of representatives from other CDE contracted child development agencies to develop the eligibility forms, documents, policies and procedures that all Santa Clara County CDE Child Development contractors will use when determining eligibility of families. 4C Council has implemented the new forms with new families and currently enrolled families. 4C Council will continue to develop policies and procedures in tandem with the workgroup. (Supporting documentation submitted: "24-Month Pilot Enrollment Work Group Agendas_FY 17-18"; "Santa Clara County Individualized Child Care Subsidy Program Pilot Handbook"; "Eligibility and Enrollment Process_Sample Language"; "Bay Area Pilot County Family Need and Eligibility Training PowerPoint"; "24-Month Eligibility Forms".
- Estimated Completion Date: October 2018
- Response Date: June 2018
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
All Recommendations in 2017-116
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.