Co-payments: Article

Co-Payment Disparities by County for a Family of Three With an Income of $37,060/year (200% of poverty)
Copayment Disparity Chart

Highlights from the 2011 Legislative Session
After all the emails, strategy sessions, meetings, Facebook updates and trips to Albany, the 2011 Legislative session closed with a huge amount of excitement about New York’s new civil rights law that will bring marriage equality to same sex couples.

Empire Justice Center 2011-12 State Legislative Priorities
Focusing on the Needs of New Yorkers Hit Hardest by the Recession
New York State has long led the nation in crafting effective and responsive policies in times of crisis; our ability to lead and to foster innovation in the face of adversity is second to none. We all agree that New York must pursue new approaches and new policies that will help our state recover from the economic recession so that we can begin to thrive once again.

Legislative Round-Up: 2009-2010 Session
Another tempestuous session of the New York State Legislature recently concluded. It was a session often characterized by political stalemate and dominated by the State’s budget woes. Therefore it is not surprising that there was considerable frustration within the community of advocates for low-income New Yorkers.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and Child Care
Jobs Created Must be Accompanied by Child Care Assistance to be Viable
The availability of child care assistance is absolutely critical for New York’s job creation efforts to be successful.

Empire Justice Center Issues Report On Child Care Disparities
Quality subsidized child care benefits both children and working parents. The New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) administers a one billion dollar block grant program, consisting primarily of federal funding, which provides financial assistance to low income families who need child care.

Empire Justice Center's Legislative Agenda 2009-2011
The Summer issue of the Legal Services Journal highlighted many legislative initiatives for 2009-2011 and provided a “Legislative Scorecard” on those initiatives with detailed articles on a broad array of issue areas. This article will review those initiatives and add to the Legislative Scorecard as we move into the New Year.

Food Stamp Eligibility Expanded for Families with Child Care Expenses
Higher income guidelines mean that more working families with dependent care expenses are now eligible for food stamps. If you don’t get food stamps now, you may qualify even if you were denied in the past.

Class Action Lawsuit Challenges State Child Care Co-payment Regulation
Every year, federal child care funds of nearly one billion dollars provide child care subsidies to low income families in New York State.

Child Care Update
This year, the New York State budget allocated $736,036,409 to local social services districts for the provision of child care assistance for the period of April 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010.

2008 Legislative Session Update
In the midst of all the chaos that surrounded state leadership and serious concerns about the financial outlook for the state, the 2008 legislative session drew to at least a temporary close with a mix of positive and negative outcomes that will affect struggling New Yorkers and their families

2008 Child Care Co-payment Disparities Chart
Co-payment Disparities by County for a Family of Three with an Income of $35,200 a year.

What Can Data tell us about the Cost of New York’s Variable Co-Payments?
If we are to assess the cost of changing co-payments in any way, it is important to know the number of families in each income bracket over the poverty level.

How to Calculate a Parent Co-Payment
Pursuant to Department regulations, child care assistance shall be provided on a sliding scale, based upon the family’s ability to pay.

An Overview of the Law on Child Care Co-payments
Federal and New York State Law

Empire Justice Organizational Priorities
Each year, Empire Justice develops a proactive legislative agenda that reflects our organizational goal of making the law work for all New Yorkers. This year, our agenda focuses on three broad areas – access to legal and other critical human services, strengthening public benefits and public health programs and assisting New Yorkers facing financial crises.

2007 Child Care Co-payment Disparities Chart
Co-payment disparities by county effective June 1, 2007 for a family of three with an income of $34,340/year (200% of poverty)

Expanding the Patchwork
Inequity in Child Care Subsidy Eligibility and Administration is Greater Now than in 2002
Inequity in Child Care Subsidy Eligibility and Administration is Greater Now than in 2002.

Legislative Roundup
This year, Empire Justice developed our most comprehensive legislative agenda to date. The combined expertise of GULP and PILOR allowed us to focus on a broad array of legislative initiatives all aimed at improving the lives of civil legal services clients. With such an extensive agenda, it was a very busy year.

2006 Child Care Co-payment Disparties Chart
Co-payment Disparities by County for a Family of Three with an Income of $32,000 a year.

The Geographic Disparity of Child Care Co-payments in New York State Is Fundamentally Unfair and Needs to Be Changed
Child care in New York State is paid for through the New York State Child Care Block Grant (NYSCCBG), which is comprised primarily of federal funds. Despite the fact that New Yorkers are receiving federal dollars for a benefit which is critical to the success of low income working families, not all families are treated the same. The size of the benefit depends upon where a family lives, and bears no relationship to economic factors related to geography.

Moving From Foster Care to Independence:
The New York Chafee Foster Care Independence Program
Teens leaving foster care experience higher rates of homelessness, poverty, unemployment, and victimization than the general population. These youths also suffer higher rates of physical and emotional problems that are exacerbated by a lack of adequate health care. All of these problems are compounded by a general inability to negotiate the complex process of obtaining public benefits, including Medicaid, subsidized housing, and financial aid.

Assure Equal Access to Quality Child Care by Capping Parent Co-Payments at 10% of Household Income
A child care subsidy provides low income parents access to quality child care that they could not otherwise afford, but it only provides meaningful access if parental co-payments are in an amount that low income families can afford. A cap of 10% of household income would provide equitable treatment of similarly situated low-income families across the state, and assure that New York complies with the intent of the federal child care legislation that co-payments be affordable.

Report Finds NY’s Child Care Policies Vary Based on Geography, Not Need
This report is the first comprehensive report on New York State’s child care policies in ten years and is the result of eighteen months of research. Based primarily on a series of surveys of local social service district administrators, the report documents wide variations in access to child care based not on need but on geography, a consequence of New York’s county based administration of child care assistance for poor and low income families. The result is 58 different ways of administering child care subsidies; a literal “patchwork of policies.”

Annual Co-payment Variation distinguished by County Multiplier
Annual Co-payment Variation distinguished by County Multiplier and Effect of Placing a Cap of 10% of Household Income On Day Care Co-Payments

Child Care Policy Updates
With only 11 days left to go in the year 2001, Governor Pataki signed the “Seamless Funding Bill” which both improves accessibility to child care services for low income families and expands child care availability to those attending post-secondary education.