CDSS has issued instructions about the child care Bridge Program. The program provides emergency child care vouchers, child care navigator services and trauma-informed care training and coaching in counties that choose to participate in the program.
Families eligible for the child care Bridge Program payment include resource families and families who have a child placed with them in an emergency or for a compelling reason, licensed foster family home or certified family homes, approved homes of relatives and nonrelative extended family members, and parents under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, including non-minor dependant parents.
These families can receive a payment or voucher when work or school responsibilities prevent the eligible families from being at home when the foster child is not in school or when the family is required to participate in activities of parenting beyond ordinary parental duties such as administrative or judicial reviews, case conferences and family trainings.
The payment or voucher is available for up to six months until the child is placed in long-term subsidized child care. The payment can be extended to up to 12 months at the county’s discretion if the family is unable to secure long-term child care in the first six months.
The child care navigator works for the local Resource and Referral agency and assists the family with locating child care and developing a long-term plan for child care.
The Resource and Referral agency also provides trauma-informed care and coaching to providers and children of parenting youth in the foster care system.
Resource and Referral agencies must enter into a memorandum of understanding or contract with the county child welfare agency.
Counties must apply for the program by November 30, 2017. (ACL 17-109, October 27, 2017.)