The Emergency Child Care Bridge Program provides short-term child care vouchers or payments for approved resource families and parents under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. This program has been expanded in two ways.
First, the Bridge Program now covers when a resource family is unable to provide care in addition to when a resource family is not at home. This means that the Bridge Program now covers families engaging in telework or online classes.
Second, counties can now extend eligibility for the Bridge Program beyond 12 months for a compelling reason. These reasons include inability to transition to other subsidized child care, loss of eligibility would disrupt stability for the child, and loss of eligibility would jeopardize a permanency plan or successful reunification.
In addition, counties must have a process to pay benefits within 21 calendar days of receipt of a complete attendance record or invoice for payment. (CCB 22-27, September 26, 2022.)