2025 Policy Recommendation
Ensure that children from families eligible for TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), including children experiencing homelessness, have ready access to child care by establishing a presumptive eligibility policy for TANF-eligible families for Vermont’s Child Care Financial Assistance Program (CCFAP). This policy would reduce administrative burdens and potential lags in child care coverage for families, and ensure that children experiencing adversity have access to quality early education environments.
What It Means
Presumptive eligibility for the Child Care Financial Assistance Program (CCFAP) for targeted populations is an approach that would eliminate a lag in access to child care by assuming families’ eligibility and allowing for immediate enrollment. Often when states implement presumptive eligibility for programs (it is frequently used for the Medicaid program), they allow for a period of 30 to 60 days of presumed eligibility while paperwork is processed and families, eligibility specialists, and other providers work to get a family officially enrolled.
While Vermont has a number of other mechanisms that can support families eligible for TANF, including those experiencing homelessness, with eligibility and enrollment in CCFAP, presumptive eligibility goes a step further and targets eliminating a lag in service delivery.
Why It Matters
Presumptive eligibility is increasingly being elevated nationally as a best practice for reducing administrative burden in service delivery, and is a practice newly encouraged by the federal government specific to Child Care and Development Fund, the primary federal funding source for CCFAP, for a period up to three months. Specifically supporting homeless families with a presumptive eligibility policy recognizes that the likely toxic stress and trauma of homelessness is a uniquely challenging experience faced by families with young children, and that whatever can be done to promote stability and access to high-quality services for children and families who are unhoused should be prioritized.
Connects to VECAP Goal 3:
All children and families have access to high-quality opportunities that meet their needs.
Spotlight on Equity
Studies related to presumptive eligibility (typically done on Medicaid programs) suggest that the policy successfully expands access to services, particularly for those identified as having lower levels of education. Implementing presumptive eligibility for families eligible for TANF in Vermont could similarly result in increased access to CCFAP for families with lower levels of education.
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