The Times West Virginian

West Virginia

June 22, 2012

W.Va. to cut child care, social program funding

CHARLESTON — West Virginia plans to scale back child-care aid — freezing enrollment and then ending it for some families while increasing costs for the rest — and also will cut $9.5 million in annual funding for other social services, including a summer nutrition program for schoolchildren, state officials announced Thursday.

The changes would drop an estimated 1,425 children from a program that helps their parents afford day care and other settings outside the home. The program served more than 24,000 children during the past budget year, at a cost of $54 million, according to figures provided by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

Payment rates to day care centers and other providers won’t change. The estimate reflects income levels of current enrollees. DHHR revisits income qualifications every six months.

The reasons behind the cuts vary. The state has exhausted a federal funding surplus that boosted the child-care aid, for instance. The grant meant to help the summer nutrition program expand to additional locations came from the now-ended federal stimulus. Other grants will end because they funded programs that don’t appear to be working, such as one meant to encourage healthy marriages, officials said.

“We are now looking at what we can do to for the sustainability of these long-term programs,” said DHHR spokesman John Law. “This is a first step for trying to get it under control.”

The child-care aid program is supposed to help poor parents keep their jobs or find work including by attending school. West Virginia will stop enrolling new families on Aug. 1, and then end payments for families at or above 150 percent of the federal poverty line.

A family of four would lose aid, for example, if its annual income exceeded about $33,500. West Virginia had extended the program to include families making up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level.

Melissa Colagrosso operates a care center in Fayette County. She predicts the changes will force people to quit their jobs and seek welfare-type assistance, particularly if they have infants. Colagrosso’s facility is licensed for 101 children, and she said around 75 rely on aid from the state program.

“I know it sounds like a small cut, but a majority of our community qualifies for the subsidy and if they don’t, they don’t be able to work,” Colagrosso said Thursday. “Our community will be hit dramatically.”

Children exempt from these changes include those in foster care, receiving Temporary Aid for Needy Families, under court-ordered care of the subject of a child protective service case. The state must continue to serve these families to receive the $110 million provided annually by the TANF program, Law said. The exhausted surplus reflected amounts from those annual funds left over from previous budget years, he said.

While provider payments will remain the same, families enrolled in the program will see their copayments more than double starting Aug. 1 from 5 percent to 12 percent of child care costs. The average weekly cost of day care for a 4-year-old in West Virginia is $111, according to figures from the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies. The increase would increase that parent’s weekly copayment from $5.58 to $13.38.

The tightened income eligibility standard would put West Virginia’s program in line with neighboring Kentucky and Virginia, according to 2011 figures from the National Women’s Law Center. Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania all set stricter limits, the figures show. The center’s 2011 report on state child care assistance policies also found that West Virginia’s copayments were lower, sometimes significantly so, than all five of its neighbors.

West Virginia’s changes reflect a trend among state programs that helped prompt the 2011 report. It counted five states, including Ohio, that tightened income eligibility that year while two hiked copayments. Ohio was also among five states that reduced provider rates, and four including Maryland were threatened by growing waiting lists for their programs.

The cut West Virginia grants include $2.5 million for the Department of Education’s summer nutrition program, and $5.5 million meant to subsidize employment for those seeking help through the state’s regional workforce investment boards. The latter grant was also funded by temporary stimulus dollars.

The remaining grants include two to research agencies at West Virginia and West Virginia State universities. DHHR officials said the underlying programs, meant to strengthen two-parent families, showed “inconclusive results.” A separate grant had funded a WVU program aimed at helping to direct people into vocational trades. Besides “not meeting expectations,” that program duplicated other state programs, officials said.

Text Only
West Virginia
  • Rockefeller sponsors new head-injury legislation

    A senator who’s long pushed parents, coaches and communities to help protect young athletes from sports-related concussions is now sponsoring federal legislation to set safety standards for helmets.

    May 23, 2013

  • Former hospital executive, nurse to become state DHHR secretary

    Former hospital executive and nurse Karen Bowling will become West Virginia’s Health and Human Resources secretary on July 1, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said Wednesday, taking over a sprawling department recently scrutinized by an audit and assigned the daunting task of expanding the state’s Medicaid program.

    May 23, 2013

  • Protesters rally at FirstEnergy annual meeting

    At least 200 union workers picketed FirstEnergy’s annual shareholder meeting in West Virginia on Tuesday, demanding the Ohio-based utility hire enough people to keep the power on without forcing an ever-shrinking labor force to work as many as 1,800 hours of overtime a year.

    May 22, 2013

  • Waiver eliminates ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach

    West Virginia won limited freedom Monday from the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind, gaining approval of its own method for identifying struggling schools and then devoting resources to improve them.

    May 21, 2013

  • W.Va. gets reprieve from No Child Left Behind law

    West Virginia has won some limited freedom from the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind.

    May 20, 2013

  • Big decision looms for W.Va. House

    West Virginia’s House of Delegates faces a momentous decision after Speaker Rick Thompson departs for Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s Cabinet: Choosing a new leader will help set the stage for 2014, when Republicans aim to wipe out the Democrats’ ebbing majority.

    May 20, 2013

  • Coin commemorates W.Va.’s 150th birthday

    West Virginia is adding a commemorative coin to the celebratory mix for its 150th birthday, the commission overseeing the sesquicentennial activities announced Saturday.

    May 19, 2013

  • Record trout caught in Berkeley County

    The Division of Natural Resources says a record rainbow trout was caught in Berkeley County.
    DNR director Frank Jezioro says the trout was caught by Tony Corbin of Gerrardstown on May 2 from a private pond.

    May 19, 2013

  • West Virginia House speaker to step down, take Cabinet position

    House Speaker Richard Thompson will resign from the West Virginia Legislature next month to join Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s Cabinet as secretary of Veterans Assistance, the governor announced Thursday.

    May 17, 2013

  • Transcript: Teenagers planned friend’s death

    Transcripts of a secret plea hearing show a teenager involved in the 2012 stabbing death of a Star City girl planned the slaying with an accomplice. But their motive remains unclear.

    May 17, 2013

Featured Ads
House Ads