Hawaii Administrative Rules
Title 17 - DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
Department of Human Services
Chapter 799 - PRESCHOOL OPEN DOORS (POD)
Subchapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS
Section 17-799-2 - Definitions
Current through February, 2024
As used in this chapter: "Accredited" means a group child care center, or group child care home, that is certified to meet accreditation standards by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the National Early Childhood Program Accreditation (NECPA), the National Association of Family Child Care (NAFCC), or other accrediting organization approved by the director.
"Adequate notice" means a written notice that includes:
(1) A statement of the action the agency has taken or intends to take;
(2) The reason for the intended action;
(3) The specific departmental rules supporting the intended action;
(4) The name and telephone number of the person in the department to contact for additional information;
(5) The family unit's right to request an informal review, an administrative appeal, or both; and
(6) Information on the availability of free legal representation, if applicable.
"Applicant" means the caretaker, including an emancipated minor pursuant to HRS § 571-2 and HRS § 577-25 and a teenage head of the household, who has the responsibility to provide care for the child, and needs child care. This does not include an unmarried minor who is a parent to the individual's own baby who together reside in the same household with the minor's adult caretaker.
"Application" means the action by which an individual indicates on a form prescribed by the department a request to receive assistance with child care costs and services.
"Applying program year" means the school year that the child will be attending child care.
"Approved priority applicant" means an applicant that has met program eligibility criteria and has their application income-ranked within their priority group, and within their geographical area designated by the department.
"Background check" means a review of a person's background information pursuant to chapter 17-801.
"Benefit month" means the calendar month for which the caretaker is eligible for a child care payment.
"Budget month" means the calendar month(s) for which the child care expense and income of a family unit are used to compute the payment amount that the family unit shall receive in the payment month.
"Caretaker" means an adult who resides with and is responsible for the care of a child, and who is a birth, hanai, foster, or adoptive parent, guardian, step-parent, or relative who is related to the child by blood, marriage, or adoption, or a person authorized by the caretaker through a power of attorney valid for a period not to exceed twelve months. The caretaker designation may remain even when the caretaker is temporarily absent from the home as long as the caretaker continues to maintain responsibility for the care, education, and financial support of the child. This includes a foster parent who may not be providing financial support to the child but may be receiving support for the child from a private or public agency. This also includes teen parents who are birth parents to the child.
"Child" means any person who has not reached the age of eighteen years, excluding emancipated minors.
"Child care" means those situations in which a caregiver has agreed to assume the responsibility for the child's supervision, apart from and in the absence of the child's caretaker, for any part of a twenty-four-hour day. Child care, for the purposes of this chapter, is limited to care provided in a group child care home, or in a group child care center.
"Co-payment" means the family unit's share of the child care expense which is the difference between the maximum payment amount allowed for the type and amount of care up to the department's child care payment rate maximum, and the amount the family unit is determined to be eligible for by the department.
"Corrective payment" means a payment issued by the department in an amount equal to the difference between what a caretaker is entitled to receive by regulation and the amount they actually received.
"Department" means the department of human services or its designee.
"Eligibility period" means a period up to twelve months, established by the department, that shall not exceed the applicable State fiscal year, during which the household may be eligible for child care payments.
"Essential person" means a needy person designated by the caretaker to be included in the TANF household that receives a public-funded financial assistance payment, who is ineligible in the person's own right for TANF, who is designated by the caretaker as being essential to the caretaker's well-being, and who performs a service that would not otherwise be performed or that would otherwise have to be purchased if the person did not live in the TANF household
"Exempt" or "Exempt center-based provider" means a facility providing legally-exempt child care, in accordance with section 346-152, HRS, that is in compliance with chapter 17-800. It also includes all staff employed at a child care facility, any volunteers who provide care for children for ten hours or more per week, substitutes, and any other individuals who have unsupervised access to children in exempt center-based care.
"Experiencing homelessness" means a family unit:
(1) Lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence;
(2) Are sharing the housing of other persons due to a loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason, are living in motels, hotels, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodation, are in emergency or transitional shelters, are abandoned in hospitals;
(3) Have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;
(4) Are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; or
(5) Are migratory children (as the term is defined in section 1309 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965).
"Family unit" means the caretakers and their minor children who reside together in the same household.
"Federal fiscal year" means a period beginning October 1 and ending September 30.
"Federal Poverty Guidelines" or "FPG" means the poverty guidelines for Hawaii that are established in the Federal Register by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the authority of 42 U.S.C. § 9902(2) and cited in the Child Care and Development Fund Plan For State of Hawaii that is approved by the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, pursuant to C.F.R. §§98.14 to 98.18.
"Gross income" means all non-excluded earned and unearned income as specified in this chapter.
"Group child care center" or "GCC" means a facility, other than a private home, at which care is provided, as defined in section 346-151, HRS.
"Group child care home" or "GCCH" means a facility, which may be an extended or modified private home, at which care is provided to seven to twelve children, as defined in section 346-151, HRS.
"Hanai" means a child who is taken permanently to be reared, educated, and loved by someone other than the natural parents at the time of the child's birth or early childhood. The child is given outright and the natural parents renounce all claims to the child. The natural parents cannot reclaim the child except for the death or serious injury of the hanai parents.
"Hawaiian-medium center-based care" means a group child care center, as defined in section 346-151, HRS, with programs taught solely in the Hawaiian language that promote fluency in the Hawaiian language and that is licensed by the department in accordance with section 346-162, HRS.
"Limited English proficiency" or "LEP" means limited ability in speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language by a person whose native language is a language other than English or by a person who lives in a family or community environment where a language other than English is the dominant language.
"Low-income" means gross income less than or equal to one hundred eighty-five per cent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.
"Minor" means a person under eighteen years old.
"Moderate-income" means gross income greater than one hundred eighty-five per cent and less than or equal to three hundred per cent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.
"Monthly gross income limit" means three hundred per cent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines for a family of the same size.
"Non-recurring lump sum" means income that is not normally repeated or a cumulative amount received or available to be received by an individual. Educational loans, grants or scholarships shall not be considered as non-recurring lump sums.
"Overpayment" means the amount of payments issued to a caretaker for a benefit month that is in excess of the amount which the caretaker is eligible to receive. It also includes payments that are not used for their intended purpose.
"Payment month" means the calendar month in which a child care payment is issued.
"Power of attorney" means a legal instrument authorizing another to act as one's agent or attorney-in-fact.
"Preschool" means a Group Child Care Center (GCC) or Group Child Care Home (GCCH) that provides services for children ages two years to six years old.
"Prospective budgeting" means computation of the child care payment based on the worker's best estimate of the child care expense and gross income that will exist in a calendar month. The best estimate shall be based on the worker's reasonable projection of future circumstances based on the family unit's past and current month's circumstances.
"Relative" means a person related by blood, marriage, adoption, or hanai.
"Reside with" means an eligible child living in a home or family setting with the child's eligible caretaker.
"Self-employment" means an individual is not subject to discharge from his or her job by another person, reports income to the Internal Revenue Service and the State as a self-employed person and pays employer's and employee's share of social security taxes, is not considered an employee of an agency or organization, and generates income equivalent to twenty hours per week multiplied by 4.3333 weeks multiplied by the State minimum wage at the time of eligibility determination and redetermination.
"Special populations referral" means documentation to verify that a child does not qualify full-time for the state department of education (DOE) special education program services and:
(1) Has a physical, developmental, behavioral or emotional health condition that is outside of the normal range;
(2) Meets the state department of health criteria for environmental risk as defined in HRS § 321-351;
(3) Resides in a LEP household; or
(4) Is experiencing homelessness and the family is participating in or enrolling in a program for homeless services.
"State fiscal year" means a period beginning July 1 and ending June 30.
"State Median Income" means the official guidelines issued yearly in the Federal Register by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families under the authority of 42 U.S.C. § 8621, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981.
"Temporarily absent" means a period of up to ninety days when the caretaker is not residing in the home with the child as a result of employment or job training commitments.
"Temporary Assistance for Needy Families" or "TANF" means the federal and state financial assistance and non-assistance programs administered by the department under 42 U.S.C. §§ 601-617 and HRS § 346-29.
"Timely notice" means when the department mails a notice of adverse action at least ten calendar days prior to the effective date of the action.
"Underpayment" means the amount of payments issued to a caretaker for a benefit month that is less than the amount which the caretaker was eligible to receive.
