CalWORKs childcare benefits: Does my 6-year-old qualify as 0-6 or school age category?

He would be considered school age since he's already started kindergarten. The category is more about whether they're in school rather than just the exact age. The rates are usually higher for the 0-6 age group, but once they're in K-12, they switch to the school age category even if they're still 6. Your child care provider should be familiar with this when they fill out their portion of the paperwork too.

my daughter was in the same situation last yr!! they told me school age since shes IN SCHOOL regardless of the actual age. kinda sucks cuz the rate is lower but thats how they do it 🤷‍♀️

I'm a family child care provider who works with CalWORKs families. Here's the official answer: Once a child begins kindergarten, they're considered "school age" for CalWORKs childcare reimbursement purposes, regardless of their actual age. However, there are different rate structures for: - Before/after school care during school year - Full-day care for school holidays - Full-day summer care Make sure your provider correctly marks these different care types on the attendance record forms. The reimbursement should adjust based on whether it's a school day, holiday, or summer vacation. If your worker isn't explaining this clearly, you should specifically ask about the "alternative payment rate structures" for a school-age child during non-school periods.

To answer your follow-up question - you don't need to submit entirely different paperwork, but your provider needs to correctly code the attendance sheets. On the monthly attendance form, there are codes for different types of care (part-day, full-day, etc.). The provider should mark full-day care for summer days and school holidays, and before/after school care for regular school days. Your caseworker should approve a childcare plan that includes these variations throughout the year.

I had this exact problem last year and could never get through to my worker to get it straight!! I kept getting busy signals or being on hold forever. Finally I used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me through to an actual person at CalWORKs in like 20 minutes. They have a video showing how it works at https://youtu.be/jzISHxCPLwE. Seriously saved me so much frustration and my childcare situation got sorted out right away once I could actually talk to someone instead of leaving messages that never got returned.

THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS RIGGED I TELL U!! they purposely make these catogories CONFUSING so they can pay less!!! i had 3 kids all different ages and the paperwork is NEVER consistent. my worker told me one thing then the childcare office told me another thing and guess who gets stuck in the middle?? US!!! And if u fill out one tiny section wrong they make u start ALL OVER AGAIN!! then they wonder why ppl can't meet WTW requirements when half our time is spent dealing with their confusing paperwork!!!!!

Make sure you get the Stage 1 to Stage 2 childcare transition paperwork started as soon as possible! After you've been in CalWORKs for a while, your childcare moves from Stage 1 to Stage 2, and if you don't get the paperwork done in time, there can be a gap in coverage. Happened to me and I had to pay out of pocket for 2 weeks. Just an FYI so you don't get caught by surprise!

One more thing - if you're meeting your Welfare-to-Work hours through employment, education, or approved activities, CalWORKs should cover childcare for those hours PLUS reasonable transportation time. So if you work until 5:30 but need 30 minutes to get to the childcare provider, care until 6pm should be covered. Make sure this is clearly documented in your WTW plan and childcare authorization.