Hawaii Administrative Rules › Title 17 - DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES › Department of Human Services › Chapter 798.2 - CHILD CARE SERVICES › Subchapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 17-798.2-2 - Definitions

Current through June, 2024
As used in this chapter:
"Activity" means employment, education, or vocational or
					 employment training.
"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.
"Aid to families with dependent children" or "AFDC" means
					 the financial assistance and non-assistance program administered by the
					 department under 42 U.S.C. §§ 601-617 and HRS §
										346-29.
"After-school care" means child care provided after the
					 close of the regular school day during the academic year for eligible children
					 who are enrolled in public or private elementary, middle, or secondary
					 schools.
"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 due to involvement in an activity that
					 creates the absence of the child's caretaker. 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 written action by which an
					 individual indicates on a form prescribed by the department a request to
					 receive assistance with child care costs and services.
"Attending" means enrolled in a job training or educational
					 program as defined by the institution, agency, or business that sponsors the
					 program.
"Background check" means criminal history record checks,
					 child abuse and neglect checks, and other checks required by federal or State
					 law, conducted by the department in order to determine eligibility for child
					 care services.
"Before-school care" means a child care program provided
					 before the opening of the regular school day during the academic year for
					 eligible children who are enrolled in public or private elementary, middle, or
					 secondary schools.
"Benefit month" means the calendar month for which the
					 caretaker is eligible for a child care payment.
"Budget month" means the calendar month(s) from which the
					 worker shall use the child care expense, hours of approved activity and child
					 care need, and income of the family unit to compute the benefit amount that the
					 family shall receive in the payment month.
"Caregiver" means the individual who provides child care.
					 It also includes all adult household members when child care is provided in a
					 private residence.
"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.
"Child" means any person who has not reached the age of
					 eighteen.
"Child abuse record check" means an examination of an
					 individual's child abuse confirmation history through:
(1) An initial name inquiry into the State child welfare
					 record files;
(2) Subsequent child abuse confirmation history checks for
					 new hires and re-hires; and
(3) An annual name inquiry into State child welfare record
					 files.
"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 may be provided out of the child's home in out-of-home relative
					 care, in the child's home by relatives or non-relatives, in a family child care
					 home, in a group child care home, or in a group child care center.
"Child protective services" means social services provided
					 by the department pursuant to chapter 17-920.1, to children who reside with
					 their family unit and are:
(1) confirmed to have been abused or neglected, or
(2) confirmed to have been threatened with abuse or
					 neglect.
"Co-payment" means the family unit's share of the child
					 care expense which is the difference between the maximum amount allowed for the
					 type and amount of care up to the department's child care rate maximum, and the
					 amount the family is determined to be eligible for by the department.
"Corrective payment" means a payment issued by the
					 department in the amount equal to the difference between what a caretaker is
					 entitled to receive by regulation and the amount they actually received.
"Educational program" means a curriculum that has been
					 established by an institution, agency, or business for the purpose of the
					 development of skills or academic study necessary for an identified
					 occupation.
"Eligibility period" means a period established by the
					 department, not to exceed six months, during which the household shall be
					 eligible for child care benefits unless otherwise notified through appropriate
					 notification procedures.
"Employed" means the caretaker is engaged in an activity in
					 exchange for wages or salary.
"Essential person" means a needy person designated by the
					 caretaker to be included in the AFDC household that receives a public-funded
					 financial assistance payment, who is ineligible in the person's own right for
					 AFDC, 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
					 AFDC household.
"Extended filing period" means the additional ten days that
					 households are allowed to submit required information or missing verification
					 to justify continued child care eligibility. See section
					 17-798.2-16(a)(1)(C).
"Family child care home care" means child care in any
					 private residence as defined in HRS §
										346-151 and the
					 caregiver is registered with the department.
"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.
"First-to-Work" or "FTW" means the work programs
					 administered by the department for recipients of AFDC.
"Full-time care" means child care provided for ninety-seven
					 hours and more per month, except for before-school and after-school
					 care.
"Gross income" means all non-excluded earned and unearned
					 income as specified in this chapter.
"Group child care center care" means child care in a
					 facility as defined in HRS §
										346-151. The term may
					 include nurseries; preschools; parent cooperatives; drop-in child care centers;
					 before-school and after-school programs; holiday, intersession and summer care
					 for eligible school age children; or other similar care settings that are
					 established to provide group care to a child for any part of a twenty-four hour
					 day and is license-exempt or licensed by the department. For the purposes of
					 this chapter, group child care center shall also include "infant and toddler
					 center care" in which child care is provided to children ages six weeks to
					 thirty-six months of age in a group child care center care or group child care
					 home and is licensed under chapter 17-895.
"Group child care home care" means child care in a facility
					 which may be an extended or modified private home as defined in HRS §
										346-151.
"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.
"Home-Based Child Care Provider" means
					 department-registered family child care providers, and legally-exempt family
					 child care providers, including relative child care providers.
"Homeless" means a family that is without a permanent
					 residence and is currently living in a supervised, publicly or privately
					 operated shelter designated to provide temporary living accommodations; in an
					 area not normally considered a residence (such as a street, park, beach or
					 automobile); or in a temporary accommodation (of less than four months
					 duration) in the residence of another individual and has a history of frequent
					 changes of residence over the past 12-month period.
"In-home care" means child care provided only to the
					 caretaker's eligible children by a caregiver in the home of the eligible
					 children who require care in the absence of their caretakers due to a
					 qualifying child care reason.
"Infant" means a child six weeks old up to and including
					 twelve months old.
"Intersession care" means child care provided at breaks
					 during the academic year for eligible children who are enrolled in public or
					 private elementary, middle, or secondary schools, including summer care and
					 holidays.
"Job training" or "vocational or employment training" means
					 an organized training program (including community college and university
					 education) established by an institution, agency, or business for the purpose
					 of the development of skills or academic study necessary for an identified
					 occupation.
"License-exempt care" means child care which is exempt from
					 licensure or registration by the department under HRS §
										346-152.
"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.
"Minor" means a person under eighteen years old.
"Monthly gross income limit" means eighty-five per cent of
					 the State Median Income 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 benefits issued to a
					 caretaker for a benefit month that is in excess of the amount which the
					 caretaker or a provider authorized by the caretaker is entitled to receive by
					 regulation. It also includes situations when child care payments are not used
					 for the intended purpose.
"Part-time care" means child care provided for less than
					 ninety-seven hours per month, except for before-school and after-school care
					 when it is provided for less than 44 hours per month.
"Payment month" means the calendar month in which the
					 worker shall issue the child care payment.
"Physical or mental incapacity" means a physical or mental
					 condition that prevents a child from doing self-care, as determined by a
					 State-licensed physician or psychologist.
"Physician" means an individual licensed by the State for
					 the practice of medicine.
"Power of attorney" means a legal instrument authorizing
					 another to act as one's agent or attorney-in-fact.
"Preschool" means a department-licensed Group Child Care
					 Center (GCC) or Group Child Care Home (GCCH) that provides services for
					 children ages two years to five years old.
"Preschool Open Doors" means a program designed to provide
					 preschool experience prior to entering junior kindergarten or
					 kindergarten.
"Presumptively eligible" means a child care provider and
					 caregivers may be approved to provide child care upon submittal to the
					 department of the completed and signed child care certificate and provider
					 confirmation form and consent forms for the department to conduct background
					 checks, pending the results of the required background checks.
"Prospective budgeting" means computation of the child care
					 payment based on the worker's best estimate of the child care expense, child
					 care need, and caretakers" activity hours and gross income, which 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.
"Provider" means any person eighteen years and older,
					 agency, or organization, and their adult employees, who provide direct care,
					 supervision, and guidance to children apart from and in the absence of the
					 child's caretaker for part of a twenty-four hour day. Providers are regulated
					 by the department to provide child care or are legally exempt from child care
					 licensure or registration by the department under HRS §
										346-152.
"Relative" means related by blood, marriage, adoption, or
					 hanai.
"Report month" means the calendar month that the simplified
					 report form is due.
"Reside with" means an eligible child living in a home or
					 family setting with the child's eligible caretaker.
"Responsible household member" means a reliable adult,
					 included in the household, who can provide accurate information about the
					 household's circumstances.
"Restored benefits" means the child care benefit issued to
					 a caretaker whenever benefits for a prior period are not issued because of an
					 error by the department.
"School age" means the chronological age of a child who is
					 eligible to enroll in elementary, middle, or secondary schools.
"Simplified reporting" means the reporting requirement for
					 caretakers who receive child care payments to provide information in the report
					 month to determine continued eligibility as specified in section
					 17-798.2-16, and report changes as
					 specified in section
					 17-798.2-15 that occur during the
					 eligibility period.
"Simplified report form" means the report that a caretaker
					 is required to complete for eligibility re-determination.
"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 homeless.
"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. States are given discretion by the United States Department of Health
					 and Human Services (DHHS) to utilize a median income from any particular year,
					 if not from the current year, as long as the states indicate in their Child
					 Care Development Fund (CCDF) State Plan the year used and the dates on which
					 eligibility limits became or will become effective.
"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.
"Timely notice" means when the branch mails the notice of
					 adverse action at least ten calendar days prior to the effective date of the
					 action.
"Toddler" means a child over twelve months old up to and
					 including twenty-four months old.
"Transitional child care" means a program designed to
					 provide child care payments for eligible families that terminated AFDC
					 financial assistance or non-assistance payments sponsored by the department to
					 enable them to maintain self-sufficiency.
"Underpayment" means the amount of benefits issued to a
					 caretaker or a provider authorized by the caretaker for a benefit month is less
					 than the amount which the caretaker was entitled to receive by
					 regulation.
"Very low income" means gross income less than one hundred
					 per cent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.