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 June, 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.