Mississippi Administrative Code › Title 18 - HUMAN SERVICES › Part 17 - Division of Early Childhood Care and Development Child Care Payment Program Policy Manual › Chapter 8 - Procedures After Approval of a Certificate › Rule 18-17-8.8 - Allowable Closures for Providers

Current through June 25, 2024
A. Subsidy
				providers must be available to serve the needs of parents. A child care center
				shall remain open in accordance with the months, days, and hours of operation
				that was provided upon application for subsidy or is currently on file with the
				MS Department of Health, Division of Child Care Licensure, whichever is more
				recent. No additional voluntary closures are allowed other than those described
				in this section.
B. A child care
				center shall remain open on days when children are taken on field trips, or any
				other day outside of the approved holiday list provided by MDHS, for any
				children who cannot attend the field trips or who still need child care during
				holidays not approved by MDHS.
C.
				MDHS will pay for up to eleven (11) holidays (see chart below) per year. If the
				Governor of Mississippi allows days in addition to the list below in observance
				of a holiday, providers shall be notified they are also allowed these extra
				days.
DATE
HOLIDAY
*January 1
New Year's Day
January - 3rd Monday
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday and Robert E. Lee's
						  Birthday
Spring (date varies annually)
Good Friday
May Last Monday
Memorial Day
*July 4
Independence Day
September - 1st Monday
Labor Day
*November - 4th Thursday and
						  Friday
Thanksgiving Day & the Friday After
*December 24
Christmas Eve
*December 25
Christmas Day
December 31
New Year's Eve
Six (6) of the holidays shall be fixed and must be observed
				  on the day designated for state holiday observance. Those holidays are denoted
				  by an asterisk. The remaining five (5) holidays shall be used at the discretion
				  of the child care center on the date designated, or on any date deemed
				  necessary by the child care center. If the child care center elects to use the
				  holiday on a date other than the designated date, the center must notify DECCD
				  seven (7) days prior to the designated date of the flexible holiday. Parents
				  must be notified by the child care center fourteen (14) days prior to the
				  holiday change.
D. In
				addition to the eleven (11) holidays, DECCD will also allow up to three (3)
				paid days for provider closure for the purposes of professional development per
				year. Providers must document professional development activities for 8 hours
				per closure day with a minimum of 80% staff in attendance. Documentation of
				professional development shall include:
* Training agendas (in-house) or list of conference sessions
				  attended,
* sign-in/out sheets (in-house) or certificate of completion
				  if attended elsewhere, and
* proof of staff payment.
* Dated notice of closure due to Professional Development
				  provided to parents. Documentation must be submitted within five (5) days of
				  the event and will be monitored annually. Any provider claiming closure for
				  professional development not providing documentation of claimed professional
				  development will be in violation of policy. Parents must be notified by the
				  child care center fourteen (14) days prior to closure for professional
				  development.
E. Natural
				Disaster - Child care payments shall be continued when parents are off work due
				to circumstances beyond the parent's control, such as hurricanes, floods, and
				tornado. Child care providers shall be reimbursed when the center is closed
				temporarily in the event of an emergency declared by the President of the
				United States or Governor of Mississippi or an event that results from a
				natural disaster or human-caused event for up to ten (10) business days per
				occurrence, unless the parent needs to make alternate child care
				arrangements.
Miss. Code
				  Ann. §
										43-1-2(4); Miss.
				  Code Ann. §
										43-1-4 Revised: May
				  2023