Wisconsin Department
of Children and Families - Division
of Early Care and Education
Bureau of Child Care Subsidy Administration
Wisconsin Shares Handbook
Parents can self-declare their work schedule; verification is not required to complete the authorization assessment unless there are unresolved questions. Parents may also self-declare their activity schedules for Wisconsin Works (W-2), Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and FoodShare Employment and Training (FSET) when the activities in the Employability Plan (EP) or Self-Sufficiency Plan (ISP) do not have set times.
Agency workers must document the start and end times of the parent’s weekly approved activity schedule in case comments (see 12.2).
| Note: Approved activity verification (i.e., class schedule, W-2 EP, paystubs, etc.) is collected during the eligibility determination process (see 7.8). Agency workers may view the Electronic Case File (ECF) for scanned documents. |
The parent may provide either their anticipated schedule or the recent past schedule of hours and days worked. If the parent does not have a schedule from their employer for new employment with a varying or on-call schedule, the agency worker should write the authorization based on the parent’s best estimate. If the parent has on-call employment, the schedule must only include times when the parent actually works and not include times when the parent is waiting to be called. If the parent has a three-week varying schedule, the agency worker must enter the week with the most scheduled hours as the fourth week on the parent activity schedule in CSAW.
| Example 1 (Varying three-week schedule): Daniel has the following work schedule: 20 hours in Week One (1), 45 hours in Week Two (2), 25 hours in Week Three (3), and then the schedule rotates back to Week One (1). The agency worker enters a four-week schedule type in CSAW and enters the Week Two (2) schedule again as Week Four (4). |
| Example 2 (On-call employment): Kris is a nurse and works 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. Monday – Thursday. She is also on call every other Saturday from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The agency worker enters Kris’s Monday – Thursday schedule and does not include the Saturday on-call times. If Kris is called into work, she can request additional hours after the days she works for the hours she needed, provided that the provider is open to care for children during those hours. |
CSAW will calculate the monthly authorized hours based on the parent’s approved activity schedule and the child care need schedule the agency worker entered in CSAW. The system analyzes the overlap between the parent’s schedule and the child care need to determine an average number of weekly hours. The average weekly hours are then multiplied by 4.348125 to determine the final monthly authorized hours. Agency workers must enter travel time separately and not include travel time in the parent’s work schedule or the child care need schedule.
Education
For education, parents must provide the class schedule for all classes with set in-person or online log in times throughout the week. Parents may only self-declare an online education schedule that is self-paced and does not have set log in times.
Authorized hours for self-paced online education are limited to one (1) hour per week per enrolled credit. The parent must provide a planned log in schedule for the agency worker to write an authorization. Additional hours can be authorized if the institution documents that the self-paced course is delivered over an accelerated period with more hours of instruction provided per week. For accelerated programs, the authorized hours can include the average weekly hours needed for the parent to complete asynchronous classes (i.e., prerecorded lectures), as well as any other work experience, clinicals, or school hours where an instructor oversees the parent’s activity. Time for homework or other class commitments must not be included in the parent’s approved activity schedule because these are not hours of instruction provided by an instructor.
| Example 3 (Blended learning): Ashley is attending college and has three (3) classes. Class A meets in-person on campus on Tuesday and Thursday from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Class B allows students to choose if they will attend in-person or virtually and the class meets Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Ashley has elected to attend the class virtually. Class C is entirely online and is not part of an accelerated program. Ashley will need to complete assignments for Class C on a predetermined schedule, but there are no scheduled class times. The authorized hours include the class times for Class A and Class B and up to one (1) hour per week per enrolled credit for Class C. Ashley will need to give the agency worker her class schedule for Class A and Class B and her planned log in schedule for Class C. |
| Example 4 (Accelerated program): King is enrolled in an accelerated nursing program. The program expects students to complete 40 hours per week of class and study time. Some classes have set log-in times, while other classes are asynchronous (King can watch a prerecorded lecture at any time). King also has some clinical hours. There are strict deadlines for completing coursework. King needs child care for his child, Sasha, for class and study time. Sasha’s authorization includes the time that King has scheduled class times, as well as the average weekly hours he needs for asynchronous instruction. Because this is an accelerated program, the asynchronous class time can exceed the one (1) hour per week per enrolled credit limit. Sasha’s authorization also includes time for King’s clinical hours. However, time for homework or other class commitments are not included in Sasha’s authorized hours because these are not hours of instruction provided by an instructor. |
Study time must not be included in the approved activity schedule unless the parent has a verified learning disability. A learning disability must be verified by the parent’s current or previous educational institution or a medical professional. If the parent has a verified learning disability, the authorization may include study time for a maximum of one (1) hour per week per enrolled credit.
Study time must be included in the approved activity schedule for parents who are participating in W-2 (see 5.1.3) or Tribal TANF (see 5.1.4) and have study hours included on their Employability Plan (EP) or Individual Self-Sufficiency Plan (ISP).
Multiple Activities
If the parent is not requesting authorization hours for a particular activity, the agency worker does not need to collect the schedule for that activity. However, if the parent is requesting authorization hours for any part of an approved activity, the entire schedule for that approved activity must be collected.
Example 5 (Multiple Activities): Gwen works two (2) jobs and goes to two (2) classes. Job A: Gwen works Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. She asks for authorization hours for all three (3) days. Job B: Gwen works on Sundays but does not ask for authorization hours. Class A: Gwen attends school on Thursday and asks for authorization hours. Class B: Gwen attends school on Thursday and Saturday. She asks for authorization hours for Thursday, but not Saturday. The agency worker must collect and enter the entire schedules for Job A, Class A, and Class B (both Thursday and Saturday). The agency worker does not need to collect the schedule for Job B because Gwen is not requesting authorized hours for that job. |
16.1.1.1 Approved Activity Verification and Schedule
This section last updated 10/1/2023