Wisconsin Department
of Children and Families - Division
of Early Care and Education
Bureau of Child Care Subsidy Administration
Wisconsin Shares Handbook
A discount is any price a licensed provider charges the parent which is lower than their regular rate before any subsidy is applied. Any amount of the child care cost that another program (such as AmeriCorps) pays is also considered a discount. A discount a child care provider applies to the parent’s share after the subsidy is paid is not considered a discount for the purposes of Wisconsin Shares.
Providers often have different rate structures based on the number of hours or days of care. However, CSAW can only accept one (1) weekly full-time and one (1) weekly part-time provider price. A difference between the weekly price in CSAW and the amount the provider charges the parent based on their standard rate structure is not a discount.
Providers must inform parents of discounts. It is the parent’s responsibility to inform the agency worker that the child care provider is offering a discount when requesting an authorization. Providers are required to have a written payment agreement with parents that includes any discounts or scholarships available to parents and any discounts or scholarships the parent receives (see 14.5). Parents must report to the agency worker that the child care provider has offered a discount within 10 calendar days after receiving this information. The discounted price will become effective the month after the discount is reported and entered in CSAW.
Only
discounts that are consistently applied to the provider’s regular rate
should be entered into CSAW. A discount that is applied intermittently,
such as a discount for making a full payment at the beginning of the month,
is not considered a discount for the purposes of Wisconsin Shares. This
is because the parent may not be able to take advantage of the discount
each month.
| Example 1: Allison’s child, Kate, attends Kiddie Korner for 35 hours per week. The provider offers a 5% discount on the monthly bill if the parent pays by the 4th of the month. In April, Allison received this discount because she was able to pay her Parent Share by April 4. The 5% discount should not be entered in CSAW because it is unknown whether Allison will be able to receive this discount each month. |
The agency worker must enter the discounted price into CSAW. If the parent is not sure of the exact amount, the agency worker must contact the child care provider for the discounted price. If another program (such as AmeriCorps) is paying part of the cost of child care, the agency worker must find out the amount the other program will pay to determine the rate that will be entered in the Override Price field in CSAW.
CSAW
generates an error message if the price entered in the Override (Discount)
Price field is not lower than the maximum rate. If agency workers see
this error message, they should disregard the provider discount and change
the Provider Price Type back to Part-Time or Full-Time. The discounted
price must be documented in case comments (see
12.2) even if it is not used for the subsidy calculation to document
the parent reported the discount and the agency worker attempted to enter
it in CSAW.
| Example 2: Judy’s two (2) children are attending Sammy’s Day Care. The provider’s regular rate for each child is $350 per week. Because Judy has two (2) children in care, the provider offers a discounted price of $300 per week for each child. When entering the discounted price in CSAW, the agency worker receives the following error message: “Override Price: Weekly Override price cannot be more than agency rate of $225.” Because the provider’s discounted price is higher than the initial hourly amount and agency ceiling, CSAW will not accept the discounted price. The agency worker changes the Provider Price Type back to Full-Time and documents the discount in case comments. |
| Example 3: Sandy works for a child care provider, 123 Child Care, and receives an employee discount of 10% off the regular provider price. Sandy requests an authorization to 123 Child Care and informs the local agency that she also works there. Sandy does not inform the local agency of the discounted price. This is discovered six (6) months after the authorization started and would have resulted in Sandy receiving a lower subsidy. An overpayment should be established from the begin date of the authorization through the end of the current month. |
Discounts can only be applied to subsidy payments for parents using licensed
child care providers. Discounts are disregarded for certified child care
providers. This is because the maximum hourly rate for regularly and provisionally
certified providers is set at 90% of the licensed family hourly rate and
certified providers are not required to provide prices (see
14.4.2).
| Example 4: Randy’s Licensed Group Child Care is giving Audrey a 50% discount because she works for the provider. The child care provider’s weekly price is $300. The weekly amount after the discount is applied to the provider’s regular weekly price is $150. The discounted amount should be entered on the Weekly Hours page in CSAW by selecting the Override (Discount) option in the Provider Price Type field and entering the discounted price in the Override Price field. CSAW uses the discounted price for the subsidy calculation instead of the regular provider price because it is lower than the initial hourly rate and the agency ceiling. |
Example 5: Bella’s child, Luna, has an authorization for 28 hours per week. Bella is enrolled in AmeriCorps, which provides a weekly stipend of $200 to help cover the cost of child care. When Bella informs her agency worker, the worker subtracts the amount that AmeriCorps will pay from the provider’s weekly price that is entered in CSAW – this is the discounted price. The agency worker then enters the discounted amount into CSAW and CSAW accepts the discounted price because it is lower than the initial hourly amount and the agency ceiling.
Initial Hourly Amount: $847.90 per month ($6.95 per hour x 122 hours per month) Agency Ceiling: $1,057.69 per month Provider’s weekly price: $325 Subtract AmeriCorps subsidy: $200 Discounted Price: $325-$200 = $125 (Entered as Override (Discount) weekly amount) Monthly discounted provider price: $543.52
Capped Subsidy (before copay): $543.52 |
| Example 6: Because Pa has two (2) children enrolled in Alice’s Wonderland Child Care, the child care provider gives Pa a 50% discount on her Parent Share for the second child. After the Wisconsin Shares subsidy has been paid for her second child, Pa’s outstanding balance is $150. The provider gives her a 50% discount on this Parent Share leaving $75. Since the provider price discount is only applied to the Parent Share, it must not be entered for CSAW to use in the Wisconsin Shares subsidy calculation. |
This section last updated 12/1/2022