Wisconsin Department of Children and Families - Division of Early Care and Education
Bureau of Child Care Subsidy Administration
Wisconsin Shares Handbook
Parents may request funds to pay a provider's registration fee. The amount is limited to the provider’s actual fee amount up to $125 for each child. If the provider’s registration fee amount is more than $125, the parent must pay any remaining amount out-of-pocket or with regular subsidy funds, if available (see 18.7). Each registration fee request for the child can be for the provider’s fee amount up to $125. The two (2) payments cannot be combined to create a higher one-time payment.
The parent must request any funds needed to pay the provider’s fee. Funds for registration fees are never automatically added to a parent’s EBT card and agency workers must not issue funds without the parent’s request.
| Example 1: Rick is requesting an authorization for his child, Mike. Rick tells the agency worker that the provider charges a $100 enrollment fee. After the agency worker completes the authorization, they create a registration fee request for $100. Both the subsidy amount and the registration fee amount are loaded overnight to Rick’s EBT card. |
| Example 2: Kai has an authorization for his child, Bai. The provider charges Kai an enrollment fee in June for Bai’s enrollment in their summer program. The provider’s fee is $150. When the agency worker processes Kai’s request, $125 will be loaded to Kai’s EBT card because this is the maximum amount he can receive for Bai. Kai will need to pay the remaining $25 of the registration fee to the provider out-of-pocket or by using authorization subsidy funds. |
Parents are limited to receiving funds for registration fees twice in a 12-month period for each child, regardless of the amount. The only time a parent can receive more than two (2) payments in 12 months is if the agency made an error in issuing a previous registration fee.
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Example 3: Amanda received $100 in January to pay a registration fee to her provider, Jill’s Day Care, for her child, Frank. In April, she changed providers. Frank began attending Susie’s Stupendous Students and Susie’s required a registration fee of $75. Amanda requested the $75 fee, and the funds were loaded to her EBT card. In June, Amanda registered Frank for a day camp during the summer. The day camp requires a registration fee of $50. When Amanda requests the fee for the day camp, her request is denied because she has already received two (2) fee payments for Frank in a 12-month period. Even though she did not receive the maximum amount of $125 for the previous two (2) fees, she is not eligible for a third fee payment because fee payments are limited to two (2) in a 12-month period. |
For shared placement, each parent who has the child eligible on their case can request and receive funds to pay registration fees for the provider’s fee amount up to $125 twice in a 12-month period. Workers must remind parents to communicate with the other parent (if possible) to avoid paying the same provider twice for the same registration fee. If a provider needs to return funds, see Appendix IX – Returning Funds.
If the family is charged a per family amount and not a per child amount, the agency worker must split the family fee amount equally between the children with authorizations to that provider and enter a request for each child.
| Example 4: Cindy has three (3) children that she is enrolling at Jenna’s Gems. Jenna’s Gems charges a per family registration fee of $120. Jenna contacts the local agency to request funds to pay this registration fee. The worker splits the fee among the three (3) children and enters a request for $40 for each child. |
| Example 5: Fatima has three (3) children. Fatima is enrolling all three (3) children at Beloved Children. Beloved Children charges a per child enrollment fee of $50. Fatima requests registration fees for each of the children. The worker enters the $50 request for each child. |
This section last updated 12/1/2023