SUMMARY

Child care providers could apply for funds from one or more of the program’s three components:

• • Component one offered funds to providers that were open for business and providing child care services to the families of individuals deemed essential during the public health emergency, such as healthcare employees.
  • Component two offered funds to providers that were open for business. Providers could use the funds to cover the costs of incentive pay to retain employees.
  • Component three offered funds to providers that were closed for business but that agreed to reopen within 30 days of receiving funds.

DCF spent $500,000 on program administration, including $238,800 to develop an online system for accepting applications from child care providers for funding.

We requested that 100 child care providers submit documentation of how they spent the $7.0 million in program funds they were awarded. In response to our request:

• • 80 providers submitted at least some documentation that indicated they spent 40.3 percent of the $5.6 million they were awarded to help cover payroll costs; and
  • 20 child care providers submitted no documentation of how they spent the $1.4 million they were awarded.

We provided DCF with the names of the 20 providers that submitted no documentation and 4 providers that submitted incomplete documentation. We recommend that DCF require these 24 providers to submit complete documentation of how they spent program funds.

To help ensure program funds were spent appropriately, DCF conducted three reviews of the $51.0 million it had awarded to child care providers. As a result of these reviews, DCF determined that providers should repay $280,000, which was 0.5 percent of the $51.0 million awarded to all providers. We found that DCF’s reviews did not take into account all information that providers had submitted when applying for program funds.

DCF subsequently awarded a total of $80.0 million to child care providers through two supplemental rounds of funding. We recommend that DCF take into account all information submitted by providers when it conducts a review of the amounts awarded through a supplemental round of funding.