2022 Update for CCA Providers

2022 CCA Regulation Updates

November 29, 2021

Dear Child Care Assistance Providers,

As many of you know, with federal law changes, we enacted a number of regulations that are required. We wanted to take an opportunity and review changes that we could make to our regulations without compromising the health and safety of children in care.

I am writing today to update you on some important information about regulations for your programs. Effective January 1, 2022, we have a number of changes being made in hopes to make things easier for you.

Formal documentation of these changes can be found here.

1. Last legislative session, Governor Reynolds signed into law, House File 260. This gives child care homes the ability to care for 5 children plus one additional school-aged child before being required to register. Please keep in mind that to accept Child Care Assistance as an unregulated provider, you must still meet health and safety requirements.
2. If you have a PRIVATE sewage disposal system, you are no longer required to have an annual inspection. DHS compliance staff will look to assure the area appears in compliance and only if concerns are identified will a referral to needed to the local county sanitarian
3. Training verification may be maintained in i-PoWeR. No paper files of training completion are required.
4. Permission for children to participate in activities away from the program no longer need specific information such as time of departure and arrival, destination, and name of the person responsible. General approval for activities away from the program will be accepted.
5. While DHS will require a visual assessment for lead hazards in paint in homes built prior to 1978 in alignment with public health rules, you are no longer required to submit the Lead Assessment and Control form at application or renewal. DHS will conduct the inspection and advise if there are compliance concerns to be evaluated.

We are also actively working to improve the Guidelines (Comm 095) to be much smaller and more user-friendly. Updates aren’t quite done yet but you will be able to find them here!

I also wanted to be sure to let you know that if you are renewing your CCA Provider Agreement any time soon, effective again on 7/1/21, you need to have full CPR certification that included your skills assessment.

Thank you for all of your hard work and please reach out to your DHS compliance staff if you have any questions!

Sincerely,

Ryan Page
Child Care Regulatory Program Manager
Division of Adult, Children & Family Services
Iowa Department of Human Services

Tags: dhs , cca , child care assistance , regulation

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