Iowa Code Title VI. Human Services [Chs. 216-255A] § 237A.13. State child care assistance

a. The child's parent, guardian, or custodian is participating in approved academic, vocational, or technical training.

b. The child's parent, guardian, or custodian is seeking employment. Eligibility for assistance while seeking employment shall be limited to thirty days during a twelve-month period.

c. The child's parent, guardian, or custodian is employed a minimum of thirty-two hours per week or an average of thirty-two hours per week during the month if the child requires basic care, or twenty-eight hours per week or an average of twenty-eight hours per week during the month if the child is a special needs child.

d. The child's parent, guardian, or custodian is absent due to hospitalization, physical illness, or mental illness, or is present but is unable to care for the child as verified by a physician or physician assistant.

e. The child needs protective services to prevent or alleviate child abuse or neglect.

f. The person's family circumstances are described in paragraph “a”, “b”, “c”, or “d”, the person is thirteen years of age or older but younger than sixteen years of age, and state child care assistance is approved for the person by the director or the director's designee based on a request for an exception to policy made by the person's parent, guardian, or custodian because special family circumstances exist that would place the safety and well-being of the person at risk if the person is left home alone. The definition of child in section 237A.1 does not apply to child care supported by state child care assistance approved pursuant to this lettered paragraph.

b. Eighty-five percent of the state median gross monthly income.

3. a. The department shall set reimbursement rates as authorized by appropriations enacted for payment of the reimbursements. The department shall conduct a statewide reimbursement rate survey to compile information on each county and the survey shall be conducted at least every two years. The department shall set rates in a manner so as to provide incentives for an unregistered provider to become registered.

b. The department shall not modify reimbursement rates to the state child care assistance program or financial eligibility requirements for a family participating in the state child care assistance program without prior enabling legislation in this state passed on or after January 1, 2023.

a. Persons deemed to be eligible for benefits under the state child care assistance program in accordance with section 239B.24.

b. A family that is receiving state child care assistance at the time a child is born into the family. The newborn child shall be approved for services when the family reports the birth of the child.

c. Children who need protective services to prevent or alleviate child abuse or neglect.

d. A child in a family that is eligible for state child care assistance and that receives a state adoption subsidy for the child.

a. Families with an income at or below one hundred percent of the federal poverty level whose members, for at least thirty-two hours per week in the aggregate, are employed or are participating at a satisfactory level in an approved training program or educational program, and parents with a family income at or below one hundred percent of the federal poverty level who are under the age of twenty-one years and are participating in an educational program leading to a high school diploma or the equivalent.

b. Parents with a family income at or below one hundred percent of the federal poverty level who are under the age of twenty-one years and are participating, at a satisfactory level, in an approved training program or in an educational program.

c. Families with an income of more than one hundred percent but not more than one hundred sixty percent of the federal poverty level whose members, for at least thirty-two hours per week in the aggregate, are employed or are participating at a satisfactory level in an approved training program or educational program.

d. Families with an income at or below two hundred percent of the federal poverty level whose members are employed at least twenty-eight hours per week with a special needs child as a member of the family.