ARPA Family ScholarshipEligibility

“This project is made possible by funding received through the ARPA Grant.”

It is expected that families with no documentable forms of income should be referred to local public assistance programs such as ADC, the Child Care Subsidy and SNAP to access other services the family may need.

• Families could be assisted in making such applications by the Program.  Tuition assistance is determined based on the family’s monthly gross income (income before taxes, insurance, and any other deductions are subtracted), which includes both earned income (e.g.wages, which must be verified by paystubs) and unearned income (e.g. child support, Social Security payments, Unemployment Insurance). The family income is then compared to the total number of household members (dependent care—typically parents and their children). If there are two parents in the family, both parents must be participating in one of the activities listed above.

Income must be at or below 250% of the Federal Poverty Guideline based on family size. Household members include all people living in the household, related or not (such as grandparents, other relatives, or friends) who share income and expenses. The applicant must include themselves and all children who live with them. Households do not include other people who are economically independent, such as a roommate.

There may exceptions to these guidelines for tuition assistance due to unforeseen circumstances creating a severe hardship to the family. Exceptions must be documented.

The ARPA Scholarship Fund is intended to meet the needs of care for families that have been impacted by COVID 19. Children should be enrolled on a full-time basis or attending the Program due to a need for care that extends beyond the hours provided by a publicly funded program (i.e. wrapping hours around Head Start or Public Preschool). Drop in or back-up care is defined as care that is used intermittently when the primary program the child attends is not available. Tuition assistance cannot be used for drop-in or back-up childcare.

Tuition assistance is to be awarded based on an enrollment status, not specific to attendance only. For consistency in application across all programs, if a child is not in attendance for five consecutive days and the family is unreachable after a minimum of three attempts, Programs may opt to cancel the assistance to the family. If the participating community is aware of legitimate extenuating circumstances (such as a family or provider needing to quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure or infection), community leads can make individual decisions about when it is appropriate to extend this attendance policy.