CAPS Copay Changes Effective October 2023

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Your families may have received letters from CAPS outlining the upcoming changes to their copay responsibilities. 

These changes are effective October 2023, and you will want to be sure they are clear on what their copays and expectations to pay weekly are.

Please find a letter below that our CEO Ellen Reynolds has assembled to simply and clearly explain the changes.  Feel free to download this PDF version and communicate to your families the amount they are expected to pay weekly, or use the verbiage below on a template you can customize with your school information.

"Dear Parents and Guardians of Children with CAPS Assistance,

 

In response to the COVID-19 emergency, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp paused family copays for all families with CAPS and paid the family copays to your childcare provider on your behalf through the ACCESS program. However, the national COVID-19 emergency ended on May 11, 2023, and Congress recently passed a law prohibiting Governor Kemp from paying your family copayments after September 30th.

 

You will be required to pay the family copayment for all of your enrolled children with CAPS scholarships starting on October 1, 2023. Parents who first enrolled their children in CAPS during the COVID-19 emergency should pay special attention to the return of family copayments as they have not been required to make any tuition payments for children enrolled in CAPS since the ACCESS program began in May 2021.

 

Families participating in the CAPS program share in the cost of their childcare expenses by paying a weekly fee directly to the childcare provider. There is one family fee that is based on family size and income.  If there are multiple children, the fee is divided among all children within the family. Reinstating the family fee will help families enrolled in CAPS to gradually return to paying a portion of their childcare costs as required by federal law.

 

We wanted to make sure you, as a parent with CAPS assistance, are aware of this change so that you can plan for it."