(A) The director of job and family services shall adopt rules in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code establishing a procedure for monitoring the expenditures for publicly funded child care to ensure that expenditures do not exceed the available federal and state funds for publicly funded child care. The department of job and family services, with the assistance of the office of budget and management and the child care advisory council created pursuant to section 5104.08 of the Revised Code, shall monitor the anticipated future expenditures for publicly funded child care and shall compare those anticipated future expenditures to available federal and state funds for publicly funded child care. Whenever the department determines that the anticipated future expenditures for publicly funded child care will exceed the available federal and state funds, the department shall promptly notify the county departments of job and family services and, before the available state and federal funds are used, the director shall issue and implement an administrative order that shall specify both of the following:

(1) Priorities for expending the remaining available federal and state funds for publicly funded child care;

(2) Instructions and procedures to be used by the county departments regarding eligibility determinations.

(B) The order may do any or all of the following:

(1) Suspend enrollment of all new participants in any program of publicly funded child care;

(2) Limit enrollment of new participants to those with incomes at or below a specified percentage of the federal poverty line;

(3) Disenroll existing participants with income above a specified percentage of the federal poverty line;

(4) Change the schedule of fees paid by eligible caretaker parents that has been established pursuant to section 5104.38 of the Revised Code;

(5) Change the rate of payment for providers of publicly funded child care that has been established pursuant to section 5104.30 of the Revised Code.

(C) Each county department shall comply with the order no later than thirty days after it is issued.

(D) If after issuing an order under this section to suspend or limit enrollment of new participants or disenroll existing participants the department determines that available state and federal funds for publicly funded child care exceed the anticipated future expenditures for publicly funded child care, the director may issue and implement another administrative order increasing income eligibility levels to a specified percentage of the federal poverty line. The order shall include instructions and procedures to be used by the county departments. Each county department shall comply with the order not later than thirty days after it is issued.

(E) The department of job and family services shall do all of the following:

(1) Conduct a quarterly evaluation of the program of publicly funded child care that is operated pursuant to sections 5104.30 to 5104.43 of the Revised Code;

(2) Prepare reports based upon the evaluations that specify for each county the number of participants and amount of expenditures;

(3) Provide copies of the reports to both houses of the general assembly and, on request, to interested parties.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.28, HB 153, §101.01, eff. 9/29/2011.

Amended by 128th General AssemblyFile No.9, HB 1, §101.01, eff. 10/16/2009.

Effective Date: 06-09-2003; 05-18-2005