Absences
Attendance is critical for your child's growth and development.
Your child is receiving an EEC child care subsidy and is expected to attend the early education and care program, as agreed on your child care authorization. Your provider is responsible to make sure that your child attends based on the agreed schedule.
EEC defines excessive absences as more than 45 non-attended days, including any unexplained absences, within a 12 month authorization period, or more than 15 non-attended days during an initial 12-week provisional authorization period. Parent(s) will have to pay for all non-attended days over the 45 day limit during a 12 month authorization or all non-attended days over the 15 day limit during a 12-week provisional authorization.
To help avoid having to pay for excessive absences, you must:
- Make sure that your child attends the early education and care program;
- Notify your subsidy administrator of any changes in your child's schedule of care (i.e. after school programs, sports, custody arrangements) which will result in your child not needing child care on a particular day or days of the week;
- Provide at least 2 weeks advance written notice if you plan to remove your child from the child care program; and
- Request an approved break in care for absences that are going to be longer than 2 weeks.
You will receive notices from your subsidy administrator after your child has reached 30 absences and 40 absences. If you have a 12-week provisional authorization, you will be notified after your child has reached 10 absences. The purpose of these notices is to inform you when your child is approaching the excessive absence limit so that you can be aware of the impact of future absences.
After your child has reached their 45th absence, or the 15th absence during a 12-week provisional authorization period, you will be notified that your child has reached the excessive absence limit and that you are now responsible for the payment of all additional absences during the authorization period at the full rate that EEC pays for your child care. You will be asked to sign the excessive absence warning notice form confirming that you are willing to remain in care and will be responsible for the payment of all absences during the remainder of the authorization period. Please note that failure to sign the form will not excuse you from paying for additional non-attended days. Failure to pay for additional absences may result in the termination of your subsidized child care.
EEC defines excessive unexplained absences as failure to attend a subsidized child care program for more than three consecutive days without contacting the provider. The first time your child is absent more than 3 days in a row during a 12 month authorization, your provider or the subsidy administrator will issue you an excessive unexplained absence warning notice that any additional instances of excessive unexplained absences may result in the termination of child care. To avoid having unexplained absences, you must make sure to contact your provider every day that your child will not attend.