County Executive McMahon Announces Onondaga County Receives Childcare Waiver from NYS
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – County Executive McMahon today announced that the New York State Department of Children and Family Services has granted the waiver request from the Onondaga County Department of Social Services – Economic Security which will allow Onondaga County to keep 95% of current cases open at recertification.
Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said, “My administration has been a staunch supporter of supporting and growing our childcare infrastructure because we know that access to safe and reliable childcare is a major hurdle to employment and economic success.” McMahon continued, “Our team has been working diligently with our partners at New York State to secure this critical waiver that will allow us to ensure thousands of our families continue to have access to childcare. We remain committed to finding solutions for the other families still seeking recertification and will continue working with our partners at New York State to secure the funding necessary to prevent this from reoccurring.”
The waiver allows us to keep open cases at recertification that fall into three federal categories:
(a) families experiencing homelessness;
(b) families with very low income (an income level up to 300 percent of the federal
poverty level); and
(c) families with children who have special needs.
Families that fall into category (b) is especially significant as most cases fall under 300% of the Federal Poverty Limit. This means that the waiver will allow us to keep cases open where a family of four’s income is a maximum of $96,450, which equals approximately 95% of our current cases.
There are currently 63 families on the waitlist, but because of this waiver 60 of them will now be
approved to continue their assistance.
Also important to note that the waitlist does not affect foster families who have been and will
continue to be eligible for childcare.