Early Learning and Care Division
Subject: Reporting Requirements for the CDD-801A Monthly Population Report
Number: 09-12
Date: June 2009
Expires: Until Rescinded
Authority: Federal Regulations (45 CFR Part 98, sections 98.70 and 98.71) California Code of Regulations, Title 5, Section 18070
Attention: Executive Offices and Program Directors of All Child Care and Development Programs
Purpose
The purpose of this Management Bulletin (MB) is to clarify the standards and requirements for reporting children and families on the CDD-801A Monthly Population Report. It also revises the due date of the CDD-801A report from the 15th day of the month following the report month to the 20th day of the month.
Background
The CDD-801A report is the data collection in which agencies report specific information about every family and child receiving child care and development services provided by funding from a contract with the California Department of Education (CDE), Early Learning and Care Division (ELCD). All agencies must submit the CDD-801A report in any month where families and children received ELCD-subsidized services during the reporting month. It is currently due the 15th of the month following the end of the reporting period.
As a condition of receiving federal child care funds, all states must submit data to the federal government. ELCD uses the CDD-801A Monthly Population report, which was required by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1995, as the basis for these reports. The federal government requires states to submit an ACF-801 report to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. California complies by submitting the CDD-801B sample report using data from the CDD-801A.
In addition, the federal Improper Payments Information Act (IPIA) of 2002 required the state to develop and implement a new methodology for measuring the rate of improper payments for all state programs receiving Child Care and Development Funds. The regulations implementing the IPIA require that ELCD use the CDD-801A data as the universe to pull cases for review. Finally, in order to meet the mandates of Provision 6(b) of Item 6110-001-0890 of the Budget Act of 2008, the CDE must select a statistically meaningful sample of the basic family data files from the CDD-801A data for Alternative Payment (AP) and the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) contractors each year, analyze those files for administrative errors, and report each contractor’s results to the Governor and the Legislature annually.
During the federal and state-mandated reviews, staff from ELCD has consistently found that the data pulled from the CDD-801A does not accurately reflect actual families and children currently receiving services. ELCD staff has found numerous instances where a family is reported on the CDD-801A in the review month that did not receive services in that month, and in many instances, had not received services for several months prior to the review month.
Review of the CDD-801A data also indicates that not all families and children that actually received services are being reported. ELCD staff has reviewed reports submitted to Child Development Fiscal Services (CDFS) that demonstrate the number of families and children reported on the CDD-801A, in many cases, are lower than the data submitted to CDFS would indicate.
In order to determine the appropriate and timely methods to correct these reporting problems, ELCD management staff met with representatives from the field to determine how to obtain accurate and timely reporting. The direction in this MB reflects the consensus reached in these discussions.
ELCD Timeline for CDD-801A Data Reporting
Effective with the July 2009 CDD-801A report, the deadline for the report will be changed from the 15th day of the month to the 20th day of the month. This means that the report for July 2009 is due no later than August 20, 2009.
The following timeline provides the process CDE will follow using the July 2009 report period as an example:
- August 1: Agencies may begin submitting July 2009 reports.
- August 20: Reports are due for July 2009.
- August 21 (or next business day): Late letters for agencies with incomplete July 2009 reports are mailed.
- August 31: The last day agencies can submit their missing July 2009 CDD-801A reports or have their contract apportionment(s) withheld. AP and CalWORKs agencies must submit revised reports to include families whose providers submitted late timesheets for services in July 2009.
- September 1 (or next business day): ELCD prepares an apportionment withhold list of agencies with missing reports and sends it to CDFS.
- September 15 (or next business day): ELCD prepares revised apportionment withhold list of agencies with missing reports and sends it to CDFS.
Apportionment withhold lists are generated to CDFS on the first and fifteenth day of each month. Agencies on the withhold list will have their contract apportionments withheld until the missing report is complete. Agencies that do not submit reports by the deadlines stated above will not be removed from the withhold list until the next schedule list is generated. There are no exceptions.
Families and Children That Must Be Reported on the CDD-801A Data Report
Families and children should only be reported when the agency has evidence that the family and the child(ren) are eligible for services in the report month, and the agency has evidence that the child received ELCD-subsidized services for at least one day in the reporting month. Evidence of service is defined as, but not limited to:
- For direct service center-based contracts (General Child Care & Development [CCTR], California State Preschool Program [CSPP], California Migrant [CMIG], California State Program for Severly Disabled Children [CHAN], Charter Friends National Network [CFNN] and Latchkey Program [CLTK]) this would be a completed attendance record.
- For Alternative Payment (including Migrant) and CalWORKs Stage 2 and Stage 3 contracts, this would be an attendance record for the report month when the child received services from an eligible provider.
Agencies must ensure that the CDD-801A report include all ELCD-subsidized families and children (both those newly enrolled and those that continue to receive services) who received services in the report month. Families or children that did not receive services in the report month must not be included in that report month. When errors are discovered, including incorrectly reported families or children, or identifying families or children that were not reported, then the report should be updated immediately.
ELCD Agency Responsibility for Correct and Timely Reporting
Agencies are responsible for ensuring that the method used for generating the CDD-801A report, whether it is a software application, an agency generated database, or a spreadsheet, consistently produces a report that includes only those families and children that actually received CDD-subsidized services in the reporting month. Agency staff must review the families and children submitted on the CDD-801A reports to ensure that the families and children listed actually received services in that reporting month. Each agency must ensure the accuracy of the submitted data. This would include, but not be limited to, reviewing the report for any discrepancies and deleting families and/or children that did not receive services in a reporting month as well as adding families and/or children who received services but were not included in a monthly report.
The ELCD is aware that providers receiving vouchers through AP and CalWORKs contracts are not always timely in turning in attendance records. This causes the initial CDD-801A report submitted by the agency to not include all families and children who actually received services in that month. Agencies must revise and correct any report month that does not contain the correct information. When attendance records are submitted after the 20th of the month, AP and CalWORKs agencies should revise their reports at the end of the month after their initial submission to ensure the ELCD has the most accurate information for that month. For example, the July 2009 report would be revised on August 30. If attendance records are submitted after the reporting month, agencies should immediately update the CDD-801A.
Agencies must ensure that the information they submit is subsequently verified. When discrepancies are found, they must be corrected as soon as they are identified. If the agency submits an electronic file, they must resubmit a corrected report to include all families and children who received services as well as to correct any information on families and children that had been reported. If the agency uses the web input/edit method to report their families and children, then that same method would be used to add missing families or children and to delete incorrectly reported families or children. While the ELCD leaves the report months open for six months to allow agencies to make minor corrections to their reports when necessary, this six-month time period is only for minor technical edits. In no case should an agency wait the full six months to make corrections and updates. These should be completed as soon as they are identified.
ELCD Review of CDD-801A Data
ELCD staff will continue to review the CDD-801A data for its accuracy and completeness. One method of review continues to be the on-site review by ELCD staff where files are pulled and reviewed for improper payments and administrative errors. In addition, beginning July 2009, ELCD staff will begin to regularly compare CDD-801A data to information submitted to CDFS (both fiscal and caseload information) to determine discrepancies and potential reporting problems.
It is critical that agencies accurately report CDD-801A information. As stated above, families and children should only be reported when agencies have evidence that the family and child are eligible and the child attended at least one day in the report month. Agencies are expected to make corrections as needed to ensure that all families and children are reported in the correct month that services were received.
Compliance Consequences
Accurate and complete data reporting will be a compliance item for fiscal year 2009-10. During an on-site review, if agencies are found to have more than one percent of their files incorrectly reported, they will be called out of compliance. In addition, if it is found that the agency’s CDD-801A data and the submitted fiscal data are in substantial disagreement, the agency will be expected to explain the discrepancy or face a compliance issue.
If ELCD staff substantiates that CDD-801A data are being reported incorrectly, contractors will be required to develop a corrective action plan that will include identifying the source of the errors and regularly testing samples of CDD-801A data to ensure accurate reporting. Contractors that are currently depending on software to report their CDD-801A data are encouraged to select a sample of cases from a recent report to ensure that all data is being reported correctly.
For questions about software application (i.e., the way your agency tracks services to families and children and the process used to determine which families and children to include in the CDD-801A report), please contact your Child Development Field Services Consultant. If you have any technical questions, please contact the CDMIS staff by e-mail at cdmis@cde.ca.gov.This Management Bulletin is mandatory only to the extent that it cites a specific statutory and/or regulatory requirement. Any portion of this Management Bulletin that is not supported by a specific statutory and/or regulatory requirement is not prescriptive pursuant to California Education Code Section 33308.5.