By Shavonne Potts
spotts@salisburypost.com
Day care centers and child care providers will see some changes in the upcoming months as the state works to implement an attendance and payment delivery system.
The Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) attendance reporting and payment delivery system will affect all 100 counties in North Carolina. The system will use EBT technology to track time and attendance and to make vendor payments in the child care program, said Nancy Brandt.
Brandt, who is the program administrator for the Services Support Division, presented the information at the Tuesday meeting of the Rowan County Department of Social Services.
This change is expected to be on board by April 2010.
Board member John Blair was not convinced this program would be up and ready in six months. Brandt assured him that was the state’s goal. However, their “fall back” goal is July.
The clients will receive a card that can be swiped at a day care facility and payments will be direct deposited to providers.
The state will pay the cost of the machines. One of the biggest advantages is the providers will be paid weekly. It will also reduce administrative costs to the county, to the state for the time it takes to process the attendance/payment records, reduce fraud and increase the accuracy of time, attendance and payments.
Oklahoma currently uses this program. North Carolina representatives have gone to Oklahoma to see first-hand how the program works, Brandt said.
In other business, the board discussed the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, called Work First, which is undergoing a name change.
The Work First program will now be called Work First Benefits. It is a program that provides cash assistance to eligible people by helping families stay off public assistance and encourages them to obtain employment, volunteer or attend school if they are high school or college age.
Brandt said an employment worker helps the parent create a plan of action that has several requirements.
“It’s designed to help them achieve self-sufficiency and become employed,” she said.
The program is also taking on a new model ó pay after performance.
Typically the parent receives a check before they’ve worked. Now they work, then get paid.
Brandt said a check will not be issued if requirements are not met. All Work First families have been or will be notified via mail of this new change.
The change is effective Oct. 1.
Zelma Alston, who will retire after 35 years working with DSS, was recognized at the meeting and given a certificate. Alston is leaving to pursue her master’s degree.
Alston began working for the department in March 1974. Her last day will be Sept. 30. She has served in several positions, from caseworker in the Adult Medicaid Program to social worker in child welfare. For 20 years, Alston served as supervisor for the Adult Medicaid Program, supervising eight caseworkers and overseeing more than 4,000 active Medicaid cases and more than 200 Medicaid applications a month.
There will be a drop-in to honor Alston, from 10 a.m.-12 p.m., Sept. 30 in the DSS conference room.
The Department supports the proposed East Rowan Express transit service, which would provide transportation between Salisbury and the eastern part of the county. If approved, one of the stops would be at DSS’s new location, which is next to the Rowan Health Department on East Innes Street.
There is already a service that makes daily trips between Salisbury, China Grove, Landis and Kannapolis.
The Department has hired two temporary employees, with stimulus funds (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), to help input public assistance records into a new electronic data management system.
DSS wants to convert all of its paper files into electronic before the move into the new building, which is slated to be around December.
Executive Director Sandra Wilkes said the goal is that by November all of the staff will be trained by mid-November so that by the time they move, the transition will be easier.
“Our goal is to move as few records as possible to the new building,” Wilkes said.
Records for cases that are more than 10 years old and are closed, will be shredded and disposed of.
The board will meet again Oct. 27.