Implement West Virginia Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP)

[hua7450]

Summary

Implements West Virginia's Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) — the state's CCDF-funded child care subsidy providing provider reimbursement minus parent copayment for eligible families.

Closes #7947

Regulatory Authority

• Subsidy Policy Manual (Oct 2024) — Ch.3 eligibility, Ch.5 income, Ch.6 fees, Ch.7 payment rates
• Appendix A: Sliding Fee Scale (Oct 2024) — daily co-payment per child by FPL bracket × family size
• Appendix B: Rate Structure (Oct 2024) — daily provider rates by type, age, quality tier
• CCDF State Plan 2025-2027 — Sec 2.2 eligibility, Sec 3.1 copay cap, Sec 3.3 fee waivers

Eligibility

Requirement	Source	How Modeled
Child under age 13	Policy Manual §3.1.1	wv_ccap_eligible_child (age < 13)
Special needs child up to 18	Policy Manual §3.1.2.2	wv_ccap_eligible_child (has_developmental_delay branch — matches the manual's developmental-delay definition)
Child is US citizen or qualified immigrant	Policy Manual Ch.3; Appendix E	is_ccdf_immigration_eligible_child (federal variable)
Child resides in WV	Policy Manual Ch.3	defined_for = StateCode.WV
Parent in qualifying activity (employment/education/training)	Policy Manual §3.6.1	wv_ccap_activity_eligible (weekly hours ≥ 20 OR full-time student)
Both parents active in two-parent family	Policy Manual §3.6.1	wv_ccap_activity_eligible (all heads/spouses must qualify)
Gross income ≤ 185% FPL (Appendix A intake cap)	Policy Manual §3.2.1; Appendix A	wv_ccap_income_eligible with income/fpl_limit parameter
Asset test	CCDF asset limit	is_ccdf_asset_eligible (federal variable)
TANF recipients categorically eligible	Policy Manual §3.2.1	is_tanf_enrolled bypasses income test

Income test notes: We model the Appendix A initial intake cap (~185% FPL across family sizes). The 85% SMI Over-Income Policy Exception (Manual §4.7.1) for already-enrolled recipients is not modeled at the moment — we don't track enrollment status as distinct from initial application.

Income Rules

Countable income (wv_ccap_countable_income, uses adds from sources.yaml):

• Earned: employment_income, self_employment_income, farm_operations_income
• Unearned: social_security, ssi, unemployment_compensation, workers_compensation, pension_income, alimony_income, child_support_received, dividend_income, interest_income, rental_income, veterans_benefits, military_retirement_pay

military_retirement_pay is included alongside pension_income because PolicyEngine records military retirement separately and Manual §5.2.4.4 counts pensions and annuities.

Excluded (not in sources list): SNAP, LIEAP/LIHEAP, foster care payments, educational grants/loans, one-time lump sums. TANF is excluded from the list to avoid a circular dependency (is_tanf_enrolled already triggers the categorical bypass for active TANF recipients).

Provider Rates (Appendix B, daily, effective Oct 1, 2024)

Family Child Care Home

Age Group	Tier I	Tier II	Tier III
Infant (0-24mo)	$30	$33	$36
Toddler (25-36mo)	$30	$33	$36
Pre-School (37-59mo)	$29	$32	$35
School-Age (60+mo)	$26	$29	$32

Family Child Care Facility

Age Group	Tier I	Tier II	Tier III
Infant	$35	$38	$41
Toddler	$33	$36	$39
Pre-School	$33	$36	$39
School-Age	$32	$35	$38

Child Care Center

Age Group	Tier I	Tier II	Tier III
Infant	$39	$42	$45
Toddler	$37	$40	$43
Pre-School	$35	$38	$41
School-Age	$32	$35	$39

Other Care Types

Type	Rate
Out of School Time	$14.50/day (Tier I only)
Informal/Relative (under 2)	$7.50/day
Informal/Relative (2 and over)	$6.00/day
Special Needs supplement	+$3.00/day
Non-Traditional Hours supplement	+$6.00/day

Co-payment

The implementation reads Appendix A's full 2D sliding fee table: 16 FPL brackets (40%, 50%, …, 180%, 185%) × 11 family-size columns (1 through 11+ person). Sizes 1–9 are fully published; size 10 lacks the 185% row and size 11 lacks the 170%/180%/185% rows — the last filled bracket carries forward. Each cell returns a daily fee in USD per child (Manual §6.4.3.1).

monthly_care_days   = childcare_attending_days_per_month
daily_fee_per_child = rate.size_{N}.calc(fpl_ratio)              # 2D lookup
total_monthly_days  = sum(monthly_care_days × is_eligible_in_care)
billed_share        = min(N_eligible_in_care, 3) / N_eligible_in_care
copay               = daily_fee_per_child × total_monthly_days × billed_share

Caps and exemptions:

• Maximum co-payment: 7% of gross income (CCDF Plan §3.1.1)
• Foster families: $0 co-payment (Manual §6.4.1, CCDF Plan §3.3.1)
• Below 40% FPL: $0 (matches Appendix A row 0 across all family sizes)
• Families ≥ 12 people: use 11-person column (Appendix A doesn't publish beyond 11)

Approximations (documented in code):

• Three-youngest cap (Manual §6.4.3.4) is applied as uniform 3/N scaling because PolicyEngine doesn't track child age ordering. Exact when all eligible children attend the same days; otherwise diverges slightly based on which children attend more.
• FPG year is not pinned to 2024. We compute fpl_ratio with each simulation period's current FPG instead of the 2024 FPG that Appendix A is calibrated against (~3.5% drift; matters only at bracket boundaries).

Benefit Calculation

Per Manual §7.2.7.3-7.2.7.4 (piecewise billing rule) and Manual §7.2.7.2 ("Monthly rates do not apply to rate supplements"):

monthly_care_days    = childcare_attending_days_per_month
in_monthly_range     = 13 ≤ monthly_care_days ≤ 20
monthly_rate_maximum = daily_rate * 20                      # base billed at fixed 20 days
                     + daily_supplement * monthly_care_days # supplements still billed actual days
per_day_maximum      = wv_ccap_daily_benefit * monthly_care_days
per_child_reimb      = min(
                         pre_subsidy_childcare_expenses,
                         monthly_rate_maximum if in_monthly_range else per_day_maximum,
                       )
total_reimb          = sum(per_child_reimb) over eligible children
benefit              = max(total_reimb - copay, 0)

Where:

• daily_rate = base rate from Appendix B (provider type × tier × age)
• daily_supplement = special needs (+$3/day) and/or non-traditional hours (+$6/day) — billed for actual days of care only, NOT scaled to 20 days under the monthly-rate rule
• wv_ccap_daily_benefit = a view variable that returns min(rate + supplements, daily_charge) — used for per-day billing when monthly days fall outside the 13–20 window
• copay = single per-family amount from the Appendix A 2D lookup

Not Modeled (by design)

Eligibility

What	Source	Why Excluded
Court-supervised children up to 18	Policy Manual §3.1.2.1	We don't track court-supervision status at the moment
Minor-parent eligibility	Policy Manual §1.1.10, §4.5.3.6	is_tax_unit_head_or_spouse excludes under-18s
Joint custody split into two families	Policy Manual §3.2.3	We don't split joint-custody households at the moment
WV minimum-wage earnings floor	Policy Manual §3.5	We don't enforce the $8.75/hr eligibility floor at the moment

Activity requirements

What	Source	Why Excluded
is_full_time_student broader than §3.6.3 credit-hour rule	Policy Manual §3.6.3	We don't track credit-hour minimums or web-only-course exclusions at the moment
High-school student activity-hours exemption	Policy Manual §3.6.2.2	We don't track high-school enrollment at the moment
CPS Safety/Treatment Plan activity-hours exemption	Policy Manual §3.6.4	We don't track CPS Safety/Treatment Plan status at the moment
90-day job search limit	Policy Manual §3.6	We don't track time-limited eligibility pathways at the moment

Income test

What	Source	Why Excluded
85% SMI Over-Income Policy Exception (case-by-case continuation)	Policy Manual §4.7.1	We don't track enrollment status as distinct from initial application at the moment
TANF children-only income test	Policy Manual §3.2.1.4	is_tanf_enrolled does not distinguish child-only TANF cases at the moment
Under-18 child earnings exclusion	Policy Manual §5.2.5.11	We don't filter income sources by age of earner at the moment
Voc-rehab and DoD Transitional Compensation	Policy Manual §5.2.4.10, §5.2.4.13	No corresponding PolicyEngine variables at the moment
§5.2.4.3 sub-categories (Relative Caretaker Pay, WV Employment Assistance, WV Works Post-Employment Supplements)	Policy Manual §5.2.4.3	No corresponding PolicyEngine variables at the moment
§5.2.4.11 catch-all unearned-income clause	Policy Manual §5.2.4.11	Open-ended residual category we can't enumerate exhaustively

Co-payment / fees

What	Source	Why Excluded
Foster waiver applied at family level (not per-child)	Policy Manual §6.4.1	We don't track per-child fee waivers at the moment
Kinship-care copay waiver	Policy Manual §6.4.1; CCDF Plan §3.3.1(vi)	We don't track kinship-care placements at the moment
CPS Safety/Treatment Plan fee waiver	Policy Manual §6.4.1	We don't track CPS Safety/Treatment Plan status at the moment
Protective-services fee waiver	CCDF Plan §3.3.1(vi)	We don't track protective-services status at the moment
Three-youngest copay ordering	Policy Manual §6.4.3.4	We don't track child age ordering at the moment; applied as uniform 3/N scaling

Billing / provider payment

What	Source	Why Excluded
Part-day → full-day conversion (2/3 rate for 2-4 hrs; 1/3 for < 2 hrs)	Policy Manual §7.2.7.6, §7.2.7.7	We don't track per-day attendance hours at the moment
Full-day 4-hr minimum	Policy Manual §7.2.7.5	We don't track per-day attendance hours at the moment
18-hour daily payment cap and 24-hour single-day limit	Policy Manual §7.2.1, §7.2.2	We don't track per-day hours at the moment
Two-provider-per-child billing	Policy Manual §6.4.2, §7.2.3, §7.2.5	We don't track multi-provider arrangements at the moment
Part-day attendance conversion chart	Appendix C	We don't track attendance levels at the moment
12-month eligibility period	Policy Manual Ch.6	Administrative timeline not relevant to point-in-time simulation

Files Added

parameters/gov/states/wv/dhhr/ccap/
  eligibility/
    child_age_limit.yaml
    special_needs_child_age_limit.yaml
    activity_hours.yaml
  income/
    fpl_limit.yaml                  # 185% FPL initial intake cap
    countable_income/
      sources.yaml
  billing/
    monthly_rate_min_days.yaml      # 13 days
    monthly_rate_max_days.yaml      # 20 days
  copayment/
    rate/
      size_1.yaml ... size_11.yaml  # Appendix A daily fee per child by family size × FPL bracket (16 brackets each)
    max_share.yaml                  # 7% cap (CCDF Plan §3.1.1)
    max_billed_children.yaml        # 3 children per Manual §6.4.3.4
  rates/
    family_home.yaml
    family_facility.yaml
    center.yaml
    out_of_school_time.yaml
    informal_relative.yaml
  supplements/
    special_needs.yaml
    non_traditional_hours.yaml
  age_group/
    months.yaml
    informal_months.yaml

variables/gov/states/wv/dhhr/ccap/
  eligibility/
    wv_ccap_eligible.py
    wv_ccap_eligible_child.py
    wv_ccap_activity_eligible.py
    wv_ccap_income_eligible.py
  wv_ccap_provider_type.py          # enum: 5 provider types
  wv_ccap_quality_tier.py           # enum: Tier I/II/III
  wv_ccap_child_age_category.py     # enum: Infant/Toddler/Pre-School/School-Age
  wv_ccap_informal_age_group.py     # enum: Under 2 / 2 and Over
  wv_ccap_non_traditional_hours.py  # input: non-traditional hours flag
  wv_ccap_countable_income.py       # adds from sources.yaml
  wv_ccap_copay.py                  # Appendix A 2D lookup, 7% cap, foster waiver
  wv_ccap_daily_rate.py             # rate lookup by type × tier × age
  wv_ccap_daily_benefit.py          # rate + supplements capped at daily charge (used by per-day billing)
  wv_ccap.py                        # monthly benefit: monthly-rate vs per-day billing per §7.2.7
  wv_child_care_subsidies.py        # yearly aggregator (registered in spm_unit_benefits)

tests/policy/baseline/gov/states/wv/dhhr/ccap/
  wv_ccap_eligible_child.yaml       (5 cases)
  wv_ccap_income_eligible.yaml      (4 cases)
  wv_ccap_activity_eligible.yaml    (6 cases)
  wv_ccap_copay.yaml                (6 cases)
  wv_ccap_daily_rate.yaml           (7 cases)
  wv_ccap_eligible.yaml             (5 cases)
  wv_ccap_daily_benefit.yaml        (3 cases)
  wv_ccap_countable_income.yaml     (3 cases)
  wv_ccap_child_age_category.yaml   (6 cases)
  wv_child_care_subsidies.yaml      (1 case)
  edge_cases.yaml                   (51 cases)
  integration.yaml                  (8 cases)

Review Response

Addresses @PavelMakarchuk's 2026-05-25 review:

• Dead wv_ccap_daily_benefit — wv_ccap.py now calls it for the per-day billing branch.
• Code duplication of weekly_days × WEEKS_IN_YEAR / MONTHS_IN_YEAR — replaced with the childcare_attending_days_per_month input variable, so each consumer reads it directly.
• military_retirement_pay rationale — added a comment in sources.yaml and a note above.
• <13 monthly-days branch untested — added integration.yaml Case 8.
• Family size 12+ untested — added wv_ccap_copay.yaml Case 5.
• 3/N billing cap never bites — added wv_ccap_copay.yaml Case 6.
• max_billed_children.yaml unit: int — changed to /1.
• §3.6.1 page anchor 32 → 33 — corrected in activity_hours.yaml and wv_ccap_activity_eligible.py.
• CCDF Plan page anchor inconsistency — wv_ccap_copay.py now matches max_share.yaml at #page=39.
• Trailing zeros in copayment/rate/size_*.yaml — stripped across all 11 files.

Test Plan

• 105 tests pass locally (unit + integration + edge cases across 12 test files)
• CI passes

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 97.76%. Comparing base (86f5d87) to head (214c0e7).
⚠️ Report is 150 commits behind head on main.

Additional details and impacted files

@@             Coverage Diff             @@
##              main    #7948      +/-   ##
===========================================
- Coverage   100.00%   97.76%   -2.24%     
===========================================
  Files            1       16      +15     
  Lines           13      269     +256     
  Branches         0        2       +2     
===========================================
+ Hits            13      263     +250     
- Misses           0        6       +6     

Flag	Coverage Δ
unittests	97.76% <100.00%> (-2.24%)	⬇️

Flags with carried forward coverage won't be shown. Click here to find out more.

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[PavelMakarchuk]

Program Review — WV Child Care Assistance Program (PR #7948)

Source Documents

• PDFs: WV BFA Subsidy Policy Manual (Oct 2024, 141 pp), Appendix A Sliding Fee Scale (7+ pages, family sizes 1-9 published, 10-11 partial), Appendix B Rate Structure (2 pp), CCDF State Plan 2025-2027 (212 pp)
• Year: 2024 (Oct 2024 effective dates)
• Scope: New state program (61 files, 4809 additions)

CI Status

All checks pass (including codecov/patch and codecov/project).

Critical (Must Fix)

1. Dead variable wv_ccap_daily_benefit — defined at variables/gov/states/wv/dhhr/ccap/wv_ccap_daily_benefit.py and tested in tests/.../wv_ccap_daily_benefit.yaml but never called by any other variable in production. Either remove the file and its tests, OR refactor wv_ccap.py to use it.

Should Address

• PR body inaccurate about Appendix A coverage — PR claims sizes 8-11 are unpublished extrapolation. In reality sizes 8 and 9 are fully published in Appendix A; only sizes 10 (missing 185% row) and 11 (missing 170%/180%/185% rows) involve any extrapolation, and the carry-forward is correctly implemented. Update PR description.
• Redundant military_retirement_pay in income sources — Policy Manual §5.2.4.4 lists only "Pensions and annuities" and §5.2.4.9 "Veteran's benefits". Likely double-counted with pension_income. Either remove or document why both are needed.
• monthly_care_days < 13 branch never tested — third arm of the monthly-rate transformation in wv_ccap.py has no coverage.
• Family size 12+ fallback never tested — select default=size_11 branch in wv_ccap_copay.py is uncovered.
• Multi-child 3/N reduction never bites — no test exercises N≥4 eligible children where the cap actually reduces copay.
• Code duplication of weekly_days × (WEEKS_IN_YEAR / MONTHS_IN_YEAR) across 3 files (wv_ccap.py, wv_ccap_copay.py, wv_ccap_daily_benefit.py) — extract intermediate variable.
• max_billed_children.yaml uses unit: int — project convention prefers /1.
• Page-anchor off-by-one (2 instances): eligibility/activity_hours.yaml and eligibility/wv_ccap_activity_eligible.py cite #page=32 for §3.6.1; actual file page is 33 (offset 8, printed p.25). PDF audit clarifies offset is actually 7, not 8 as the manifest reported — re-verify all #page= anchors.
• activity_hours.yaml declares period: year for a weekly value (20 hrs/week). Use period: eternity instead.
• CCDF State Plan page anchors not verified — 5 references into PDF 4 (#page=39, #page=42, etc. for §3.1.1 and §2.2) not auto-verified. max_share.yaml cites #page=39 while the variable cites #page=42 for the same §3.1.1 — fix inconsistency.
• Trailing zeros in copay YAMLs — 11 copayment/rate/size_*.yaml files have values like 1.50, 2.00 violating project style (use 1.5, 2).
• 0.4001-style bracket thresholds — workaround for "above 40% FPL" inclusivity, accepted convention but worth documenting.

Suggestions

• Consider relabeling TIER_III enum to "Tier III - Accreditation" to mirror Appendix B's exact column header.
• Add Manual §7.2.7.2.B as secondary reference in rates/*.yaml (documents the +$3/+$6 tier ladder).
• billing/monthly_rate_{min,max}_days.yaml use period: year but represent days-per-month thresholds; period: eternity fits better.
• Add a consolidated wv_ccap_countable_income test exercising the full source list (unemployment, pension, dividends, etc.).
• Add foster-waiver, TANF-bypass, multi-child, supplements, and 7% cap cases to integration.yaml (currently tested only at unit/edge-case level).
• Tighten Manual reference titles to include subsection (e.g., §6.4.3.4) for precision.

Investigated and Cleared

1. Tier III rates in Appendix B — initially flagged because manifest said "Tier I/II"; actually Appendix B publishes three tiers labeled "Tier I", "Tier II", "Tier III - Accreditation". All 36 main cells match.
2. No sources/ directory or lessons/agent-lessons.md regression at repo root (unlike PR #8208 from same author).
3. Aggregator wiring — wv_child_care_subsidies correctly registered in spm_unit_benefits.py, household_state_benefits.yaml, gov/hhs/ccdf/child_care_subsidy_programs.yaml, and programs.yaml.
4. Federal helpers correctly reused — is_ccdf_immigration_eligible_child, is_ccdf_asset_eligible, is_tanf_enrolled used directly, not duplicated.
5. TANF excluded from countable income sources — intentional to break circular dependency; categorical bypass via is_tanf_enrolled. Documented.
6. 85% SMI Over-Income Policy Exception (§4.7.1) correctly noted as Not-Modeled, not accidentally implemented.

PDF Audit Summary

Topic	Cells Confirmed	Mismatches
Eligibility (child age, special-needs age, activity hours)	3	0
Income (FPL limit, sources list)	2 + 14 source vars	0
Copay (sizes 1-9 published, sizes 10-11 partial carry-forward)	~150 cells (16 brackets × ~9 sizes)	0
Provider rates (Center + Family Home + Facility × 4 ages × 3 tiers)	36	0
Out-of-School Time, Informal/Relative, Supplements	4	0
Age categories + billing thresholds	6	0

Validation Summary

Check	Result
Regulatory Accuracy	Largely correct; activity_hours formula verified
Reference Quality	Clean; 2 minor page-anchor off-by-one warnings
Code Patterns	1 critical (dead variable); ~6 SHOULD items
Test Coverage	Strong (102 cases); 5 valuable gaps to add
PDF Value Audit	0 value mismatches across ~200 audited cells
CI Status	All passing

Recommended Severity: COMMENT (close to APPROVE)

Rationale: No value or regulatory mismatches found. One critical code issue (dead variable) and several should-address items (test gaps, redundant income source, PR-body inaccuracy, code duplication). No blockers — author should address the dead variable plus the should items before merge, but the implementation itself is sound.

Next Steps

• Author: address the 1 critical (dead variable) + the should items
• To auto-fix: /fix-pr 7948