Implement Alabama Child Care Subsidy Program (CCSP)

[hua7450]

Summary

Implements Alabama Child Care Subsidy Program (CCSP) in PolicyEngine.

Closes #8321

Regulatory Authority

• CCDF State Plan FFY 2025-2027 — primary regulatory source (301 pp.)
• Child Care Fact Sheet (Jan 2024) — copay & income table (single page)
• Provider Rate Chart (Effective April 11, 2022) — reimbursement rates by region/type/age/STAR
• 2024 Cost of Child Care Study — market rate methodology (79 pp.)

Program Overview

• Official name: Alabama Child Care Subsidy Program (CCSP). Informally "CCAP".
• Agency: AL DHR / Child Care Services Division / Office of Child Care Subsidy
• Operational delivery: 4 regional Child Care Management Agencies (CMAs) covering 9 service regions
• Funding: CCDF (federal block grant) + state matching
• Effective dates: rates 2022-04-11; fee scale 2024-01-01

Eligibility

Requirement	Source	How Modeled
Child under 13 (or 19 if disabled)	State Plan §2.2.1 (p. 20)	al_ccsp_eligible_child
Initial income ≤ 180% FPL	State Plan §2.2.4 (p. 24)	al_ccsp_income_eligible with al_ccsp_enrolled = False
Continuing income ≤ 200% FPL	State Plan §2.2.4 (p. 39)	al_ccsp_income_eligible with al_ccsp_enrolled = True
Hard cap ≤ 85% SMI	45 CFR 98.20(a)(2) + State Plan §2.5.2 (pp. 24, 35-39)	al_ccsp_income_eligible (uses federal hhs_smi)
Asset limit ≤ $1,000,000	State Plan §2.2.6 (p. 27)	is_ccdf_asset_eligible (federal CCDF helper, reused)
Activity ≥ 15 hrs/week	State Plan §2.2.2 (pp. 21-23)	al_ccsp_activity_eligible (with meets_ccdf_activity_test fallback for job training, education, etc.)
Immigration	45 CFR 98	is_ccdf_immigration_eligible_child (federal CCDF helper, reused)
Protective services waiver (income & activity)	State Plan §2.2.2(f) (p. 23)	al_ccsp_protective_services via is_in_foster_care, is_homeless
Alabama residency	State Plan §2.2 (p. 20)	defined_for = StateCode.AL

Family unit ≈ SPMUnit (PE's SPMUnit may include unrelated cohabitants that AL excludes; documented as known approximation).

Income Calculation

• Gross monthly income — no deductions ("Regulations allow for no deductions to gross income" — Fact Sheet)
• Counted sources: see income/countable_income/sources.yaml (employment, self-employment, farm operations, SS, pensions, unemployment, workers' comp, SSI, state supplement, interest, dividends, alimony, veterans' benefits). TANF is listed in §2.2.4(c) but is excluded in the model to avoid a childcare↔TANF circular dependency (documented inline in sources.yaml).
• Excluded: child support received, spousal support received, room rent
• Weekly→monthly multiplier: WEEKS_IN_YEAR / MONTHS_IN_YEAR (52/12 ≈ 4.3333; the regulatory 4.333 is just this ratio rounded)
• FPG year: Alabama's published income tables use the prior calendar year's HHS poverty guidelines (since HHS publishes new guidelines mid-January). The Jan-2024 Fact Sheet's family-size income thresholds match 2023 FPG values exactly (e.g., 100% FPL fam of 2 = $19,720/yr → $1,643/mo on the Fact Sheet, which is 2023 FPG, not 2024 FPG $20,440). al_ccsp_income_eligible and al_ccsp_weekly_copay_per_child therefore pull FPG for the prior year (period.last_year).
• Negative countable income: al_ccsp_weekly_copay_per_child floors monthly_income at 0 before computing the FPL ratio, so self-employment / farm losses land in the $0 copay band rather than producing a negative FPL ratio.

Family Fee (Copay)

Weekly per-child fee, sliding scale by FPL band — single unified 11-band scale indexed by FPL ratio (initial applicants cap at 180% FPL, continuing recipients cap at 200% FPL):

FPL band	Fee/week/child
0-100%	$0
101-110%	$18
111-120%	$21
121-130%	$24
131-140%	$27
141-150%	$30
151-160%	$33
161-170%	$36
171-180%	$39
181-190%	$42
191-200%	$45

Copay waivers (encapsulated in al_ccsp_copay_waived):

• ≤100% FPL (encoded in fee table $0 band, §3.3.1(i))
• Family with a disabled child (§3.3.1(iv)) — also covers the §3.3.1(vi) "Special Needs" category
• Family with a Head Start / EHS child (§3.3.1(v)) — also covers the §3.3.1(vi) "Early Head Start" category
• Family in the §3.3.1(vi) Protective Service / Foster Care categories — modeled via al_ccsp_copay_protective_services (is_in_foster_care + receives_or_needs_protective_services)

Homelessness is NOT a copay-waiver category. The §3.3.1(iii) "families experiencing homelessness" copay-waiver box is left unchecked in the State Plan, and AL lists homelessness (priority category #2) separately from Protective Services (#5) and Special Needs (#8) in its eight eligibility categories (p. 31). A homeless-only family is therefore income/activity-eligible under §2.2.2(f) but still pays the standard FPL-band fee. The copay-side al_ccsp_copay_protective_services is intentionally narrower than the eligibility-side al_ccsp_protective_services (which includes homelessness).

Copay applies per eligible child in care (is_eligible_child & childcare_hours_per_week > 0) — ineligible siblings (over age, undocumented, etc.) do not multiply the copay.

Provider Rates

486-cell rate matrix transcribed verbatim from the Provider Rate Chart "Effective April 11, 2022":

• Provider types: Center, GFDC (Group Family Day Care), FDC (Family Day Care), INFORMAL (flat weekly cap)
• Regions: 9 (Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Mobile, Ft Payne, Birmingham, Talladega, Montgomery, Dothan, Opelika)
• Age categories: Infant/Toddler (0-36mo), Preschool (37-59mo), School-Age (≥60mo) — per Rate Chart "Key to Care Level"
• Quality tiers: Base + STAR 1-5 (transcribed cell-by-cell, not derived)
• Part-time (≤25 hrs/wk): ½ × full-time rate — applies to INFORMAL too, so informal part-time = $25 (half of the $50 full-time cap)
• INFORMAL cap: $50/wk full-time; $25/wk part-time
• County → region lookup masked by state_code_str == "AL" to prevent non-AL households crashing on missing keys
• Default region: BIRMINGHAM (used as select() fallback for AL households whose county doesn't map cleanly)

Benefit Calculation

Per-child weekly subsidy = max(0, min(provider charge, max weekly rate) − per-child copay).

Per-child monthly subsidy = weekly subsidy × (WEEKS_IN_YEAR / MONTHS_IN_YEAR) × is_paying_child.

Each eligible child in care pays the full band fee per §3.2.1(a)(i) ("the fee is per child, with the same fee for each child" — not split across siblings). SPMUnit benefit = sum of per-child monthly subsidies.

Parameter Folder Structure

Parameters organized by concept rather than by lifecycle phase:

parameters/gov/states/al/dhr/ccsp/
  activity/hours_minimum.yaml
  age/{child_limit, disabled_child_limit}.yaml
  age_category/months.yaml
  copay/fee_by_fpl.yaml
  income/countable_income/sources.yaml
  income/limit/{fpl_initial, fpl_continuing, smi_cap}.yaml
  rates/{maximum_weekly_full_time, part_time_multiplier,
         full_time_hours_threshold, informal_weekly_cap}.yaml
  region/counties.yaml

Files Added

policyengine_us/parameters/gov/states/al/dhr/ccsp/   (see structure above)

policyengine_us/variables/gov/states/al/dhr/ccsp/
  al_ccsp.py
  al_ccsp_age_category.py
  al_ccsp_countable_income.py
  al_ccsp_enrolled.py
  al_ccsp_provider_type.py
  al_ccsp_quality_tier.py
  al_ccsp_region.py
  al_child_care_subsidies.py
  copay/{al_ccsp_copay_waived, al_ccsp_copay_protective_services,
         al_ccsp_weekly_copay_per_child}.py
  eligibility/{al_ccsp_activity_eligible, al_ccsp_eligible, al_ccsp_eligible_child,
               al_ccsp_income_eligible, al_ccsp_protective_services}.py
  payment/al_ccsp_maximum_weekly_rate.py

policyengine_us/tests/policy/baseline/gov/states/al/dhr/ccsp/
  (16 YAML files, 141 test cases)

Modified:
- policyengine_us/programs.yaml (registered AL CCSP under CCDF state_implementations)
- policyengine_us/parameters/gov/hhs/ccdf/child_care_subsidy_programs.yaml (added al_child_care_subsidies)
- changelog.d/al-ccsp.added.md

Test Coverage

141 tests including multi-child mixed-eligibility scenarios (3 children with 1 eligible / 1 over-age / 1 undocumented), informal part-time, all copay waiver categories, the homeless-only family paying the standard fee (not waived), SMI hard cap, exact FPL band boundaries ($18 entry through $45), the 2025-01 carry-forward year, and negative countable income (self-employment loss does not inflate subsidy).

Not Modeled

• 7% federal copay cap (45 CFR 98.45(k)) — State Plan §3.1.1.a notes Alabama has submitted a waiver request; the modeled fee table follows the State Plan's flat sliding-fee schedule and does NOT enforce the 7% ceiling (documented inline in al_ccsp_copay_waived.py)
• Protective-services eligibility sub-populations — §2.2.2(f) (p. 23) checks 4 sub-populations: foster care, child-welfare engagement, EHS-CCP, and homelessness. Foster care and homelessness are modeled; child-welfare engagement and EHS-CCP are not tracked at the moment, so eligibility is under-counted (protective services waives both income and activity tests; documented in al_ccsp_protective_services.py).
• §3.3.1(vi) "TANF-Other Relative" copay waiver — child-only TANF-Other Relative families waive the copay, but is_tanf_enrolled cannot distinguish them from work-mandatory JOBS families (which do not waive), so this category is not modeled on the copay side.
• EHS-CCP as distinct from Head Start (proxied via is_enrolled_in_head_start)
• In loco parentis caregivers — al_ccsp_activity_eligible approximates the §2.2.2(d)(ii) caregiver set with is_tax_unit_head_or_spouse; grandparent / kinship / foster caregivers who aren't the tax-unit head won't be checked individually, but meets_ccdf_activity_test can be set as a fallback (documented in al_ccsp_activity_eligible.py)
• Granular job-training / GED / internship enrollment status (use meets_ccdf_activity_test input as fallback)
• Irregular / temporary income exclusion (§2.2.5)
• McKinney-Vento homelessness flag (uses is_homeless Household variable instead)
• CMA discretion / outreach / intake operations (§2.4, §2.5.3)
• Job-search-alone activity
• Priority / waitlist categories (§2.3)
• 12-month continuity / mid-period income changes (§2.5.2)
• Continuing-tier (200% FPL) graduation: al_ccsp_enrolled is a bare input defaulting to False, so every microdata household is treated as a new applicant unless this input is explicitly set by the caller

Test plan

• 141 tests pass locally
• make format clean
• CI passes

Reviewer notes (resolved in review)

• Homelessness copay over-waiver (critical, fixed) — split the copay-side flag (al_ccsp_copay_protective_services, excludes homelessness) from the eligibility-side flag (al_ccsp_protective_services, includes homelessness), with regression tests.
• Disabled-parent activity exemption — code does not auto-exempt disabled parents; it relies on the meets_ccdf_activity_test fallback, consistent with §2.2.2.
• 7% copay cap omission — confirmed against §3.1.1.a (AL waiver pending).
• Prior-year FPG lag — confirmed: Jan-2024 Fact Sheet fam-of-2 cell ($1,643/mo) = 2023 FPG ÷ 12 exactly (§2.2.4(e)).

🤖 Generated with /encode-policy-v2

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 100.00%. Comparing base (86f5d87) to head (caca9ad).
⚠️ Report is 171 commits behind head on main.

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##              main     #8322    +/-   ##
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  Coverage   100.00%   100.00%            
==========================================
  Files            1        17    +16     
  Lines           13       281   +268     
==========================================
+ Hits            13       281   +268     

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unittests	100.00% <100.00%> (ø)

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[PavelMakarchuk]

Program Review — PR #8322: Alabama Child Care Subsidy Program (CCSP)

PR #8322 by @hua7450 (5,994-line diff across 49 files) introduces a new state program: Alabama's Child Care Subsidy Program (CCSP). Author is the same contributor whose recently-merged WA WCCC PR (#8208) established the federal CCDF helper reuse pattern that this PR follows. All CI checks pass. The author explicitly flagged four items for reviewer scrutiny: the disability activity exemption, the 7% copay cap, the §3.3.1(vi) protective-service copay waiver for homeless families, and the prior-year FPG lag.

Source Documents

• State Plan FFY 2025-2027 (301 pages) — primary regulatory source for eligibility, fee scale, and protective-service definitions.
• Fact Sheet, January 2024 (1 page) — 11-band copay schedule and income-eligibility ceilings.
• Provider Rate Chart, effective 4/11/2022 (2 pages, 486 cells) — 3 provider types × 9 regions × 3 age tiers × 6 quality tiers.
• Cost Study (79 pages, background, not directly cited in code).
• Year coverage: 2022-04-11 (rates) + 2024-01-01 (fee scale, income ceilings) + prior-year FPG lag.

---

Critical (Must Fix Before Merge)

1. Homelessness copay over-waiver (al_ccsp_copay_waived.py)

The PR's al_ccsp_copay_waived variable directly reuses al_ccsp_protective_services to determine the §3.3.1(vi) copay waiver. But al_ccsp_protective_services (used correctly for §2.2.2(f) eligibility) includes homelessness via is_homeless, while the State Plan's §3.3.1(vi) copay-waiver describe-text enumerates only Foster Care / Early Head Start / TANF-Other Relative / Special Needs. The §3.3.1(iii) homelessness checkbox is UNCHECKED in the State Plan. The verifier confirmed this code-path mismatch.

Result: homeless families currently receiving CCSP under §2.2.2(f) eligibility are incorrectly assigned a $0 copay under §3.3.1(vi), when AL's State Plan requires them to pay the standard FPL-band copay.

Fix:

• Split into two distinct flags. Keep al_ccsp_protective_services for §2.2.2(f) eligibility (homelessness included).
• Introduce a narrower flag for §3.3.1(vi) copay waiver that excludes is_homeless (Foster Care / EHS / TANF-Other Relative / Special Needs only).
• Add a regression YAML test: homeless-only family, FPL band 101-110%, expected copay = $18/week per child (not $0).

This is exactly the item the author flagged for reviewer attention.

---

Should Address

1. Changelog filename typo — changelog.d/al-ccap.added.md should be al-ccsp.added.md (program is CCSP, not CCAP).
2. Formula signature — verify al_ccsp.py formula at line 5483 includes the parameters argument; signature appears to be missing it.
3. Prior-year idiom — replace str(period.start.year - 1) with period.last_year in both al_ccsp_income_eligible.py and al_ccsp_weekly_copay_per_child.py.
4. Line length — al_ccsp_copay_waived.py:5729 may exceed the line-length limit; run make format.
5. Entity-level mismatch — verify pre_subsidy_childcare_expenses is Person-level if used as such in al_ccsp.py:5483. If it is SPMUnit-level, per-child allocation would be incorrect.
6. PR body description inaccuracies (code is correct; PR body wording misleads):
   • Claims "disabled-parent activity exemption" — code does NOT auto-exempt disabled parents; relies on meets_ccdf_activity_test fallback, matching §2.2.2 (no exemption).
   • Claims "family-level copay split equally across eligible children in care" — code does NOT split; each child pays the full band fee per §3.2.1(a)(i).
   • Says "3 of 5 protective-services sub-populations not modeled" — §2.2.2(f) actually checks 4 sub-populations (foster, child-welfare, EHS-CCP, homelessness); 2 modeled and 2 unmodeled.
   • Lists TANF as a counted income source, but sources.yaml excludes TANF (cycle avoidance). Either include with cycle resolution or document the omission inline.
7. Federal cite missing — smi_cap.yaml should cite 45 CFR §98.20(a)(2); 85% SMI is a federal CCDF ceiling, not just AL discretion.
8. Reference precision — disabled_child_limit.yaml should bump page anchor to #page=21 and tighten subsection to §2.2.1(b).
9. Missing tests:
   • $39 copay band (171-180% FPL) is entirely untested.
   • Kinship-care exclusion regression test (header documents kinship excluded, but no negative test enforces it).
   • Copay-exceeds-charge clamp regression test (max_(0, ...)).
   • Multi-child waiver propagation (one disabled child waiving copay for siblings).
   • Age 13 disabled boundary.
   • Just-above 100% FPL ($18 band entry).
10. Activity test parameter unit — hours_minimum.yaml is annotated period: year but stores a weekly value; confusing. Either rename or set period appropriately.
11. in_loco_parentis approximation — using is_tax_unit_head_or_spouse misses non-head adult relatives. Limitation is documented and acceptable; flag for future enhancement.
12. 7% copay cap inline doc — add a comment in al_ccsp_weekly_copay_per_child.py documenting that the 7% federal cap is intentionally not enforced under AL's pending waiver per §3.1.1.a.

---

Suggestions

1. full_time_hours_threshold.yaml and part_time_multiplier.yaml — should use period: eternity (structural constants).
2. maximum_weekly_full_time.yaml — add a second-page reference; 3 of 9 regions appear on rate-chart page 2.
3. Reference tightening — supply more specific subsection paths (e.g., §2.2.4(e), §2.2.1(a), §2.2.2(d)) per references.md.
4. al_ccsp_age_category/months.yaml — the 36-vs-37mo PRESCHOOL boundary tweak is documented and intentional; no change required, but a brief in-file comment would help future readers.
5. al_ccsp_enrolled docstring — minor style improvement for consistency with sibling variables.
6. Reference enhancements — apply remaining suggestions in references.md.

---

Investigated and Cleared

• Disabled-parent activity exemption — PR body wording is misleading, but the code does NOT auto-exempt disabled parents (no disability check in the activity-test predicate). Defaults to the meets_ccdf_activity_test input, which is consistent with §2.2.2.
• 7% federal copay cap omission — §3.1.1.a explicitly states AL has submitted a waiver and currently does not enforce the 7% cap. Code matches AL's operational practice.
• Prior-year FPG lag — Confirmed arithmetically: the Jan 2024 Fact Sheet's family-size-2 cell ($1,643/mo) equals exactly 2023 FPG ÷ 12. §2.2.4(e) states AL uses the 2023 LIHEAP guideline.

---

PDF Audit Summary

Category	Count
Confirmed correct	~30 categories / hundreds of data points
Mismatches	1 (homelessness copay waiver)
Investigated and cleared	3 (disability exemption, 7% cap, FPG lag)

Confirmed-correct breakdown:

• 11-band copay scale ($0/$18/$21/$24/$27/$30/$33/$36/$39/$42/$45) — exact.
• Boundary semantics (1.0001, 1.1001 thresholds for "101-110%" wording) — exact.
• 486-cell rate matrix (3 provider types × 9 regions × 3 ages × 6 quality tiers) — 10+ spot-checks exact.
• INFORMAL cap $50 FT / $25 PT — confirmed.
• Part-time multiplier 0.5 — confirmed.
• Full-time threshold 25 hrs/wk — confirmed.
• Age categories (0-36mo / 37-59mo / 60+) — confirmed with documented PRESCHOOL boundary tweak.
• All 9 regions present, all 67 AL counties allocated once — confirmed.
• 180% FPL initial / 200% FPL continuing / 85% SMI cap — confirmed exact.
• Asset limit $1M via federal is_ccdf_asset_eligible reuse — confirmed.
• Prior-year FPG lag arithmetic — confirmed ($1,643/mo = 2023 FPG ÷ 12 exactly).
• Negative-income floor — confirmed.
• Sources list — confirmed (with TANF documentation gap noted above).
• Child age 13 / disabled age 19 — confirmed.
• Activity 15 hrs/wk minimum — confirmed.
• Per-parent activity test (not household-OR) — confirmed.
• Federal CCDF helper reuse: is_ccdf_asset_eligible, is_ccdf_immigration_eligible_child, hhs_smi, meets_ccdf_activity_test, is_in_foster_care, is_homeless, is_enrolled_in_head_start, pre_subsidy_childcare_expenses — all confirmed.
• Benefit formula order: max(0, min(charge, rate) - copay) × 52/12 × is_paying_child — confirmed.
• Integration: federal aggregator + programs.yaml + household_state_benefits.yaml — all confirmed.
• Page anchors all correct with +2 offset properly handled.

---

Validation Summary

Check	Result
Regulatory Accuracy	1 critical (homelessness) + 1 should
Reference Quality	0 critical + 2 should + 4 suggestions
Code Patterns	0 critical + 5 should + 1 suggestion
Test Coverage	2 critical (missing $39 band + kinship regression) + 4 should-add
PDF Value Audit	1 mismatch / ~30 categories confirmed
CI Status	All PASS

---

Review Severity: REQUEST_CHANGES

One critical regulatory mismatch identified — the homelessness copay over-waiver, which is the exact item the author flagged for reviewer attention. Otherwise this is a high-quality Phase-1 implementation: 486 rate cells verified, full federal CCDF helper reuse, correct prior-year FPG lag, correct benefit formula order, correct integration with the federal aggregator. The required fix is localized to al_ccsp_copay_waived.py (split into two flags — eligibility-side with homelessness, copay-side without) plus a regression test for homelessness-only families.

Next Steps

Run /fix-pr 8322 to apply the homelessness copay fix and the should-address items.

[hua7450]

Thanks for the thorough review, Pavel — pushed fixes in 4c1ac60 and caca9ad.

🔴 Critical — homelessness copay over-waiver (fixed)

You're right. I confirmed against the State Plan: the §3.3.1(iii) homelessness copay-waiver box is unchecked, and AL lists Homeless (#2), Protective Services (#5), and Special Needs (#8) as separate eligibility categories (p. 31), so the §3.3.1(vi) "Protective Service" waiver doesn't reach homeless-only families.

• Split the flag: eligibility-side al_ccsp_protective_services keeps homelessness (§2.2.2(f)); new copay-side al_ccsp_copay_protective_services excludes it.
• The copay-side flag covers Foster Care (Implement Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance #4, is_in_foster_care) and Protective Service (Impute SNAP to meet administrative totals #5, receives_or_needs_protective_services). The other §3.3.1(vi) categories already waive elsewhere: Early Head Start via the §3.3.1(v) is_enrolled_in_head_start branch, Special Needs via the §3.3.1(iv) disabled-child branch. TANF-Other Relative stays unmodeled because is_tanf_enrolled can't distinguish it from work-mandatory JOBS (which doesn't waive).
• Added regression: homeless-only family @101–110% FPL → $18/wk (not $0).

🟡 Should-address

• ✅ Changelog al-ccap → al-ccsp
• ✅ str(period.start.year - 1) → period.last_year (both files)
• ✅ Line length / make format
• ✅ smi_cap.yaml cites 45 CFR §98.20(a)(2); disabled_child_limit.yaml tightened to §2.2.1(b) — kept #page=20 (the (b) "incapable of self-care, upper age 18" text is on p. 20, not 21)
• ✅ Tests added: $18-entry, $21, $39 band, age-13 disabled boundary, copay-side protective services, homeless-pays-copay
• ✅ 7% cap waiver documented inline in al_ccsp_copay_waived.py
• ✅ PR body corrected (TANF-excluded note, no copay-split claim, 4-not-5 sub-populations, no disabled-parent-exemption claim)

On two of your should-address items I think the code is already correct — flagging rather than changing:

• al_ccsp.py parameters arg: the formula doesn't read any parameters, so omitting the arg is intentional. Happy to add it if you'd prefer the uniform signature.
• pre_subsidy_childcare_expenses entity: it's Person/YEAR, and al_ccsp.py reads it per-person then divides by 52 — so the per-child allocation is correct as-is.
• hours_minimum period:year: kept year (our convention is no period: eternity for constants); the description already says "weekly hours."

141 tests pass, format clean. Let me know on the two items above.