Conditions for waiving Parent GAP

DESE has announced that services have the option to waive the gap (difference between Fee charged and CCS paid) for children under the following conditions:

  • the service is in an area under Stage 3 or higher lockdowns
  • the child is absent due to covid 19
  • an absence is recorded

Read the (very limited) details of the rules here : https://mailchi.mp/80285720845b/response-to-covid-19-in-victoria-are-you-ready-for-ccs

Auto Gap Fee Wavers for an entire attendance

To help you manage this process, SmartCentral has introduced additional options on the attendance screens to automate the waiving of the parent GAP, but it can only be for the entire week.

See the Staff Help on how to automate the waiving of the Parent GAP here.

The above help is for waiving the Parent GAP for the entire week, when every session has been marked absent.

See below on how to waive the Parent GAP for those sessions marked absent, in an attendance that also has attended sessions.

Marking the Rolls

Regardless of which method you use, either to waive the parent’s gap in full or partially waive it, the rolls are marked as normal. Sign in/out if attending, mark absent if absent for the day.

Booked Absences

Regardless of which method you use, either to waive the parent’s gap in full or partially waive it, you can set your bookings to auto mark the roll with “Hrs absence” if you know in advance a family will be absent due to COVID related reasons.

Go to the family’s enrolments and click on the Bookings TAB.

, you can set up an absence for a date range to cover the period the family has told you they will be absent.

Bookings TAB

Adding An Absent Booking

Direct Debit - Stage 3 Lockdown Areas.

Ignore this bit if you do not Direct Debit Fees

For those parents, you are waiving the entire week’s Parent Gap, we suggest you untick the DD box to ensure they do not accidentally get billed.

For those families you are partially waiving the Parent fee for, you need to make sure you have manually refunded the partial GAP, prior to invoicing the parent or Direct Debiting their balance.

Projecting Fees - Stage 3 Lockdown Areas.

Ignore this bit if you do not project fees.

Projecting Fees are based on an enrolment’s bookings and absent bookings are still counted as a charge.

If you are waiving the parent GAP partially or for the entire week, then we recommend you DO NOT project fees for the families you know in advance will be absent due to COVID reasons.

If all active families are grouped with a Parent Tag (Parent’s Direct Debit TAB -> Filter) then you can change the filter for those families, you know in advance, are going to be absent for the projected weeks to a COVID19 filter. Your Active families who will continue to attend will be tagged something else (eg Active) and exited families tagged for eg. InActive or Exited.

You then run the projected fees, for the other group of Active families only, using the parent TAG you gave them. (eg Active)

In this way you will only project fees for those attending.

COVID 19 Misc Fees

Set up a new Misc Fee Code so you can keep track of any manually waived fees.

Weekly Attendance Screen

COVID 19 Misc Fee Code

How to Manually Waive a portion of the Parent GAP

You can only waive the fees if you are in one of the locked down postcodes/areas, and only if they are absent for COVID reasons. For those families who may attend some sessions and may be absent for others, then you cannot waive the fees for those attended (eg rostered to work in the office 2 days a week, and from home the rest of the week)

Part weeks will need to be waived manually, using a negative Miscellaneous Fee charge to refund the GAP. See above section on creating a Misc Fee Code to use.

When the relevant weekly attendance is submitted, the full charge will be placed on the parent’s transaction TAB. When the CCS is returned the CCS paid for the week will be known.

You will need to then manually work out the CCS component. The following example is worked out on a family who is getting the same amount of CCS paid per session. Eg. Their booking if for 4 days, they are eligible for 100hrs and that more than covers the fortnight session.

Family A: Attends 2 days a week, and is absent for COVID related reasons for the other 2

Full LDC charges for the week are $400. CCS Paid was $360. parent GAP for 4 days is $40.

$40 divided by 4 sessions = $10 per session Parent GAP. Family was only absent for 2 sessions, so GAP to be waived is $10 x 2 = $20

Create a Misc Fee Charge “CV19” for -20 on the parent’s Transaction TAB.

The example below is refunding $46, in the case above you would only refund $20.

Weekly Attendance Screen

Weekly Attendance Screen

For those families who may not be eligible for CCS for all sessions in a fortnight, then it will be harder to work out the parent GAP to be refunded. Some days may be full charge as they are no longer eligible for CCS, and you may not want to waive the entire day. We suggest for these you work out what your policy will be, advise the parent as they may want to change their booking, and then ask in support chat if you need help working out the partial amount you wish to waive.

Important Warning: Enrolments that cease “no attendances”

July 13th 2020 - absences were reset to 0 (would prior to free childcare been reset July 6th)

July 13th 2020 - a session was added for July 12th to all enrolments to prevent the 14 week ceased no attendances from happening

That means the 14 weeks for checking if a child has attended or not, recommenced July 13th 2020.

Reasons for absences.

Any child can do this, however only stage 3 lockdown areas can waive the Parent GAP

Can use 42 absences starting July 13th - no reason needed Post 42 absences can use additional reason (reasoning if GAP to be waived would be COVID19 related)

Child is absent for 14 weeks in a stage 3 area

If absent for 14 weeks for any reason the following will happen is the same regardless if in a stage 3 area or not.

If lockdown extends past the 6 weeks and a parent (for COVID related reasons) extends absences and the number of weeks, with no attended sessions, totals 14 - the enrolment will be ceased by CCS (no attendance) and CCS will be retrieved. So at that point of time, even though the service has been waiving the GAP for 14 weeks, for COVID related reasons, the CCS for the entire 14 weeks will be owed by the parent if the enrolment ceases no attendances.

Note: 14 weeks will be very near end of transition period, this is how it stands today5th July, no talk to date of that changing. But with everything COVID 19 related, anything can happen.