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Whether you are an AmeriCorps member or childcare provider, please use the AmeriCorps Member and Child Care Provider Checklists to confirm that you have all the documents to complete your Child Care benefit application.
AmeriCorps Member Checklist
AmeriCorps Provider Checklist
For your convenience, you can choose to apply online. Please utilize and share the below links to our online applications; and if you choose to fill out a paper application, click the Forms/Resources button located at the center of the homepage to find and print the forms you need.
AmeriCorps Member Online Application
AmeriCorps Provider Online Application
For a description on the Types of Child Care Providers, please click below.
Types of Child Care Providers
To find out if your provider of choice is approved to receive childcare payments from AmeriCorps, please review the AmeriCorps Childcare Provider State Guide.
If your childcare provider doesn't meet your state's requirement to participate, please select a different childcare provider.
The AmeriCorps Child Care Benefit Program is available for qualified, active, full-time AmeriCorps VISTA, NCCC, and State and National Members who need the benefit to serve; eligibility requirements are listed below for each AmeriCorps program. Child care benefits are paid directly to qualified child care providers for all or of part of the member's child care costs during their active time of service with AmeriCorps; child care benefit payments cannot be paid directly to AmeriCorps members. Child care benefits may not exceed applicable payment rates as established in the state in which the child care is provided under the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858c(4)(A)).
AmeriCorps child care benefits are available to full-time State and National members who qualify. To qualify for the child care benefit, the member must meet the following eligibility requirements:
To qualify for the child care benefit, the VISTA member must meet the following requirements:
The amount of child care assistance an AmeriCorps NCCC/FEMA Corps member can receive is $400 per child per month. To qualify for the child care benefit, the NCCC member must meet the following requirements:
Child care benefits are paid to qualified child care providers for all or of part of the member's child care costs during their active time of service with AmeriCorps.  Child care subsidy benefits are paid directly to qualified child care providers. Child care benefit payments cannot be paid directly to AmeriCorps members unless directed by the COR in writing. Child care providers must meet eligibility requirements as regulated under the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858n (5)). Regulations vary by state and are subject to change annually. Child care providers*:
Depending on the state in which the care is being provided, other blood relatives (factoring in exclusions listed above) may be used.
Information on the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858c(4)(A)) and state/territory plans can be found at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/occ/resource/ccdf-grantee-state-and-territory-contacts.
*For the NCCC, the guardian or family member with whom the child is living should also 1) be the child care provider or 2) serve as the responsible party in selecting an outside child care provider; the identified child care provider however may not be the child's biological, step, or adoptive parent. For example, while a guardian or family member may serve as the child care provider, that guardian or family member also has the option to select an outside child care provider (such as a licensed day care center) to provide services if they are needed.
GAP Solutions, Inc. (GAPSI) administers the AmeriCorps Child Care Benefits Program for the Corporation for National and Community Service and therefore members must apply directly to GAPSI for the child care benefit. Interested and eligible members should visit the GAP Solutions, Inc. website at: www.americorpschildcare.com or call toll-free at 855-886-0687 for more information.
Members may apply online with GAP Solutions, Inc. or inquire about hard copy application submittal by visiting www.americorpschildcare.com; required forms and supporting documentation are detailed below.
The table below is to be used only as a guide. It will give you a general idea of the state requirements for child care providers, and what they need to be eligible to participate in the AmeriCorps Child Care benefit program. Please note that the State eligibility requirements for child care providers can change at any time. To verify if your provider of choice is eligible to participate in the AmeriCorps Child Care benefit program, contact GAP Solutions with your eligibility questions at 1-855-886-0687.
Note: To be eligible, your provider of choice must be at least 18 years of age, not live in your household and may not be the biological parent.
The following are definitions and descriptions of types of child care providers from which you may select to hire for your child. In choosing a child care provider, take into account your state's CCDF requirements specially if choosing to hire an unlicensed provider. When choosing a provider for your child, take into account the age and developmental needs of the child and the ability of the child care provider to meet and foster those needs as well as the positive reinforcement the child care provider will offer your child. Please point your child care provider to americorpschildcare.com to help answer many of their questions related to the AmeriCorps Child Care Reimbursement program.
Child Care Center: Established licensed setting where children are cared for in a group away from their homes for all or part of the day. Child care Centers include nursery schools, preschools, and Parent Cooperatives. The objectives of Centers vary, from taking care of children whose parents are working, to preparing the children for school. Child care Centers provide care for groups of children ranging in an age from infancy through school age.
License Exempt Centers: Certain states may allow certain licensing exemptions for centers if they are part of a public or private organized educational system (a school or facility operated by a religious institution caring for children during short periods of time). Also, recreational center based programs whose purpose is to provide social, recreational, or religious activities for school age children, such as scouting, boys club, girls club, sports, or the arts may also be license exempt. Please check with GAP Solutions to learn about specific license exemptions allowed by your state.
School Age Program: A program offering before and or after school care to children enrolled in kindergarten or higher grades. These programs may operate from school buildings or other licensed facilities and may be operated by the school itself, parent groups or local Child care Centers. The purpose of School-Age Programs is primarily to provide care for children during such times of the day when regular school classes are not in session. They are not intended to extend or replace regular school classes.
Family Child Care Home: A private home where a child care provider provides child care services for children from infancy through school age. The care is provided at the home of the child care provider (not in the child's home). Family Day Care is licensed or registered by the State in which the child care provider resides. The number of children allowed in a Family Day Care Home varies depending on the number of adults providing care in the home setting.
Group Child Care Home: A private home where two or more child care providers provide child care services and education for (7) or more (usually a total of about 12) children in a private home and who employ on or more paid assistants to meet child-to-staff ratio requirements. Group Day Care is licensed or registered by the state in which the Child care providers reside.
In-Home Child Care: Care is provided by a non-relative who comes into the child's home to provide care. Sometimes the child care provider brings his/her own children. Generally speaking, the child care provider provides services through a personal agreement with the parent(s) and works without training or professional affiliations. (May not be legal in your state).
Relative Care: Care usually provided by an aunt, uncle or grandparent of the child. Care may be provided in the relative's or the child's home. (May not be legal in your state. Contact GAP Solutions, Inc. for more information) or refer to your state's CCDF Plan.
The personal information that is solicited on this form is needed to determine your eligibility and later to disburse payments on behalf of the AmeriCorps Member. We solicit your name, address, phone numbers, date of birth for children needing care to determine your eligibility for the childcare benefit. From the child care provider, the primary purpose for soliciting a social security number/ Tax Identification number, banking information, phone number and home address is to help facilitate payments of your benefit to them on your behalf. Gap Solutions is committed to ensuring that any personal information received is safeguarded against unauthorized disclosure. The data you provide is voluntary and subject to the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a) and the agency’s privacy policy. Collection of the information you provide is authorized by the National and Community Service Act of 1990 and the Serve America Act of 2009 (Pub. L. No. 111-13). If you choose not to disclose your personal data, it could impact your ability to receive payment or other benefits or the agency to process your application. Use of the information collected based on this form is restricted to the purposes cited in this privacy statement or unless the disclosure is otherwise permitted under the provisions of the Privacy Act. This information may be released to appropriate federal, state, and local agencies, when relevant, and to civil, criminal, or regulatory investigators and prosecutors. For information on routine uses authorized in the Federal Register notice governing this system of records, please visit https://www.federalregister.gov/index/2018.
We welcome your comments or questions about our websites and have provided e-mail boxes for that purpose. We will share your comments and questions with our customer service representatives and those employees most capable of addressing your questions and concerns.
Please note that your e-mail, like most, if not all, non-encrypted Internet e-mail communications, may be accessed and viewed by other Internet users, without your knowledge and permission, while in transit to us. For that reason, to protect your privacy, please do not use e-mail to communicate information to us that you consider confidential. If you wish, you may contact us instead via non-cellular telephone at the numbers provided at various locations on our sites.
There are some locations on GAP Solutions Inc.'s websites where we have made special provisions for a more secure environment in which we can exchange information with you. At each of these locations, we will provide you with appropriate instructions.
You should also be aware that when you visit our websites, we collect certain information that does not identify you personally, but provides us with "usage data," such as the number of visitors we receive or what pages are visited most often. This data helps us to analyze and improve the usefulness of the information we provide at these websites.
Like most commercial website owners, we may use what is known as "cookie" technology. A "cookie" is an element of data that a website can send to your browser when you link to that website. It is not a computer program and has no ability to read data residing on your computer or instruct it to perform any step or function. By assigning a unique data element to each visitor, the website is able to recognize repeat users, track usage patterns and better serve you when you return to that site. The cookie does not extract other personal information about you, such as your name or address.
We may also use what is known as "client-side page tagging", which uses code on each page to write certain information about the page and the visitor to a log when a page is rendered by your web browser. This technique is also commonly used on commercial websites. "Tagging" does result in a JavaScript program running on your computer, but it is limited to providing information about the page that you are requesting and the configuration of your browser. It will not read any of your data files, or execute any additional programs. It does not extract any personal information about you, such as your name or address. You can prevent tagging by disabling JavaScript in your browser, but that may prevent you from using all of our website's functions.
From time to time, GAP Solutions Inc. websites may provide links to other websites, not owned or controlled by GAP Solutions Inc., that we think might be useful or of interest to you. We cannot, however, be responsible for the privacy practices used by other website owners or the content or accuracy of those other websites. Links to various non-GAP Solutions Inc. websites do not constitute or imply endorsement by GAP Solutions Inc. of these websites, any products or services described on these sites, or of any other material contained in them.
GAP Solutions Inc. has adopted and adheres to stringent security standards designed to protect non-public personal information at www.GAPSI.com against accidental or unauthorized access or disclosure. Among the safeguards that GAP Solutions Inc. has developed for this site are administrative, physical and technical barriers that together form a protective firewall around the information stored at this site. We periodically subject our site to simulated intrusion tests and have developed comprehensive disaster recovery plans.
GAP Solutions Inc. may change this statement from time to time; when updates are made, the privacy policy version date (located at the bottom of this policy) will also be updated to reflect that a revision occurred. We encourage you to periodically reread this policy to see if there have been any changes that may affect you. This statement is not intended to and does not create any contractual or other legal rights in or on behalf of any party.