Access to Day Care and Camps

Maryland, Georgia, South Carolina, California, and Rhode Island use Medicaid funds to pay for health care services that assist children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) to participate in day care, after-school programs, or summer camps.

In Georgia and South Carolina, these services are provided through waiver programs, which pay for slots in “day care centers for the medically fragile.” California uses Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) authority to pay for day health care for medically complex children – care that includes therapeutic interventions such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and play therapy at facilities around the state that are licensed to provide this kind of care.

The Rhode Island program, called KIDS Connect, is unique in that it helps families send their CYSHCN to inclusive child care centers, after-school programs, and summer camps by paying for an aide or nurse on a child-specific basis to accommodate the child’s health care needs.