Letters to CCPP Providers and Parents
11/24/2025 UPDATE: Redetermination Reinstated – DECCD is reinstating the redetermination process for all families with a current childcare certificate/certificates, not just those in the six priority populations. We are at a service number that can be sustained with CCDF regular funding. MDHS DECCD will continue to contact families on the waiting list to apply as additional slots become available. Current parents with a certificate, but wishing to add an extra child, can recertify their existing certificate; however, the new child will be added to the waitlist.
Dear CCPP Child Care Providers:
In response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Mississippi received a temporary increase in funding from the federal government to support child care programs statewide. Because of this funding, MDHS was able to issue Child Care Strong grants directly to you, establish a state-wide teacher substitute pool, provide bonus payments to child care staff, and most importantly, greatly increase the number of child care certificates issued to qualifying families. In fact, MDHS is helping more families have access to high quality child care than ever before in agency history. We are very proud that we have been able to work directly with you to not only keep child care going in Mississippi but make it better than ever using these temporary dollars.
MDHS remains committed to supporting child care in our state but with the ending of the COVID-19 relief funding, we also must make changes to the number of families and children we can serve with the funding available to us.
Effective April 1, 2025, DECCD will be implementing the following temporary changes:
- We will continue to accept applications and issue certificates to the families that fall within these categories: (1) TANF families and families transitioning away from TANF assistance (TCC), (2) MDCPS foster care children, (3) teen parents, (4) families that have special needs, (5) deployed military families, and (6) homeless families.
- For families that fall outside of the six categories listed above, DECCD will also continue paying for services for the duration of their current certificates until the 12-month period of the certificate expires.
- DECCD will temporarily place a hold on accepting: (1) new applications for families outside of the six categories, (2) redetermination applications for families outside of the six categories, and (3) “add a child” applications for families outside of the six categories listed above.
The hold will remain in place until the number of certificates we have issued falls back into line with what our current budget can support. We cannot accurately estimate how long the hold will remain in place, but we will be monitoring the situation very closely and will lift the hold as soon as we can. Likewise, we will notify you when it appears we are near the point where we can lift the hold.
We understand that this situation will raise concerns from our families and from you, our child care partners. A virtual town hall meeting was held to address questions and concerns on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at 11:00AM.
Thank you for your continued dedication to early childhood education and our littlest Mississippians.
Dear Parents:
In response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Mississippi received a temporary increase in funding from the federal government to support child care in Mississippi. The state had until September 30, 2024, to use all the temporary funding we received. We are very happy that we were able to use all funding to support child care statewide including using a large portion of the temporary funding to issue additional child care certificates to you, our families.
MDHS remains committed to supporting families’ access to child care in our state but with the ending of the COVID-19 relief funding, we also must make changes to the number of families and children we can serve with the funding available to us.
Effective April 1, 2025, the Division of Early Childhood Care and Development (DECCD) has implemented the following temporary changes:
- We will continue to accept applications and issue certificates to the families that fall within six exception categories: (1) TANF families and families transitioning away from TANF assistance (TCC), (2) MDCPS foster care children, (3) teen parents, (4) families that have special needs, (5) deployed military families, and (6) homeless families.
- For families that do not fit into one of the six categories listed above, DECCD will also continue paying for services for the duration of their current certificates until the 12-month period of the certificate expires. For example, if your current certificate is set to expire in September of this year, DECCD will continue paying for services through September.
- DECCD will place a temporary pause on accepting any applications for families that do not fall within the six exception categories listed above. This includes new applications, redeterminations, and applications to add a child to a family’s existing certificate.
The pause will remain in place until the number of certificates we have issued falls back into line with what our current budget can support. We cannot accurately estimate how long the pause will remain in place, but we will be monitoring the situation very closely and will lift the pause as soon as we can.
If you have any questions about your current certificate or the redetermination process, please reach out to us at ccpayment@mdhs.ms.gov or 1-800-877-7882. We will continue to have staff available to answer your questions. We have also placed some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on our website at www.mdhs.ms.gov.