AB 845

The Wisconsin Works (W-2) program under current law, which is administered

by the Department of Children and Families (DCF), provides work experience and

benefits for low-income custodial parents who are at least 18 years old. Also, an

individual who is the parent of a child under the age of 13 or, if the child is disabled,

under the age of 19, may receive a child care subsidy under W-2 if the individual

needs child care services to participate in various educational or work activities and

satisfies other eligibility criteria. The child care subsidy program under W-2 is

known as Wisconsin Shares.

Under current law, child care providers who receive a subsidy for providing

child care to children under Wisconsin Shares are required to maintain a written

record of the daily hours of attendance, including arrival and departure times, for

each child for whom the provider provides care. This record must be retained for each

child for at least three years after the child's last day of attendance. Under this bill,

DCF is required to implement, by January 1, 2011, a biometric fingerprint

identification system for initially enrolling and then registering the arrival and

departure each day of each child receiving child care under Wisconsin Shares and for

conducting random attendance inspections at other times. DCF must supply the

necessary software, and each child care provider who provides child care under

Wisconsin Shares must purchase and install the hardware necessary for use of the

system. After the system is implemented, child care providers would no longer be

required to make a written record of a child's daily hours of attendance.