tuition-and-subsidy-billing

name	tuition-and-subsidy-billing
description	Route and collect childcare tuition on the right rail: private-pay vs CCDF/state subsidy vs blended, the parent-fee/co-pay split, authorization and attendance rules that drive subsidy payment, and reconciliation as receivables. State-specific subsidy rules are verify-at-use.

Tuition & Subsidy Billing

A childcare seat can be billed on more than one rail, and the rail changes what actually gets collected. Everything about subsidy programs (CCDF and state-specific variants) is jurisdiction-specific and [verify-at-use] — confirm against the current state/agency rule before it drives a bill.

The loop

1. Determine the billing route. Private-pay, subsidy-funded (CCDF / state program), or a blend of subsidy plus a parent co-pay. The route decides the collection mechanics — see the tuition-vs-subsidy billing-route tree in ../../knowledge/childcare-decision-trees.md.
2. Split subsidy from parent fee explicitly. A subsidized seat almost always still has a parent portion (co-pay / parent fee). Collect it as deliberately as the private-pay tuition — an uncollected co-pay is uncollected revenue [verify-at-use, state-specific].
3. Track the authorization. Subsidy is paid against an authorization with a start, an end, and usually attendance. Authorizations lapse; a lapsed authorization is an unfunded seat. Treat the authorization as a live, expiring asset.
4. Bill against the payment driver. Many subsidy programs pay on attendance (or enrolled days) with their own reporting cadence — bill and report on that driver, not on a generic invoice, or the payment is delayed or denied.
5. Reconcile subsidy as accounts-receivable. Subsidy money is receivables to be chased, matched, and reconciled — not money that simply arrives. Age it, match it to authorizations, and follow up on shortfalls.

Metrics

Metric	Reads	Note
Collection rate by rail	collected / billed, private vs subsidy	Isolates where the leak is
Parent-fee / co-pay collection	co-pays collected / due	Often the quietest revenue leak
Authorization lapse rate	seats with expired auth	Each lapse = an unfunded seat
Subsidy A/R aging	days subsidy outstanding	Subsidy is receivables, manage it

Anti-patterns

• Treating a subsidized seat as "free to the family" and skipping the co-pay.
• Letting authorizations expire unnoticed.
• Invoicing subsidy without the attendance/reporting the program pays on.
• Booking subsidy as received instead of reconciling it as A/R.

See also

• ../enrollment-and-waitlist-management/SKILL.md — the route is decided when the family commits.
• Reference: ../../knowledge/childcare-reference-2026.md (CCDF/subsidy basics — verify-at-use, state-specific).
• Best practices: ../../best-practices/enroll-the-waitlist-before-you-discount.md, ../../best-practices/staff-to-ratio-is-the-cost-model.md.