CAPS and CACFP Paperwork for Georgia Daycares

If your center takes CAPS scholarships or claims meals through CACFP, you keep three sets of records about the same children: licensing records, CAPS records and food program records. They overlap, and each program checks its own records. This post lays out what each program asks for and a weekly routine that keeps the month-end paperwork from turning into a weekend project.

Key facts

• CAPS pays only for days a child attended and was signed in and out by a parent or authorized person.
• CAPS will not pay for a service week unless the child attended at least one day that week, except when the provider is paid to hold a slot.
• CAPS invoices are due within 60 calendar days of service. Invoices after 90 days are not paid.
• Keep original CAPS arrival and departure records for at least three years from the last date of service.
• CACFP centers keep daily attendance and meal counts taken at the time of service, by meal type.
• Georgia CACFP claims go into GA ATLAS within 30 calendar days after the month ends. Revisions close at 60 days.
• CACFP records do not count as CAPS attendance proof.

What CAPS requires

The signature at the door

CAPS Policy 10.5.2.5 says a scholarship does not by itself give a provider the right to bill. The child must be attending and signed in and signed out each day at arrival and departure by a parent or authorized representative.

The record needs the parent's original or electronic signature each time. If the parent is present, staff may not sign for them, even on a tablet. Staff may not change a record and have the parent sign later.

If you use an electronic system, CAPS sets four conditions: each parent has their own unique electronic signature, staff have their own separate signature, and the system records and displays who signed the child in and out, plus when and how.

If your electronic system fails, CAPS says you still have to keep records, using paper or another method until the system is back.

The records CAPS can ask for

Source: CAPS Policy 12.4.7.1.

When CAPS checks

CAPS runs attendance verification assessments, usually asking for one month of arrival and departure and transportation records. DECAL's Audits and Compliance Division runs compliance reviews, usually asking for a three-month period within 15 calendar days of the notice.

If a reviewer asks on site, records must be produced right away. If the director is out, a named alternate must be able to pull them. Records missing for a period lead to a reclaim of what CAPS paid for that period, and possibly dismissal from CAPS.

What CACFP requires

CACFP is the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program. In Georgia, DECAL's Nutrition Services runs it and claims go through GA ATLAS.

Federal rule 7 CFR 226.15(e) asks centers to keep enrollment records updated every year and signed by a parent, daily attendance records, daily time-of-service meal counts by type (breakfast, lunch, supper and snacks), and daily records of meals served to adults doing food service work.

Before filing a claim, DECAL's claim instructions say to gather five sets of records for the month: weekly menus and food service records, the CACFP enrollment roster, income eligibility statements, enrollment records and attendance records. Then reconcile them:

• Only creditable meals are counted.
• No child is claimed for more than two meals and one snack, or two snacks and one meal, per day.
• A child counts in the free, reduced and paid totals only if they attended at least one day and were present for a meal that month.
• Children who left before the month are taken off the claim.

Federal rule 7 CFR 226.10 says records supporting the claim are kept for three years after the final claim for the fiscal year, and longer if audit findings are open. Ask your DECAL Nutrition Services contact or sponsor whether Georgia expects anything longer for your institution.

Where paper breaks

Three paper trails, written by different people at different times, rarely match at month end. The usual breaks:

• A parent signs in but forgets to sign out, so the CAPS day has no departure.
• A teacher initials the sheet during a busy carpool line.
• Meal counts are filled in after lunch from memory, so they no longer match attendance.
• A child withdraws mid-month and stays on the CACFP roster.
• The director learns about the gap 50 days later, when it is too late to fix cleanly.

A weekly routine that keeps the month clean

The step that saves the most time is the daily check at close, because a missing signature is easy to fix the same evening and nearly impossible to fix a month later. A kiosk check-in puts the parent's sign-in at the door with the time recorded automatically. PlayroomOS does this today. Before you switch to any system, ask the vendor to show you how it meets CAPS Policy 12.4.7.10 on unique parent signatures. Our guide to moving from a sign-in sheet to digital check-in covers that switch, and the DECAL inspection checklist covers the licensing side of the same records.

What to do this week

• Pull last month's CAPS arrival and departure records and look for any day missing a signature or departure time.
• Confirm you can produce three straight months of those records within a day.
• Write down who your alternate is when the director is out, and show them where the records are.
• Watch one meal in each room and confirm staff record counts as plates are served.
• Remove any child who left last month from the CACFP roster.
• Put the CACFP 30-day claim date and the CAPS 60-day invoice date on the office calendar.