WAIVER APPROVAL - Onsite Monitoring Waiver for Day Care Home Sponsors

USDA has approved a waiver giving TDA the discretion to allow sponsors of day care homes to conduct one of their three required monitoring visits off-site. Any day care home sponsor wishing to use the waiver must meet the following requirements:

• The sponsor must be in good standing.

• Providers monitored remotely must be in good standing.

• Sponsors must conduct at least one unannounced onsite monitoring review of each provider, including observation of meal service, annually.

• Sponsors that utilize review averaging cannot utilize this process for providers that will only be visited twice a year, regardless of distance from the sponsor’s office.

• All pre-approval visits, first four-week reviews for new providers, and Serious Deficiency follow-up reviews must be conducted in-person.

• Timing of reviews must adhere to federal requirements as described in the CACFP Handbooks.

• Sponsors approved last year for this waiver that did not submit required reports or had the waiver rescinded at any point are not eligible to use this waiver in PY 2026.

To apply for this waiver, CACFP sponsors must submit the CACFP Day Care Home Sponsor Onsite Monitoring Waiver Request Form.

Sponsors who were not approved last year or who have since updated their Offsite Monitoring Implementation Plan must submit the CACFP Day Care Home Sponsor Offsite Monitoring Implementation Plan with their request form. Both the form and the Implementation Plan template are located on the CACFP Administration/Forms page.

Note that TDA is developing two additional waiver requests:

• A waiver to allow sponsors of child care centers and adult day care centers to conduct offsite monitoring.

• A waiver that would allow a second offsite monitoring review for sites/providers over 100 miles/2 hours’ distance from a sponsor’s nearest field office.

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