Add Tennessee Child Care Payment Assistance (CCAP / Smart Steps)

[hua7450]

Summary

Implements Tennessee's Child Care Certificate Program (Child Care Payment Assistance, branded Smart Steps) in PolicyEngine. The program is Tennessee's CCDF-funded child care subsidy, administered by the Tennessee Department of Human Services (TDHS). This PR adds the full eligibility, income-limit, copay, and provider-reimbursement pipeline, wired into the federal child_care_subsidies aggregator via a new tn_child_care_subsidies program.

Closes #9039

Review fixes

This branch also addresses the Tennessee CCAP review findings:

• Adds a case-by-case protective-services waiver for the income and activity tests.
• Limits countable income to gross wages or salary, matching State Plan §2.2.4(c).
• Requires evidence of employment so the 40-hour default cannot qualify an unemployed parent.
• Applies the two-parent disabled-parent exception using the general is_disabled input. The narrower “unable to meet the child's care needs” condition is not separately modeled.
• Prevents Tennessee benefits before reimbursement rates took effect on October 1, 2024.
• Uses chart-compatible whole-dollar QRIS rates for licensed providers and does not apply QRIS bonuses to authorized providers.
• Defers the court-supervision age extension until a general is_under_court_supervision input is available; tracked in Add a general court-supervision input variable #9055.

Regulatory Authority

• Tenn. Code Ann. § 71-3-104 — Child Care Certificate Program statutory authority
• Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1240-01-54-.01 — Smart Steps / child-only guardian / teen-parent eligibility (note: 1240-04-01 is child care licensing, not the subsidy program, and is not cited here)
• CCDF State Plan FFY 2025-2027 (Tennessee) — federal-required elements (age, activity, asset, copay): https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/human-services/documents/CCDF%20State%20Plan%20FFY%202025-2027%20Tennessee.pdf
• Income Eligibility Limits & Parent Co-Pay Chart, eff. 10/1/2025 (current): https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/human-services/documents/Income%20Eligibility%20Limits%20and%20CoPay%20Chart%2010.1.25.pdf#page=2
• Income Eligibility & Co-Pay Chart, eff. 6/1/2024 (prior): https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/human-services/documents/Income%20Eligibility%20and%20Co-Pay%20Chart_June_1_2024.pdf#page=2
• Provider Reimbursement Rate Chart, eff. 1/1/2026 (current, single page): https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/human-services/documents/Reimbursement_Rate_Chart_1.1.26.pdf
• Provider Reimbursement Rate Chart, eff. 10/1/2024 (prior, single page): https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/human-services/documents/Current%20state%20rate%20and%20QRIS%20bonus%20table.pdf
• Update on Child Care Funding FAQ (policy-change dates): https://www.tn.gov/humanservices/for-families/child-care-services/update-on-child-care-funding.html

Eligibility

Test	Rule	Source	How modeled
Categorical / income pathway	Smart Steps working or full-time post-secondary; income ≤ 85% SMI (initial). Enrolled families qualify to 100% SMI from 10/1/2025 (Smart Steps Plus); 85% before that.	State Plan §2.3.1e (p.36); copay charts	tn_ccap_income_eligible with initial/enrolled SMI-rate params; tn_ccap_enrolled bare input distinguishes applicants from redetermination
Families First (TANF) categorical	Guaranteed subsidy while receiving Families First	State Plan §2.3.1e (p.36)	is_tanf_enrolled bypass in tn_ccap_eligible (breaks the CCAP↔TANF cycle)
Child age	Under 13 (through age 12); disabled children to under 19. The court-supervision extension is deferred pending a general input.	State Plan §2.2.1 (p.23)	child_age_limit (13) and special_needs_age_limit (19) params in tn_ccap_eligible_child; court supervision tracked in #9055
Activity	Employed avg ≥ 30 hrs/week OR full-time post-secondary; in a two-parent household with one disabled parent, the other parent must work ≥ 30 hrs/week	State Plan §2.2.2 (p.26)	tn_ccap_activity_eligible requires positive employment evidence plus hours, accepts full-time study, and uses is_disabled for the two-parent exception
At least one eligible child	SPM unit must contain ≥ 1 eligible child in care	general	tn_ccap_eligible gates on add(..., ["tn_ccap_eligible_child"]) > 0
Immigration	Child must be a citizen or qualified noncitizen	federal CCDF	reuses is_ccdf_immigration_eligible_child
Assets	Family assets ≤ $1,000,000	State Plan §2.2.6 (p.32)	reuses is_ccdf_asset_eligible

Income Limits (SMI-based)

The published dollar bands are not hardcoded. We verified that every band in both copay charts equals the federal smi() value × rate ÷ 12 exactly, so income limits are computed from PolicyEngine's existing gov.hhs.smi infrastructure with FFY Oct-1 pinning (the NJ CCAP pattern: month ≥ 10 → {year}-10-01, else {year-1}-10-01).

• June 2024 chart (FFY2024 SMI, TN amount = 90,197): HH4 100% SMI monthly = 90,197 / 12 = $7,516.42; × 0.85 = $6,388.95 (chart 85% HH4); × 0.60 = $4,509.85 (chart 60% HH4). Exact match.
• Oct 2025 chart (FFY2026 SMI, TN amount = 102,735): HH4 100% SMI monthly = 102,735 / 12 = $8,561.25 (chart 100% band top); × 0.85 = $7,277.63; × 0.60 = $5,136.75. Exact match.

The smi() size adjustment for HH4 is 0.52 + 0.16 × 3 = 1.00, so 4-person SMI equals the raw TN amount. We parameterize only the rate (initial = 0.85; enrolled = 0.85 → 1.00 @ 2025-10-01), never the dollar tables.

Copay

Copay follows the chart's exact weekly double-floor formula rather than a simplified flat 5% (the user chose full fidelity, and the adjudication is that the chart's worked example — not the chart's prose "5% of income" — governs):

1. Monthly copay = floor(monthly countable gross income × 0.05)
2. Weekly copay = floor(monthly copay ÷ 4.3)
3. Split equally among all children in care; part-time care (≤ 19 hrs/week) copay = half.

The chart's worked example reproduces exactly: $1,895 × 0.05 = $94.75 → floor $94 → ÷ 4.3 = $21.86 → floor $21/week → ÷ 2 children = $10.50/child. The 4.3 divisor is the exact regulatory factor stored in copay/weeks_per_month.yaml (not WEEKS_IN_YEAR / MONTHS_IN_YEAR = 4.333…).

• Rate: 5% of monthly countable gross income (copay/rate.yaml), below the federal 7% ceiling (which never binds).
• Pre-10/1/2025 FPL waiver: copay waived at or below 150% FPL; families with no income pay nothing. copay/fpl_waiver_threshold.yaml = 1.5 → 0 @ 2025-10-01 (waiver ended 9/30/2025; 5% now applies to all families).
• Waived categories: Families First (is_tanf_enrolled) and protective-services / DCS-referred children (receives_or_needs_protective_services). Head Start/EHS and Mental Health & Substance Abuse referrals are not modeled (no input).

Provider Reimbursement Rates

Per-child max weekly benefit starts with the charted Base State Rate[provider type × county tier × age category]. Licensed-provider QRIS rates are reproduced as whole dollars using half-up rounding before applicable differentials; authorized providers receive no QRIS bonus. Part-time is ½ the full-time rate rounded up (np.ceil). The provider is paid the lesser of its charge and this state rate.

Additive (multiplicative-on-top) stacking — verified. The +15% differentials are applied on top of the base state-rate rows, not baked into them:

• Footnote wording (identical on both charts): "a 15% differential above the current reimbursement rates will be provided" for infants (and separately for disability/special-needs). "Above … will be provided" = additive.
• Decisive proof: the Center / Top-Tier / Toddler State Rate is $240 on both the 10/1/2024 chart (toddler differential active) and the 1/1/2026 chart (toddler differential eliminated 10/1/2025). Had the +15% been baked in, eliminating it would have dropped the base to ~$209 — it did not move, proving the base rows exclude the differential.
• QRIS columns confirm the base × (1 + bonus) structure, with licensed-provider results rounded half-up to the charted whole dollars: $240 × 1.05 = $252, × 1.10 = $264 (2026 era); × 1.15 = $276, × 1.20 = $288 (2024 era).

Era-dependent multipliers:

• QRIS bonus: +15% (80-89) / +20% (90-100) in the Oct 2024 era → +5% / +10% from 1/1/2026 (rates/qris_bonus.yaml).
• Infant differential +15% and disability differential +15%: kept in both eras.
• Toddler differential +15% → 0 @ 2025-10-01 (rates/toddler_differential.yaml).

County Tiers

Weekly rates are keyed by county tier (Top Tier vs Lower Tier). The rate-chart footnote lists (the operational source of truth) govern, not the Market Rate Survey (MRS) ranking:

• Oct 1 2024 era: 27 Top Tier counties (chart footnote), including Gibson and Dyer.
• Jan 1 2026 era: 26 Top Tier counties, including Gibson; Dyer dropped to Lower. Everything else defaults to Lower Tier.

Only Dyer moved between eras. Tiers are encoded deterministically from the TN county enum (county_tier/top_tier_counties.yaml, era-dated), defaulting unlisted counties to Lower.

Gibson discrepancy resolution: Gibson appears on both charts' Top Tier footnote but is absent from the MRS top-20 ranking in both FY24 and FY25 (it shows up only in the MRS county fee tables, ~49k population — far too small to make either top-20 list). Its Top Tier status therefore comes from the employer-petition mechanism (MRS footnote 3: a county gains Top Tier when an employer creates 50+ new child-care slots, majority ages 0–3). Because the operational chart footnote governs reimbursement, Gibson is modeled as Top Tier in both eras. (The FY25 MRS prose also self-contradicts — it says "26 counties" but enumerates 25; the 26th is a stale FY24 copy-paste, and the extra chart name is Gibson, not a phantom.)

Requirements Coverage

The table below maps the implemented requirements. Deferred or approximated pathways are listed under Not Modeled.

REQ	Description	Param	Variable	Test
001	Smart Steps working/post-secondary, ≤85% SMI	income/smi_rate/initial	tn_ccap_eligible, tn_ccap_income_eligible, tn_ccap_activity_eligible	eligibility/*
002	Families First categorical	—	tn_ccap_eligible (is_tanf_enrolled)	tn_ccap_eligible, integration
006	≥1 eligible child in care	—	tn_ccap_eligible	tn_ccap_eligible
007	Child age < 13	eligibility/child_age_limit	tn_ccap_eligible_child	tn_ccap_eligible_child
008	Disabled-child age < 19; court-supervision pathway deferred	eligibility/special_needs_age_limit	tn_ccap_eligible_child	tn_ccap_eligible_child
009	Countable gross wages or salary	income/countable_income/sources	tn_ccap_countable_income	tn_ccap_countable_income
010	Initial ceiling 85% SMI	income/smi_rate/initial	tn_ccap_income_eligible	tn_ccap_income_eligible
011	Enrolled ceiling 100% SMI from 10/1/2025	income/smi_rate/enrolled	tn_ccap_income_eligible	tn_ccap_income_eligible
012	Enrolled ceiling 85% SMI before 10/1/2025	income/smi_rate/enrolled	tn_ccap_income_eligible	tn_ccap_income_eligible
013	SMI via federal smi() + Oct-1 pin	—	tn_ccap_smi	tn_ccap_smi
015	Asset limit $1M	—	tn_ccap_eligible (is_ccdf_asset_eligible)	tn_ccap_eligible
016	Immigration	—	tn_ccap_eligible_child (is_ccdf_immigration_eligible_child)	tn_ccap_eligible_child
017	Activity ≥ 30 hrs/wk or FT student	activity/weekly_hours	tn_ccap_activity_eligible	tn_ccap_activity_eligible
018	Two-parent: both parents	—	tn_ccap_activity_eligible	tn_ccap_activity_eligible
021	Copay 5% of gross	copay/rate	tn_ccap_copay	tn_ccap_copay
022	Pre-10/1/2025 waiver ≤150% FPL	copay/fpl_waiver_threshold	tn_ccap_copay	tn_ccap_copay
023	From 10/1/2025 no FPL waiver	copay/fpl_waiver_threshold	tn_ccap_copay	tn_ccap_copay
024	Part-time copay = half; FT ≥ 20 hrs	copay/part_time_share, time/full_time_threshold	tn_ccap_part_time, tn_ccap_copay	tn_ccap_part_time, tn_ccap_copay
025	Weekly double-floor ÷ 4.3, per-child split	copay/weeks_per_month	tn_ccap_copay	tn_ccap_copay
026	Federal 7% ceiling; TN uses 5%	copay/rate	tn_ccap_copay	(implicit)
027	Waived categories	—	tn_ccap_copay	tn_ccap_copay
028	Provider type	rates/{child_care_center,group_home,family_home,authorized}	tn_ccap_provider_type	tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit
029	Age category (School In)	age_category/{infant,toddler}_max_months	tn_ccap_age_category	tn_ccap_age_category
030	County tier	county_tier/top_tier_counties	tn_ccap_county_tier	tn_ccap_county_tier
031	QRIS tier	rates/qris_bonus	tn_ccap_qris_tier	tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit
032	QRIS bonus +15/20% → +5/10% @1/1/2026	rates/qris_bonus	tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit	tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit
033	Part-time rate ½, rounded up	rates/part_time_share	tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit	tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit
034	Infant differential +15%	rates/infant_differential	tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit	tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit
035	Disability differential +15%	rates/disability_differential	tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit	tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit
036	Toddler differential eliminated 10/1/2025 (partial)	rates/toddler_differential	tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit	tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit
037	Pay lesser of charge and rate	—	tn_ccap	tn_ccap, integration
038	Per-child max weekly benefit	(rates)	tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit	tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit
039	Benefit = min(expenses, annualized) − copay	—	tn_ccap	tn_ccap, integration
041	Register tn_child_care_subsidies	child_care_subsidy_programs.yaml, programs.yaml	tn_child_care_subsidies	tn_child_care_subsidies

Not Modeled

What	Source	Why excluded
Court-supervised child age extension	State Plan §2.2.1(c)	Awaiting a general cross-program is_under_court_supervision input; tracked in #9055
Disabled parent's inability to meet child-care needs	State Plan §2.2.2	is_disabled is used as a proxy; inability to care is not separately modeled
Transitional Child Care (18-mo post-TANF, ≤60% SMI)	T.C.A. §71-3-104; State Plan §2.3.1e	No post-TANF-transition input flag
Child-only guardians of a TANF relative child (≤60% SMI)	1240-01-54-.01	No guardian input flag
Teen parents in middle/high school (≤85% SMI)	1240-01-54-.01	No teen-parent-in-school input flag
Seasonal earnings-fluctuation continuity	State Plan §2.2.5	Not simulatable
Graduate 6/8 study-hour rules	State Plan §2.2.2	Beyond available inputs
Part-year / 10-month worker off-month eligibility	State Plan §2.2.2	Not simulatable
Funding-availability waitlist (from 8/26/2025)	FAQ	Funding-driven, not rule-based
School Out (summer) rates for school-age children	rate chart	No school-calendar input; default to School In
Desert/distressed-county +15% and non-traditional-hours +15% differentials	FAQ; Oct 2024 chart	No distressed-county or care-schedule-hours input; both sunset 10/1/2025 (only affect the 10/2024–9/2025 window). This is the partial portion of REQ-036 — the toddler +15% elimination IS modeled.

Historical Notes

Four effective-date eras are represented and deliberately not collapsed:

• 6/1/2024 — income-limit / copay chart era (85% SMI ceiling, 150% FPL copay waiver, 60/85 SMI copay bands). The top-level benefit remains zero until reimbursement rates begin on 10/1/2024. Source: June 2024 Income & Co-Pay Chart.
• 10/1/2024 — base reimbursement-rate chart + FY24 county list (27 Top Tier incl. Dyer); QRIS +15%/+20%; toddler / desert-distressed / non-traditional-hours differentials all active. Source: Oct 2024 Rate Chart, FY24 MRS.
• 10/1/2025 — copay 150% FPL waiver removed (5% for all); Smart Steps Plus adds the 100% SMI enrolled ceiling; toddler / desert-distressed / non-traditional-hours differentials eliminated. Sources: Oct 2025 Income & Co-Pay Chart, Funding FAQ.
• 1/1/2026 — QRIS bonus reduced to +5%/+10%; FY25 county list (26 Top Tier, Dyer dropped). Sources: Jan 2026 Rate Chart, FY25 MRS.

For Reviewer Confirmation

• special_needs_age_limit = 19 is taken from CCDF State Plan §2.2.1(b) for children incapable of self-care. The court-supervision pathway in §2.2.1(c) is intentionally deferred to Add a general court-supervision input variable #9055.

Files Added

55 new files (24 parameters, 17 variables, 14 tests), plus 2 registry edits and a changelog fragment.

Parameters (policyengine_us/parameters/gov/states/tn/dhs/ccap/):

activity/weekly_hours.yaml
in_effect.yaml
age_category/infant_max_months.yaml
age_category/toddler_max_months.yaml
copay/fpl_waiver_threshold.yaml
copay/part_time_share.yaml
copay/rate.yaml
copay/weeks_per_month.yaml
county_tier/top_tier_counties.yaml
eligibility/child_age_limit.yaml
eligibility/special_needs_age_limit.yaml
income/countable_income/sources.yaml
income/smi_rate/enrolled.yaml
income/smi_rate/initial.yaml
rates/authorized.yaml
rates/child_care_center.yaml
rates/disability_differential.yaml
rates/family_home.yaml
rates/group_home.yaml
rates/infant_differential.yaml
rates/part_time_share.yaml
rates/qris_bonus.yaml
rates/toddler_differential.yaml
time/full_time_threshold.yaml

Variables (policyengine_us/variables/gov/states/tn/dhs/ccap/):

tn_ccap.py
tn_child_care_subsidies.py
tn_ccap_protective_services_waiver.py
tn_ccap_countable_income.py
tn_ccap_smi.py
tn_ccap_enrolled.py
tn_ccap_provider_type.py
tn_ccap_qris_tier.py
tn_ccap_county_tier.py
tn_ccap_age_category.py
tn_ccap_part_time.py
eligibility/tn_ccap_eligible.py
eligibility/tn_ccap_eligible_child.py
eligibility/tn_ccap_income_eligible.py
eligibility/tn_ccap_activity_eligible.py
copay/tn_ccap_copay.py
payment/tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit.py

Tests (policyengine_us/tests/policy/baseline/gov/states/tn/dhs/ccap/, 130 cases):

integration.yaml                              (8)
tn_ccap.yaml                                  (8)
tn_ccap_age_category.yaml                     (11)
tn_ccap_countable_income.yaml                 (4)
tn_ccap_county_tier.yaml                      (7)
tn_ccap_part_time.yaml                        (5)
tn_ccap_smi.yaml                              (6)
tn_child_care_subsidies.yaml                  (3)
copay/tn_ccap_copay.yaml                      (16)
eligibility/tn_ccap_activity_eligible.yaml    (12)
eligibility/tn_ccap_eligible.yaml             (11)
eligibility/tn_ccap_eligible_child.yaml       (8)
eligibility/tn_ccap_income_eligible.yaml      (11)
payment/tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit.yaml       (20)

Registry / changelog:

policyengine_us/parameters/gov/hhs/ccdf/child_care_subsidy_programs.yaml   (added tn_child_care_subsidies)
policyengine_us/programs.yaml                                              (TN CCAP entry under CCDF state_implementations)
changelog.d/tn-ccap.added.md

Test plan

• 130 tests pass across 14 test files (policyengine_us/tests/policy/baseline/gov/states/tn/dhs/ccap)
• Ruff format and lint pass
• Parameter/schema checks pass (7 tests)
• Microsimulation checks pass (6 tests)
• Remote CI passes

[DTrim99]

Program Review — Tennessee Smart Steps CCAP (new program)

PR #9040 — Tennessee Child Care Payment Assistance (CCAP / Smart Steps / Child Care Certificate). Read-only multi-agent review (regulatory, PDF value audit, code pattern, test coverage). No files were edited.

Scope — what it implements

New state program tree under gov/states/tn/dhs/ccap/ administered by TDHS under CCDF: ~25 parameter groups + 17 variables + 6 YAML test files (+ integration), covering FFY 2024-10 onward across the 2025 and 2026 policy eras. This is the revised PR — it also addresses the prior TN CCAP review findings by adding the protective-services pathway.

Program mechanics implemented:

• Two-tier income limit — initial 85% SMI (new applicants); enrolled 85% → 100% SMI from 2025-10-01 (Smart Steps Plus), pinned to FFY (Oct 1) via tn_ccap_smi.
• Reimbursement rates — 4 provider types × TOP/LOWER tier × 5 age categories; infant/disability +15%; toddler +15% then 0 on 2025-10-01; QRIS bonus +15/20% → +5/10% on 2026-01-01.
• Copay — 5% of monthly countable income, double whole-dollar floor (monthly then /4.3 weekly), split among in-care children, part-time half-share; waived ≤150% FPL pre-2025-10 (then 0), TANF, protective-services, Head Start.
• Protective-services pathway (prior-review fix) — full income/activity/asset waiver, gated on BOTH a protective-services child AND the tn_ccap_protective_services_waiver input.
• Subsidy formula + aggregation — per-child lesser-of(annualized max weekly benefit, provider charge) − copay, floored at 0; tn_child_care_subsidies (YEAR, adds=["tn_ccap"]) wired into the federal child_care_subsidy_programs.yaml.

CI: 31/31 pass.
Branch: 11 ahead, 54 behind main (rebase recommended).
Sources: 5 official TDHS PDFs (2024-06 & 2025-10 income/copay charts, 2024-10 & 2026-01 rate/QRIS charts, CCDF State Plan FFY 2025-2027) + the TDHS "Update on Child Care Funding" page — all reachable (HTTP 200) and text-extractable.

Verified correct

Rate/copay value audit — sample of ~28 cells, 0 mismatch (all 5 PDFs reachable):

• 14 base weekly rate cells across 4 provider types × 2 tiers × 5 age categories — base rates identical between the 2024 and 2026 charts; repo carries a single 2024-10-01 value, correct for both eras.
• Differentials: infant +15%, disability +15%, toddler +15% → 0 on 2025-10-01 all confirmed against both chart eras.
• QRIS bonus: +15/20% → +5/10% (2024 vs 2026 footnotes) confirmed; 8 computed QRIS cells reproduce chart columns.
• Copay: 5% rate, weeks_per_month 4.3 (chart worked example $1,895 → $94 → $21 confirms the two-step floor), 150% FPL waiver ending 2025-10, part-time 0.5.
• SMI shares: initial 0.85, enrolled 0.85 → 1.0 (100% SMI Smart Steps Plus bump) from 2025-10.
• Top-tier county lists: 2024 (27 counties incl. Dyer) and 2026 (26 counties, Dyer dropped, Gibson retained) match exactly.

Protective-services fix — pinned in BOTH directions (tn_ccap_eligible.yaml): Case 9/12 = protective child + waiver input → eligible (Case 12 also waives the asset test); Case 10 = protective child, no waiver input → ineligible; Case 11 = waiver input, no protective child → ineligible. Precisely pins the has_protective_child & protective_services_waiver AND-guard.

Code cleanliness (0 critical): no hard-coded policy values (every literal is a parameter read); double-floor copay coded as intended with max_(income, 0) negative guard; entity/period chain sound end-to-end (SPMUnit MONTH → YEAR wrapper → federal list); enums well-formed; defined_for = StateCode.TN on every state variable; references in correct format; changelog + programs.yaml entries present.

7 regulatory confirmations (0 critical): two-tier income limit, reimbursement-rate structure + dated changes, copay + all waivers, protective-services pathway, eligibility gates (age/special-needs/immigration/activity/$1M asset), per-child lesser-of subsidy formula, and reuse/convention (shared smi()/CCDF helpers, standard xx_child_care_subsidies wrapper) — each substantively correct.

Critical (must fix)

None.

Should address

1. Self-employment income excluded from countable income — tn_ccap_countable_income / income/countable_income/sources.yaml adds only employment_income. §2.2.2.a.ii treats self-employment as a qualifying work activity, so a self-employed parent can be activity-eligible yet have zero countable income (always passes the income test, owes no 5%-of-income copay). The §2.2.4 checklist's single checked line is "Gross wages or salary," so the citation is accurate — recommend counting self-employment as gross wages/salary or documenting the exclusion as an explicit scope limitation. (Test Case 3 hard-codes the exclusion → intentional but under-documented.)

2. Special-needs age limit is 19 while the State Plan answer is "18.00" — eligibility/*special_needs_age_limit: 19 with age < 19 is numerically equivalent to "upper age 18" and satisfies the federal "may not equal or exceed 19" ceiling, but the parameter value doesn't literally match the State Plan's stated 18.00. Set the limit to 18 with age <= limit, or add a comment that age < 19 ≡ "upper age 18."

3. Court-supervision special-needs extension unmodeled — §2.2.1(c) elects the court-supervision extension (upper age 18) but only the disability path drives special_needs_age_limit. Comments acknowledge this ("awaits a general input variable"). Under-inclusive for a narrow population; acceptable as a documented scope gap but worth surfacing.

4. Parameter description/label wording — rates/{authorized,child_care_center,family_home,group_home}.yaml:1 use the plural placeholder "these ... rates"; the house pattern favors a singular generic ("this weekly state reimbursement rate"). A few sibling params (e.g. copay/rate.yaml:1, smi_rate/enrolled.yaml:1) and labels (weekly_hours.yaml) run to the verbose end of the one-sentence / [State] [PROGRAM] [short concept] guideline. Minor.

5. + 0.5 rounding literal in a formula — payment/tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit.py:39 np.floor(base_rate * (1 + p.qris_bonus[qris_tier]) + 0.5) is a round-half-up helper, not a policy value, but a bare 0.5 can trip a fast scan. Add an inline comment ("+0.5 rounds the QRIS-bonused rate to the nearest whole dollar") or use np.round(...). Confirm the whole-dollar rounding against the chart (not a code-pattern defect).

6. Federal roll-up never asserted with a positive TN value — tn_child_care_subsidies.yaml Case 3 asserts federal child_care_subsidies: 0 only in the pre-rate era. No test asserts a positive tn_child_care_subsidies flows up into the federal child_care_subsidies aggregator, so a broken/missing child_care_subsidy_programs.yaml list entry would pass all tests. Add child_care_subsidies: 9_629.20 to Case 1 to guard the registry hookup. (This is the single hookup with no would-fail-if-broken test.)

7. tn_ccap_smi FFY Oct-1 branch never exercised — every tn_ccap_smi case uses YYYY-01 (month < 10), which always resolves to the year-1 FFY instant; the if month >= 10 branch (instant_str = f"{year}-10-01") is never hit. The YAML harness cannot test a YYYY-10 period, so this is a structural limitation — worth a NOTE that the Oct-boundary transition is unverified by tests. Not critical (the pin is deterministic and the January resolution is well covered).

Suggestions

1. tn_ccap_enrolled and tn_ccap_protective_services_waiver are microdata-invisible input booleans defaulting false, so in population microsimulation no household ever receives the Smart Steps Plus (85–100% SMI) band or the protective-services waiver. Correct conservative default; note the population-level effect (enrolled-redetermination and protective-services caseloads modeled at zero) as a known limitation.
2. Copay waives TANF/protective/Head Start but not the MH/SA or DCS categories the funding update also lists as exempt; those map to protective-services categories of care (reachable via the waiver path). A one-line comment tying MH/SA and DCS to the protective-services waiver would pre-empt a perceived gap.
3. tn_ccap_smi re-implements FFY Oct-1 pinning with a Python if month >= 10 branch (peer-consistent with la_ccap_smi.py). A period-based parameter lookup would be more idiomatic; purely stylistic.
4. tn_ccap.py:19 if not p.in_effect: return 0 is doubly protected by the 2024-10-01 first entry on every rate param — harmless redundancy (Case 8 exercises the false branch).
5. payment/tn_ccap_max_weekly_benefit.py:32 indexes p.qris_bonus[qris_tier] for every provider (incl. AUTHORIZED) before where(is_licensed_provider, ...) discards it — micro-optimization only (Case 20 confirms authorized gets no bonus).
6. SCHOOL_OUT rate rows / enum member are transcribed but intentionally unreachable (no monthly school-calendar input); documented. No action — noting the dead-but-retained values for the reviewer.
7. child_care_subsidy_programs.yaml:16-17 new entry has a trailing blank line before metadata: — cosmetic whitespace only (list values stay above metadata:, no orphaned-value trap).
8. County-tier Dyer dated transition is covered via the tier variable (tn_ccap_county_tier.yaml Case 5/6) but not via the dollar benefit; an integration case pricing a Dyer child in each era would harden the tier→rate wiring (redundant with existing coverage).
9. Month-varying roll-up case absent for the adds= YEAR wrapper — 12× summation is engine behavior; optional hardening only.

Caveats

• The rate/copay value audit is a SAMPLE (~28 cells: 14 base-rate, 8 QRIS computed, 6 copay/SMI-share/part-time, 2 county lists), not an exhaustive cell-by-cell diff of the full 4×2×5 rate matrix. 0 mismatches in the sampled cells; a full sweep was not performed.
• Branch is 54 commits behind main — rebase onto upstream/main before merge.

Validation summary

Area	Result
Regulatory	0 critical; 3 should, 3 suggestion; all 7 verify items confirmed correct
Rate/copay value audit (SAMPLE)	~28 cells checked, 0 mismatch; all 5 PDFs reachable
Code pattern	0 critical; 3 should, 6 suggestion; no hard-codes, sound entity/period chain
Tests	No critical gaps; protective-services fix pinned both directions; 2 MEDIUM
CI	31/31 pass

Review severity: APPROVE

Zero criticals across all four reviews, the sampled rate/copay audit is 0-mismatch, the prior-review findings are verifiably fixed, and the protective-services pathway is pinned in both directions — the should-address items are documentation/wording and test-hardening, none blocking.

Next steps

/fix-pr 9040

🤖 Generated by /review-program (Claude Code)