Family, Children & Caregiving · Surprise rank #138
Get Medicaid Home Services for Your Child Without Counting Parent Income!
New York's Children's Waiver lets qualifying children and youth receive Medicaid home- and community-based services to avoid institutional care, and waiver eligibility can allow the child's Medicaid determination without parental income/resources being counted in the ordinary way.
Who
Children and youth under 21 who meet the Children's Waiver's level-of-care, risk and functional eligibility rules.
What to do
Start here: If the child does not have Medicaid, contact the current DOH/OMH Children's Waiver evaluation route. If the child already has Medicaid, ask the Health Home/care-management route about HCBS eligibility.
Eligibility: The child must meet Children's Waiver eligibility. For children without Medicaid, DOH/OMH now handles the qualification process and Medicaid application support through the current C-YES structure.
What you get
Children's Waiver enrollment can open specialized HCBS such as respite, caregiver/family supports, community services and other approved supports, together with the Medicaid route needed for the waiver.
Benefit: Medicaid coverage and approved home- and community-based services that can help keep the child at home and in the community.
Possible value: Potentially very high depending on the services authorized; there is no fixed cash award.
Good to know
Important: The parental-income disregard is a waiver pathway, not a general rule that every child can get Medicaid regardless of parent income. The child must first meet the waiver's clinical/functional requirements.
Availability: Active; care-coordination structure updated in 2026
Why people miss it: Families denied ordinary child Medicaid because of household income may never learn that a qualifying HCBS waiver uses a different Medicaid pathway.
Sources reviewed: Aug 10, 2026