Yes, you can get paid to care for a disabled child in Florida, but only through specific Medicaid-funded programs with their own eligibility rules, training, and in one case a long waitlist. The two routes are Consumer Directed Care Plus (CDC+), a self-directed option inside the iBudget waiver for children with developmental disabilities, and the Family Home Health Aide Program for medically fragile children. Which one fits depends on your child’s diagnosis, not your preference.
Consumer Directed Care Plus for Developmental Disabilities
CDC+ sits inside the iBudget waiver, Florida’s Home and Community-Based Services waiver for people with developmental disabilities, administered by the Agency for Persons with Disabilities.1Agency for Persons with Disabilities. iBudget Florida The standard waiver gives enrollees flexibility to choose services; CDC+ goes further by letting the enrollee or their representative directly hire and manage caregivers, family members included.
Parents can be paid to provide companion services under CDC+, which cover supervision, socialization, and help with daily activities.2Agency for Persons with Disabilities. Questions and Answers – Consumer Directed Care Plus (CDC+) There is a structural catch: the person who manages the CDC+ plan, called the representative, cannot also be the paid provider. So if you want to be the paid caregiver, someone else — a spouse, grandparent, or other family member — has to serve as representative. Family providers also go through background screening and a training sequence specific to CDC+.
One point that trips families up: you cannot enter CDC+ directly. Your child has to qualify for and enroll in the iBudget waiver first, then elect the self-directed option. That means the waiver waitlist, discussed below, stands between most families and this paycheck.
Family Home Health Aide for Medically Fragile Children
The Family Home Health Aide (FHHA) Program, run by the Department of Children and Families, serves a different population: children whose conditions require hands-on medical and personal care at home.3Florida Department of Children and Families. Home Health Aide for Medically Fragile Children Program A developmental disability diagnosis is not required. FHHA is built for children with tracheostomies, feeding tubes, seizure disorders, and similar needs requiring ongoing skilled intervention.
To be paid under FHHA, a parent completes a 75-hour home health aide training course covering general home care along with child-specific tasks like G-tube feeding, seizure monitoring, and tracheostomy care.4Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. Home Health Aides A registered nurse delivers the child-specific instruction, and you have to demonstrate competency before taking on those tasks. Current CPR certification is required at all times, and more training follows whenever the child’s care plan changes.
After certification, you get hired by a licensed, Medicaid-enrolled home health agency. The agency bills Medicaid and pays you as an employee. You do not bill the state yourself. Finding a participating agency willing to employ parent caregivers is a practical step that sometimes takes persistence.
Which Children Qualify
For the iBudget waiver and CDC+, your child must have one of six qualifying developmental disabilities under Florida law:
- Intellectual disability
- Autism
- Cerebral palsy
- Spina bifida
- Down syndrome
- Prader-Willi syndrome
The condition must manifest before age 18 and amount to a substantial limitation expected to continue indefinitely.5Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 393.063 – Definitions The waiver generally serves individuals age three and older, and your child must meet the level of care typically provided in an intermediate care facility for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Because iBudget is a Medicaid program, Medicaid financial eligibility also applies, and for a child living with parents, a portion of parental income and assets may count.
For FHHA, the gateway is the child’s medical fragility rather than a developmental disability diagnosis. Medicaid eligibility is still required because the program bills Medicaid for services.
The iBudget Waitlist
This is where most families hit a wall. As of January 2026, roughly 16,996 people were on the iBudget pre-enrollment waiting list, with about 36,707 actively enrolled.6Florida Senate. CS/HB 565 – Agency for Persons with Disabilities Bill Analysis Enrollment is not first-come-first-served. APD places each applicant in one of seven priority categories:
- Category 1: crisis situations posing immediate risk
- Category 2: children exiting the child welfare system at permanency or turning 18
- Category 3: intensive needs
- Category 4: caregiver age 60 or older
- Category 5: transitioning from school
- Category 6: age 21 and over
- Category 7: under age 21
Categories move in that order, so a child in crisis goes to the front while a child under 21 in a stable home sits in Category 7, which can mean years of waiting.7Florida Senate. CS/CS/CS/HB 1271 – Individuals with Disabilities Bill Analysis About half of people on the waitlist get some Medicaid State Plan services during the wait, but those do not include paid-caregiver options. There is no shortcut for non-crisis families. Get on the list early, and if your child’s situation deteriorates, contact APD to request reassignment to a higher category.
How to Apply
iBudget and CDC+
Start with your local APD regional office for an eligibility determination. You will need documentation of a qualifying diagnosis, which can include psychological assessments, medical records, or developmental evaluations. APD uses the Questionnaire for Situational Information and other tools to assess need and assign a priority category.
If your child’s needs exceed the standard tier allocation and you want additional funding later, APD requires further documentation depending on the category of need: psychological assessments, psychiatric reports, and 12 months of behavior data for behavioral concerns; physician documentation and nursing care plans for complex medical conditions; and an updated Questionnaire for Situational Information for physical assistance needs.8Agency for Persons with Disabilities. Documentation Requirements Once enrolled, you request the CDC+ option, a representative (someone other than you) works with a consultant to build the service plan and budget, and you can then be hired to provide companion services.
Family Home Health Aide
Contact the Department of Children and Families to begin. You will need to document your child’s medical fragility and current Medicaid eligibility, complete the 75-hour training, and then find a licensed, Medicaid-enrolled home health agency willing to employ you.
What You Can Expect to Earn
Caregiver pay under these programs is not comparable to a full-time salary. The amount depends on the services authorized in your child’s care plan and the applicable Medicaid reimbursement rates. Florida’s 2025 Medicaid fee schedule for personal care services lists roughly $17.32 per hour for a single recipient. Under CDC+, you receive a monthly budget based on your child’s assessed needs and tier assignment and allocate it across authorized services. Annual budget caps by tier run from about $34,125 for a Tier 3 placement, which includes many children living at home, up to $150,000 for Tier 1 placements involving the most intensive needs.
Under FHHA, the home health agency pays you out of its Medicaid reimbursement, so your take-home rate is lower than the agency’s billing rate, and exact pay varies by agency. Either way, the hours you can bill are capped by the approved care plan, not by how many hours you actually spend caregiving. Most families find the pay covers part of the care they provide, not all of it.
Tax Treatment of Caregiver Payments
Parent caregivers paid through a Medicaid waiver may be able to exclude that income from federal taxes entirely. Under IRS Notice 2014-7, Medicaid waiver payments to an individual care provider for nonmedical support services are treated as “difficulty of care” payments excludable from gross income when the care recipient lives in the provider’s home.9Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2014-7 For a parent caring for their child at home, the exclusion typically applies.
The exclusion applies whether or not the caregiver is related to the recipient and covers payments received on or after January 3, 2014. A provider cannot exclude payments for more than ten individuals under age 19 or more than five individuals age 19 and older, caps that rarely matter for a parent caring for one child.
There is a tradeoff. Excluded payments do not appear as taxable wages, but they also do not count toward Social Security work credits. If you are building toward your own future retirement or disability benefits, weigh that carefully.
How It Affects Your Child’s SSI and Medicaid
If your child receives Supplemental Security Income, your caregiver pay could reduce the monthly benefit. SSI’s maximum federal payment for an eligible individual in 2026 is $994 per month.10Social Security Administration. SSI Federal Payment Amounts for 2026 For a child under 18 living at home, the Social Security Administration counts a portion of parental income and resources through a process called deeming.11Social Security Administration. SSI for Children Even where your caregiver income is tax-exempt under Notice 2014-7, SSI applies its own income-counting rules that do not necessarily track the IRS exclusion. Contact your local Social Security office before accepting employment so you know how the benefit will change.
Medicaid is a better story. For children enrolled in Home and Community-Based Services waivers like iBudget, parental income deeming generally does not apply to Medicaid eligibility. Your child’s Medicaid, which is the foundation for every waiver service, should stay intact regardless of your caregiver income. That protection matters, because losing Medicaid would mean losing waiver services altogether.
One timing note: once your child turns 18, parental income and resources stop counting for SSI.12Social Security Administration. Benefits for Children with Disabilities A child who did not qualify before 18 because of your income may become eligible then, which can add monthly cash benefits on top of the caregiver pay.