BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2104
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2104 (Gordon)
As Amended May 25, 2012
Majority vote
EDUCATION 10-0 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Brownley, Norby, Ammiano, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Blumenfield, |
| |Buchanan, Butler, Carter, | |Bradford, Charles |
| |Eng, Grove, Halderman, | |Calderon, Campos, Davis, |
| |Williams | |Gatto, Ammiano, Hill, |
| | | |Lara, Mitchell, Solorio |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | |Nays:|Harkey, Donnelly, |
| | | |Nielsen, Norby, Wagner |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Repeals and makes changes to provisions related to the
Prekindergarten and Family Literacy Programs (PKFL).
Specifically, this bill :
1)Specifies that state preschool programs are part-day and
full-day age and developmentally appropriate programs designed
to facilitate the transition of three- and four-year-old
children to kindergarten.
2)Repeals the provisions requiring a participating PKFL program
to coordinate family literacy and staff development activities
and instead incorporates both provisions into the section of
law specifying the duties of a participating California State
Preschool Program (CSPP) that receive funds to provide family
literacy and staff development activities.
3)Repeals the provisions that do the following:
a) Require a participating PKFL program to provide age and
developmentally appropriate activities for children in
participating classrooms that are designed to facilitate
their transition to kindergarten;
b) Authorize a local educational agency or a participating
PKFL program to select a family literacy and education
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coordinator whose duties may include developing a system to
coordinate the provision of literacy services, creating an
organizational partnership between program provider, an
adult education program or other community provider, and
promoting parental involvement in participating classrooms;
c) Allocate $45 million to reimburse participating PKFL
programs on a per-child basis at the same rate that is used
for the state preschool program, as determined in the
annual Budget Act or other statute, allocated to programs
located within the areas of elementary schools in deciles 1
to 3, based on the 2005 Academic Performance Index (API);
d) Allocate $5 million to distribute to preschool
classrooms for parent literacy and staff development
activities.
e) Require funds for the PKFL to serve children who would
attend kindergarten in the subsequent academic year and
prohibit a child from receiving services for more than one
year;
f) Authorize a PKFL program to provide services to children
in families above the income eligibility threshold at a
maximum of 20% of contracted slots, calculated through the
participating program's entire contract;
g) Require the California Department of Education (CDE) to
provide an annual report to the Department of Finance and
the Legislature on the number of children being served in
the CSPP, including the number of children served above the
income eligibility threshold and the age of all children
served;
h) Restrict eligibility to participating programs that were
eligible to receive funds in the 2007-08 fiscal year (FY),
specify that appropriation of funds beyond the amounts
specified in the PKFL shall be pursuant to the annual
Budget Act or other statute;
i) Authorize programs receiving PKFL funds to participate
in all CSPP administered by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI);
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j) Require the SPI to conduct an evaluation of the
effectiveness of prekindergarten and family literacy
programs, and to the extent possible: i) require the
evaluation to rely on quantifiable measures of academic
achievement of participating children, including, but not
limited to, performance on the Standardized Testing and
Reporting Program test and the English language development
test administered in grade 3; and, ii) the estimated costs
and benefits of the programs; and,
aa) Authorize up to $5 million of unearned contract funds
for general child care programs to be used to provide
direct child care services for children in participating
classrooms to meet the child care needs of parents for the
portion of each day that is not covered by services
provided by the PKFL.
4)Specifies that a family literacy supplemental grant shall be
made available and distributed to qualifying California state
preschool classrooms, as determined by the SPI, at a rate of
$2,500 per class. Requires funds to be distributed by the SPI
according to the following priorities:
a) First priority shall be assigned to CSPP programs that
are contracted to receive funds before July 1, 2013.
Specifies that these programs shall receive funding until
their contract is terminated or the CSPP no longer provides
family literacy services; and,
b) Second priority shall be assigned to CSPP operating
classrooms located in the attendance area of elementary
schools in deciles 1 to 3 based on the most recently
published API. Requires the SPI to use a lottery process
to implement the second priority allocations.
5)Specifies that a family literacy supplemental grant shall be
used for purposes specified in Education Code Section 8238,
which specifies interactive literacy, parent education, and
staff development activities.
6)Strikes the provisions that apply in order to facilitate a
full day of services for CSPP, and instead specifies that
subsequent to enrollment, a child shall be deemed eligible for
part-day care as long as the child is enrolled in a preschool
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program.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, General Fund/Proposition 98 cost pressure, likely in
between $125,000 and $150,000, to provide additional funding for
PKFL classrooms.
COMMENTS : The CDE administers a child care and development
system, maintaining 1,401 service contracts with approximately
758 public and private agencies supporting and providing
services to children from birth to 13 years of age. Contractors
include school districts, county offices of education, cities,
colleges, other public entities, community-based organizations,
and private agencies. In FY 2011-12, $2.017 billion was
provided for child care and development programs from state and
federal funds, enrolling an estimated 345,000 children. This is
down from $2.669 billion initially provided in the FY 2010-11
budget (prior to midyear trigger cuts) with almost 416,000
slots; of which, 145,000 were CSPP slots.
The PKFL program, established through AB 172 (Chan), Chapter
211, Statutes of 2006, provides child development and family
literacy services to those who reside in the attendance areas of
deciles 1-3 elementary schools. Eligibility is limited to
children who would be attending kindergarten the subsequent
year; attendance is limited to one year. AB 172 allocated $45
million for provider reimbursement and $5 million for family
literacy and support activities, allocated at $2,500 per class
for this purpose. AB 172 directed an additional $5 million from
the general child care and development program to provide "wrap
around" service to enable families receiving services under the
PKFL to receive full day care.
According to the SPI, the sponsor of this bill, this bill
consolidates the PKFL into the CSPP to streamline all statutory
funding requirements for CSPP. The SPI states that prior to the
enactment of AB 2759 (Jones), Chapter 308, Statutes of 2008,
there were three separate preschool and child care programs, the
State Preschool programs, PKFL, and general child care and
development programs. AB 2759 consolidated the programs into
the CSPP. According to the California Department of Education
(CDE), at the request of then Governor Schwarzenegger, the PKFL
statutes were left in the Education Code. The SPI states,
"Although AB 2759 removed much of the administrative burden at
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the local and state level, the retention of the PKFL statute
continues to create confusion and require burdensome
administrative actions for both the CDE and child care
providers."
Since the enactment of AB 2759, the $50 million budget line item
for the PKFL program was folded into the funding for CSPP in FY
2009-10. While the original PKFL grantees have maintained
funds, the CDE now gives contractors a choice to operate the
program under the PKFL or CSPP. The intent of the PKFL were
two-folds: 1) to provide access to children who live in
attendance areas of schools with low-performing achievements;
and, 2) to provide interactive literacy activities, activities
in which parents or legal guardians actively participate in
facilitating the acquisition by their children of prereading
skills through guided activities. This bill strikes the
allocations for the PKFL and most of the provisions outlining
the PKFL program, but retains a $2,500 family literacy
supplemental grant provided to programs located in deciles 1-3
areas.
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0003978