BILL NUMBER: AB 274 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 9, 2013
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 24, 2013
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 24, 2013
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 10, 2013
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 19, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Bonilla
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Buchanan and Ian Calderon)
FEBRUARY 11, 2013
An act to amend Section 8208 of, and to add
Sections 8221.5, 8227.3, 8262.1, and 8262.3 to,
to the Education Code, relating to child care
and development services.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 274, as amended, Bonilla. Child care and development services.
(1) The Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by
the State Department of Education, provides that children up to 13
years of age are eligible, with certain requirements, for child care
and development services. The act requires the department to contract
with local contracting agencies to provide for alternative payment
programs, and authorizes alternative payment programs for services
provided in licensed centers and family day care homes and for other
types of programs that conform to applicable law.
This bill would require child care providers authorized to provide
services pursuant to those provisions to submit to the alternative
payment program a monthly attendance record or invoice for each child
who received services that , at a
minimum, documents hours of care provided based on
need certified by the alternative payment program. The bill would
specify the meaning of "attendance" for purposes of reimbursement to
providers through an alternative payment program , the
dates and actual times care was provided each day . The bill
would require the monthly attendance record or invoice to
include the dates and times of attendance, and , at a
minimum, be signed by the parent or guardian of the child receiving
services and the child care provider once per month to attest that
the child's attendance is accurately reflected. The bill would
require verification of attendance to be made by single
signature, signature at the end of each month of care
and under penalty of perjury, of
perjury by both the parent or guardian of the child receiving
services and the child care provider. By expanding the scope of the
crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local
program. The bill would require an alternative payment
providers program to accept the monthly
attendance record or invoice as documentation of the hours of care
provided if the attendance record or invoice includes adequate
information documented on a daily basis, as specified. The bill would
specify the hours or days and hours that an alternative payment
program is required to reimburse .
The bill would also authorize alternative payment programs and
providers and other contractors providing child care development
services to maintain records electronically
in electronic format if the original documents were created in
electronic format , including, but not limited to, child
immunization records.
(2) Existing law authorizes the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to enter into and execute local contractual agreements
with any public or private entity or agency for the delivery of child
care and development services related to the delivery of child care
and development services or the furnishing of property, facilities,
personnel, supplies, equipment, and administrative services related
to the delivery of child care development services.
This bill would require the department, on and after the date on
which the Superintendent determines that the Financial Information
System for California has been implemented within the department, at
the request of a contractor, to request the Controller to make
payments via direct deposit by electronic funds transfer, as
specified.
(3) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 8208 of the Education Code
is amended to read:
8208. As used in this chapter:
(a) "Alternative payments" includes payments that are made by one
child care agency to another agency or child care provider for the
provision of child care and development services, and payments that
are made by an agency to a parent for the parent's purchase of child
care and development services.
(b) "Alternative payment program" means a local government agency
or nonprofit organization that has contracted with the department
pursuant to Section 8220.1 to provide alternative payments and to
provide support services to parents and providers.
(c) "Applicant or contracting agency" means a school district,
community college district, college or university, county
superintendent of schools, county, city, public agency, private
nontax-exempt agency, private tax-exempt agency, or other entity that
is authorized to establish, maintain, or operate services pursuant
to this chapter. Private agencies and parent cooperatives, duly
licensed by law, shall receive the same consideration as any other
authorized entity with no loss of parental decisionmaking
prerogatives as consistent with the provisions of this chapter.
(d) "Assigned reimbursement rate" is that rate established by the
contract with the agency and is derived by dividing the total dollar
amount of the contract by the minimum child day of average daily
enrollment level of service required.
(e) (1) "Attendance" means the number of children present at a
child care and development facility where services are provided.
(2) For purposes of reimbursement, attendance includes excused
absences of children because of illness, quarantine, illness or
quarantine of their parent, family emergency, or to spend time with a
parent or other relative as required by a court of law or that is
clearly in the best interest of the child.
(3) For purposes of reimbursement to providers through an
alternative payment program, attendance includes any of the
following:
(A) The hours of service provided that are broadly consistent with
certified hours of need.
(B) For families with variable schedules, the actual days and
hours of attendance up to the maximum certified hours.
(C) In the case of license-exempt providers that provide part-time
services, the actual days and hours of attendance.
(4) For purposes of reimbursement to providers through an
alternative payment program, contractors shall not be required to
track absences.
(f) "Capital outlay" means the amount paid for the renovation and
repair of child care and development facilities to comply with state
and local health and safety standards, and the amount paid for the
state purchase of relocatable child care and development facilities
for lease to qualifying contracting agencies.
(g) "Caregiver" means a person who provides direct care,
supervision, and guidance to children in a child care and development
facility.
(h) "Child care and development facility" means a residence or
building or part of a residence or building in which child care and
development services are provided.
(i) "Child care and development programs" means those programs
that offer a full range of services for children from infancy to 13
years of age, for any part of a day, by a public or private agency,
in centers and family child care homes. These programs include, but
are not limited to, all of the following:
(1) General child care and development.
(2) Migrant child care and development.
(3) Child care provided by the California School Age Families
Education Program (Article 7.1 (commencing with Section 54740) of
Chapter 9 of Part 29 of Division 4 of Title 2).
(4) California state preschool program.
(5) Resource and referral.
(6) Child care and development services for children with
exceptional needs.
(7) Family child care home education network.
(8) Alternative payment.
(9) Schoolage community child care.
(j) "Child care and development services" means those services
designed to meet a wide variety of needs of children and their
families, while their parents or guardians are working, in training,
seeking employment, incapacitated, or in need of respite. These
services may include direct care and supervision, instructional
activities, resource and referral programs, and alternative payment
arrangements.
(k) "Children at risk of abuse, neglect, or exploitation" means
children who are so identified in a written referral from a legal,
medical, or social service agency, or emergency shelter.
(l) "Children with exceptional needs" means either of the
following:
(1) Infants and toddlers under three years of age who have been
determined to be eligible for early intervention services pursuant to
the California Early Intervention Services Act (Title 14 (commencing
with Section 95000) of the Government Code) and its implementing
regulations. These children include an infant or toddler with a
developmental delay or established risk condition, or who is at high
risk of having a substantial developmental disability, as defined in
subdivision (a) of Section 95014 of the Government Code. These
children shall have active individualized family service plans, shall
be receiving early intervention services, and shall be children who
require the special attention of adults in a child care setting.
(2) Children 3 to 21 years of age, inclusive, who have been
determined to be eligible for special education and related services
by an individualized education program team according to the special
education requirements contained in Part 30 (commencing with Section
56000) of Division 4 of Title 2, and who meet eligibility criteria
described in Section 56026 and, Article 2.5 (commencing with Section
56333) of Chapter 4 of Part 30 of Division 4 of Title 2, and Sections
3030 and 3031 of Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations.
These children shall have an active individualized education program,
shall be receiving early intervention services or appropriate
special education and related services, and shall be children who
require the special attention of adults in a child care setting.
These children include children with intellectual disabilities,
hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language
impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), serious
emotional disturbance (also referred to as emotional disturbance),
orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health
impairments, or specific learning disabilities, who need special
education and related services consistent with Section 1401(3)(A) of
Title 20 of the United States Code.
(m) "Closedown costs" means reimbursements for all approved
activities associated with the closing of operations at the end of
each growing season for migrant child development programs only.
(n) "Cost" includes, but is not limited to, expenditures that are
related to the operation of child care and development programs.
"Cost" may include a reasonable amount for state and local
contributions to employee benefits, including approved retirement
programs, agency administration, and any other reasonable program
operational costs. "Cost" may also include amounts for licensable
facilities in the community served by the program, including lease
payments or depreciation, downpayments, and payments of principal and
interest on loans incurred to acquire, rehabilitate, or construct
licensable facilities, but these costs shall not exceed fair market
rents existing in the community in which the facility is located.
"Reasonable and necessary costs" are costs that, in nature and
amount, do not exceed what an ordinary prudent person would incur in
the conduct of a competitive business.
(o) "Elementary school," as contained in former Section 425 of
Title 20 of the United States Code (the National Defense Education
Act of 1958, Public Law 85-864, as amended), includes early childhood
education programs and all child development programs, for the
purpose of the cancellation provisions of loans to students in
institutions of higher learning.
(p) "Family child care home education network" means an entity
organized under law that contracts with the department pursuant to
Section 8245 to make payments to licensed family child care home
providers and to provide educational and support services to those
providers and to children and families eligible for state-subsidized
child care and development services. A family child care home
education network may also be referred to as a family child care home
system.
(q) "Health services" include, but are not limited to, all of the
following:
(1) Referral, whenever possible, to appropriate health care
providers able to provide continuity of medical care.
(2) Health screening and health treatment, including a full range
of immunization recorded on the appropriate state immunization form
to the extent provided by the Medi-Cal Act (Chapter 7 (commencing
with Section 14000) of Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and
Institutions Code) and the Child Health and Disability Prevention
Program (Article 6 (commencing with Section 124025) of Chapter 3 of
Part 2 of Division 106 of the Health and Safety Code), but only to
the extent that ongoing care cannot be obtained utilizing community
resources.
(3) Health education and training for children, parents, staff,
and providers.
(4) Followup treatment through referral to appropriate health care
agencies or individual health care professionals.
(r) "Higher educational institutions" means the Regents of the
University of California, the Trustees of the California State
University, the Board of Governors of the California Community
Colleges, and the governing bodies of any accredited private
nonprofit institution of postsecondary education.
(s) "Intergenerational staff" means persons of various
generations.
(t) "Limited-English-speaking-proficient and
non-English-speaking-proficient children" means children who are
unable to benefit fully from an English-only child care and
development program as a result of either of the following:
(1) Having used a language other than English when they first
began to speak.
(2) Having a language other than English predominantly or
exclusively spoken at home.
(u) "Parent" means a biological parent, stepparent, adoptive
parent, foster parent, caretaker relative, or any other adult living
with a child who has responsibility for the care and welfare of the
child.
(v) "Program director" means a person who, pursuant to Sections
8244 and 8360.1, is qualified to serve as a program director.
(w) "Proprietary child care agency" means an organization or
facility providing child care, which is operated for profit.
(x) "Resource and referral programs" means programs that provide
information to parents, including referrals and coordination of
community resources for parents and public or private providers of
care. Services frequently include, but are not limited to: technical
assistance for providers, toy-lending libraries, equipment-lending
libraries, toy- and equipment-lending libraries, staff development
programs, health and nutrition education, and referrals to social
services.
(y) "Severely disabled children" are children with exceptional
needs from birth to 21 years of age, inclusive, who require intensive
instruction and training in programs serving pupils with the
following profound disabilities: autism, blindness, deafness, severe
orthopedic impairments, serious emotional disturbances, or severe
intellectual disabilities. "Severely disabled children" also include
those individuals who would have been eligible for enrollment in a
developmental center for handicapped pupils under former Chapter 6
(commencing with Section 56800) of Part 30 of Division 4 of Title 2
as it read on January 1, 1980.
(z) "Short-term respite child care" means child care service to
assist families whose children have been identified through written
referral from a legal, medical, or social service agency, or
emergency shelter as being neglected, abused, exploited, or homeless,
or at risk of being neglected, abused, exploited, or homeless. Child
care is provided for less than 24 hours per day in child care
centers, treatment centers for abusive parents, family child care
homes, or in the child's own home.
(aa) (1) "Site supervisor" means a person who, regardless of his
or her title, has operational program responsibility for a child care
and development program at a single site. A site supervisor shall
hold a permit issued by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing that
authorizes supervision of a child care and development program
operating in a single site. The Superintendent may waive the
requirements of this subdivision if the Superintendent determines
that the existence of compelling need is appropriately documented.
(2) For California state preschool programs, a site supervisor may
qualify under any of the provisions in this subdivision, or may
qualify by holding an administrative credential or an administrative
services credential. A person who meets the qualifications of a
program director under both Sections 8244 and 8360.1 is also
qualified under this subdivision.
(ab) "Standard reimbursement rate" means that rate established by
the Superintendent pursuant to Section 8265.
(ac) "Startup costs" means those expenses an agency incurs in the
process of opening a new or additional facility before the full
enrollment of children.
(ad) "California state preschool program" means part-day and
full-day educational programs for low-income or otherwise
disadvantaged three- and four-year-old children.
(ae) "Support services" means those services that, when combined
with child care and development services, help promote the healthy
physical, mental, social, and emotional growth of children. Support
services include, but are not limited to: protective services, parent
training, provider and staff training, transportation, parent and
child counseling, child development resource and referral services,
and child placement counseling.
(af) "Teacher" means a person with the appropriate permit issued
by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing who provides program
supervision and instruction that includes supervision of a number of
aides, volunteers, and groups of children.
(ag) "Underserved area" means a county or subcounty area,
including, but not limited to, school districts, census tracts, or
ZIP Code areas, where the ratio of publicly subsidized child care and
development program services to the need for these services is low,
as determined by the Superintendent.
(ah) "Workday" means the time that the parent requires temporary
care for a child for any of the following reasons:
(1) To undertake training in preparation for a job.
(2) To undertake or retain a job.
(3) To undertake other activities that are essential to
maintaining or improving the social and economic function of the
family, are beneficial to the community, or are required because of
health problems in the family.
(ai) "Three-year-old children" means children who will have their
third birthday on or before the date specified of the fiscal year in
which they are enrolled in a California state preschool program, as
follows:
(1) November 1 of the 2012-13 fiscal year.
(2) October 1 of the 2013-14 fiscal year.
(3) September 1 of the 2014-15 fiscal year and each fiscal year
thereafter.
(aj) "Four-year-old children" means children who will have their
fourth birthday on or before the date specified of the fiscal year in
which they are enrolled in a California state preschool program, as
follows:
(1) November 1 of the 2012-13 fiscal year.
(2) October 1 of the 2013-14 fiscal year.
(3) September 1 of the 2014-15 fiscal year and each fiscal year
thereafter.
(ak) "Local educational agency" means a school district, a county
office of education, a community college district, or a school
district on behalf of one or more schools within the school district.
SEC. 2. SECTION 1. Section 8221.5 is
added to the Education Code, to read:
8221.5. (a) Child care providers authorized to provide services
pursuant to this article shall submit to the alternative payment
program a monthly attendance record or invoice for each child who
received services that , at a minimum, documents
hours of care provided based on need certified by the alternative
payment program the dates and actual times care was
provided each day, including the time the child entered and the time
the child left care each day. The information shall be documented on
a daily basis .
(b) The monthly attendance record or invoice shall
include the dates and times of attendance. Verification of attendance
shall be made at the end of each month by single signature, under
penalty of perjury, of both shall, at a minimum, be
signed by the parent or guardian of the child receiving services
and the child care provider. provider once
per month to attest that the child's attendance is accurately
reflecte d. The verification of attendance shall be made
by signature at the end of each month of care and under
penalty of perjury by both the parent or guardian of the child
receiving services and the child care provider.
(c) The monthly attendance record or invoice may
shall be maintained by the child care provider
in the unaltered original format in which it was
created, which may be in paper form or electronically
electronic format .
(d) The alternative payment provider
program shall accept the monthly attendance record or invoice
as documentation of the hours of care provided.
provided if the attendance record or invoice includes adequate
information documented on a daily basis, including, at a
minimum, the dates and actual times care was provided each day,
including the time the child entered and the time the child left care
each day . The alternative payment program s
hall reimburse child care providers based upon the following
criteria:
(1) The hours of service provided that are broadly consistent with
certified hours of need.
(2) For families with variable schedules, the actual days and
hours of attendance, up to the maximum certified hours.
(3) For license-exempt providers that provide part-time services,
the actual days and hours of attendance, up to the maximum certified
hours.
(e) It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this section,
to simplify the attendance recording process. Therefore, the
adoption of regulations to implement this section shall not be
necessary.
(e) For purposes of reimbursement to providers through an
alternative payment program, contractors shall not be required to
track absences.
(f) For purposes of this section, a monthly attendance record or
invoice is defined as documentation that includes, at a minimum, the
name of the child receiving services, the dates and actual times care
was provided each day, including the time the child entered and the
time the child left care each day, that is signed under penalty of
perjury by both the parent or guardian and the child care provider,
attesting that the information provided is accurate.
SEC. 3. SEC. 2. Section 8227.3 is
added to the Education Code, to read:
8227.3. (a) Alternative payment programs and providers operating
or providing services pursuant to this article may maintain records
electronically, subject to compliance with necessary state
and federal auditing requirements in electronic format
only if the original documents were created in electronic format
. Records that may be created in electronic format and
maintained electronically include, but are not limited to, the
following:
(1) Child immunization records.
(2) Parental job verification records.
(3) Parent income verification.
(4) Parent school or training verifications and attendance
records.
(b) Pursuant to Section 33421, the original records shall be
retained by each contractor for at least five years, or, where an
audit has been requested by a state agency, until the date the audit
is resolved, whichever is longer.
(b)
(c) Nothing in this section requires an alternative
payment program or provider to maintain
create records electronically.
SEC. 3. Section 8262.1 is added to the
Education Code , to read:
8262.1. (a) Contractors operating or providing services pursuant
to this chapter may maintain records in electronic format only if the
original documents were created in electronic format. Records that
may be created in electronic format and maintained electronically
include, but are not limited to, the following:
(1) Child immunization records.
(2) Parental job verification records.
(3) Parent income verification.
(4) Parent school or training verifications and attendance
records.
(b) Pursuant to Section 33421, the original records shall be
retained by each contractor for at least five years, or, where an
audit has been requested by a state agency, until the date the audit
is resolved, whichever is longer.
(c) Nothing in this section requires a contractor to create
records electronically.
SEC. 4. Section 8262.3 is added to the Education Code, to read:
8262.3. On and after the date on which the Superintendent
determines that the Financial Information System for California
(Fi$Cal Project) has been implemented within the department, at the
request of a contractor, for a contract executed by the department
pursuant to Section 8262, the department shall request the Controller
to make a payment via direct deposit by electronic funds transfer
through the Fi$Cal Project into the contractor's account at the
financial institution of the contractor's choice.
SEC. 5. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.