BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 274
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 274 (Bonilla)
As Amended May 24, 2013
Majority vote
HUMAN SERVICES 7-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Stone, Maienschein, |Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, Bigelow, |
| |Ammiano, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Ian Calderon, Garcia, | |Calderon, Campos, |
| |Grove, Hall | |Donnelly, Eggman, Gomez, |
| | | |Hall, Ammiano, Linder, |
| | | |Pan, Quirk, Wagner, Weber |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Makes several changes to the Child Care and
Development Services Act (CCDSA). Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes child care providers to submit attendance records
that serve to demonstrate that the child is receiving services
for which s/he has been certified electronically on a monthly
basis to the Alternative Payment Program (APP).
2)Clarifies how attendance is accounted for purposes of
reimbursement by an APP.
3)Requires the monthly attendance record to include specified
information and to be signed by the parent or guardian, under
penalty of perjury, one per month to confirm that the child's
attendance was recorded accurately.
4)Allows the monthly attendance record to be maintained in
original format or electronically.
5)Allows APPs to maintain records electronically, as permitted
by state and federal auditing requirements, as specified.
6)Requires, upon implementation of the Financial Information
System for California (FI$Cal), as determined by the State
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SSPI), the California
Department of Education (CDE) upon request of a child care
contractor to process the payment to the contractor through
direct deposit.
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FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Automation costs of $200,000 to $500,000 General Fund (GF) to
update CDE's payment system for child care providers in order
to allow for direct deposit.
2)One-time costs of approximately $200,000 (GF) for CDE to
develop regulations associated with the new attendance
requirements and the electronic certification.
3)On-going costs of up to $65,000 (GF) for the increased
auditing requirements for CDE.
4)On-going minor costs, under $10,000 (GF) per year, for
transaction fees associated with direct deposit.
COMMENTS :
Monitoring and Reporting of Attendance: The CCDSA authorizes
the SSPI to adopt all rules, regulations and guidelines
necessary to facilitate the funding and reimbursement of
procedures. Under this authority, current regulations require
contractors to submit periodic reports that must include:
1)Days and hours of enrollment and attendance;
2)Total days of operation; and
3)Services, revenues and expenditures relating to care provided
for subsidized and unsubsidized children.
Under Section 18065 of Title 5 of the California Code of
Regulations (CCR), parents must physically sign-in and sign-out
their child when they drop off and pick up their child from the
program each day.
Over the years, there have been disputes about how attendance
must be recorded, whether it is through the parents or program
staff, whether it is noted in pencil, pen, or different or
similar colored ink, and how exact the time-in and time-out is
recorded. This has created, at times, ambiguity, concerns over
incorrect attendance reporting, and resulted in confusion and
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increased administrative burdens for program, APP and CDE staff.
In an effort to help resolve this ambiguity, the CDE's Child
Development Division (CDD) issued Management Bulletin (MB) 12-17
in September, 2012. Although this MB was issued with the intent
to clarify some of these issues, there remains concerns about
how providers continue to be held accountable for how parents
sign-in and sign-out their child.
This measure seeks to build upon the progress made with MB 12-17
by placing attendance reporting requirements in statute, which
would supersede Section 18065 of the CCR. Rather than submit a
daily sign-in and sign-out sheet, this bill would allow
providers to submit a monthly attendance record, signed by the
parent, under penalty of perjury, and by the provider, and
submitted to the APP as an invoice for reimbursement. It would
also allow the monthly attendance record to be maintained in its
original format or electronically. Daily attendance recording
would not be eliminated under AB 274, rather the bill would
change how it is reported to the APP for purposes of
reimbursement.
Electronic Records : State statute is unspecific as it relates
to how and in what form child development providers and APPs
must maintain records, whether in original format,
electronically, or in another format. However, Education Code
Section 8261 provides the SSPI the authority to adopt
regulations to specify adequate standards of performance for
contractors and APPS and establish reporting requirements for
purposes of compliance with the CCDSA. Pursuant to that
authority, Section 18067 of Title 5 of the CCR, APPs and child
care providers are required to maintain records for up to five
years.
This bill would simply state that APPs and child care provides
may maintain records electronically, except as required by state
or federal law. However, should other state law, or more
specifically, federal law, require records to be maintained in
hard copy or original format, it is unclear whether this
proposed provision would achieve its intended outcome.
According to the Northern Director's Group, an association of
northern California APPs and Resource and Referral agencies,
which is a co-sponsor of this measure, this will help to reduce
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the administrative burden of maintaining hard copy files of
documents. Maintaining and storing hundreds, if not thousands,
of filing boxes of original documents can be significant in
light of the substantial budget reductions made to the CCDSA.
Allowing them to be maintained electronically rather than in
hard copy would help to reduce costs and save funds that could
otherwise be used for meeting other current state requirements
and supporting child care providers and the families and
children they serve.
Direct Deposit : Currently, APPs and child care providers are
paid through hard copy checks by the CDE. Although the CDE
administer and determines how and when child development
providers shall be paid, it is the State Controller that issues
payments from the state treasury. However, CDE's current
financial management system, the Provider Accounting and
Reporting Information System (PARIS) is unable to process
payments through direct deposit. According to CDE, PARIS is a
system designed to calculate payment amounts to child
development programs and APPs. Once the payment amounts are
calculated through PARIS, the amounts are transmitted via hard
copy documents to the State Controller for issuance of payment.
PARIS is not designed to operate as a payment system, which
would require the collection, maintenance, and transmittal of
financial information necessary to facilitate payment to APPs
and child development providers through direct deposit.
The state is currently in the process of implementing the FI$Cal
Project. The purpose of the FI$Cal Project is to provide the
state with a singular budgeting, accounting, procurement, and
cash management system. A collaborative effort between the
State Controller, the State Treasurer, and the Directors of the
Departments of Finance and General Services, it is intended to
provide an integrated financial management system better
optimize and make more efficient the business management of the
state.
FI$Cal will begin integration of state agencies in phases July
1, 2013. According to the CDE, when they are integrated into
FI$Cal they will be able to process direct deposit payments for
all providers and APPs. However, CDE will not be included until
the fourth and final phase of the project's roll out on July 1,
2016.
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Analysis Prepared by : Chris Reefe / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089
FN: 0000965