BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 274
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 274 (Bonilla)
As Amended August 27, 2013
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |77-0 |(May 29, 2013) |SENATE: |37-0 |(September 3, |
| | | | | |2013) |
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Original Committee Reference: HUM. S.
SUMMARY : Makes several changes to the Child Care and
Development Services Act (CCDSA). Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes, commencing July 1, 2014, 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, as specified.
3)Requires the monthly attendance record to include specified
information and to be signed by the parent or guardian, under
penalty of perjury, once 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 in electronic format only if
the original documents were created in electronic format, as
specified.
6)Specifies 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.
7)Requires, upon implementation of the Financial Information
System for California (FI$Cal), as determined by the State
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SSPI), the California
Department of Education (CDE) upon request of a child care
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contractor to process the payment to the contractor through
direct deposit.
The Senate amendments :
1)Specify the implementation of electronic submission of
attendance records to commence on July 1, 2014.
2)Make clarifying and technical changes to the manner in which
attendance is accounted for and what types of records may be
submitted electronically and retained in original format.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill:
1)Authorized child care providers to submit attendance records
that serve to demonstrate that the child is receiving services
for which s/he has been certified electronically on a monthly
basis to the APP.
2)Clarified how attendance is accounted for purposes of
reimbursement by an APP.
3)Required the monthly attendance record to include specified
information and to be signed by the parent or guardian, under
penalty of perjury, one per month to confirm that the child's
attendance was recorded accurately.
4)Allowed the monthly attendance record to be maintained in
original format or electronically.
5)Allowed APPs to maintain records electronically, as permitted
by state and federal auditing requirements, as specified.
6)Upon implementation of the FI$Cal, as determined by the SSPI,
requires the CDE upon request of a child care contractor to
process the payment to the contractor through direct deposit.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee:
1) Attendance record-keeping: Potentially significant
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workload savings for child care providers and AP programs.
2) Auditing: Potentially significant increased auditing
workload for the CDE, depending on how providers track
attendance moving forward. Additional auditing time could
increase costs up to $120,000 in 2014-15, and up to $60,000
annually thereafter. The CDE has indicated that 80% ($96,000
in the first year) of this additional expense would be paid
for with Federal Funds and 20% ($24,000 in the first year)
with General Fund. See staff comments.
3) Direct deposit option: Minor annual costs to the CDE in
per-transaction fees paid to the SCO to process direct
deposit payments.
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
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
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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 this bill, 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. 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.
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.
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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.
Analysis Prepared by : Chris Reefe / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089
FN: 0002365