BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 766 (Yee) - Ancillary Day Care Centers
Amended: April 25, 2013 Policy Vote: Human Services 6-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 23, 2013 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: SB 766 requires ancillary day care centers to
comply with certain requirements, including the requirements to
maintain specified care provider-child ratios and ensure the
presence, at all times, of at least one care provider who is 18
years of age or older. This bill also requires any person who is
responsible for engaging with children in an ancillary day care
center to be registered as a TrustLine provider.
Fiscal Impact:
Expands TrustLine registry: Potentially significant costs
to the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the
Department of Justice, fully recovered by fees charged to
applicants.
Investigation/Enforcement: This bill will likely result in
increased complaints to DSS, and increase investigations.
This bill may result in the need for DSS to promulgate
regulations governing its interaction with ancillary day
care centers. See staff comments.
Background: Ancillary day care centers are day care centers
associated with an athletic club, grocery store, or other
business or group of businesses for which the day care center is
ancillary to its principal business activity and which provides
day care services, with or without a fee, for the children of
the clients or customers while the clients or customers are
engaged in shopping for, or purchasing, goods or services from
that business or group of businesses. Existing law exempts
ancillary day care centers from licensure under the California
Child Care Facilities Act.
Existing law does require, however, that ancillary day care
providers be registered under California's "TrustLine"
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fingerprint registry administered by the Department of Social
Services (DSS). (HSC 1596.656)
The TrustLine fingerprint registry database conducts background
checks on license-exempt child care providers such as
babysitters, nannies, transport escort services and child care
providers in license-exempt child care centers, including
ancillary day care centers. The registry is maintained by DSS,
which contracts certain administrative functions to the
California Child Care Resource and Referral Network.
Existing law requires DSS to deny an application if the
TrustLine applicant has been convicted of a crime, other than a
minor traffic violation, unless the director grants an
exemption, as specified. (HSC 1596.607)
Proposed Law: SB 766 requires ancillary day care centers to
maintain ratios of no more than 10 children to each care
provider for children under 6, and a ratio of no more than 15
children to each care provider for children ages 7-17. This bill
further requires ancillary day care centers to ensure the
presence of at least one care provider who is 18 years or older,
to ensure that substitute care providers are cleared through the
state's fingerprinting registry, and to ensure that at least one
care provider present in the center has received training in
pediatric CPR and first aid. Additionally, this bill requires
ancillary day care centers to establish health and safety
protocols informing staff and parents about facility policies
related to medical emergencies.
Related Legislation: AB 222 (Adams) Ch. 431/2010 allows persons
under 18 years of age to be employees of ancillary day care
centers without being registered for TrustLine, and allows
employees whose clearance is pending to continue to work until
DSS denies their TrustLine application and any right to appeal
has been exhausted or expired.
SB 702 (DeSaulnier) Ch.199/2009, established the definition of
"ancillary day care center" and required any person providing
child care services in an ancillary day care center to obtain a
TrustLine clearance. Additionally, it required the TrustLine fee
to include the full cost of processing the applications and
maintaining the registry not to exceed the actual cost of the
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processing and maintenance activities.
Staff Comments: This bill places various new requirements on
ancillary day care centers, without creating enforcement
authority or procedures. The costs of this bill are unknown
because the responsibility to enforce, and likelihood of
enforcement, is unclear. The DSS, which regulates licensed day
care centers, has indicated that it does not regulate ancillary
day centers and does not have the authority to enforce statutory
requirements on those entities.
This bill requires ancillary day care centers to comply with
new, specific staffing ratio and training requirements. It is
not clear how those requirements would be enforced. DSS has
indicated that if a complaint was received, it could investigate
the complaint but has no authority to cite, penalize, or
otherwise enforce a change of action on the part of the
ancillary day care center. A criminal complaint would be
referred to local law enforcement, but there is no mechanism for
enforcing an administrative requirement. This bill's staffing
ratio requirements would be particularly difficult for any
governmental entity to investigate violations of, or to enforce,
because ancillary day care centers are drop-off facilities which
do not have a stable population of children they care for at a
particular time, nor is it clear that they would have to collect
or report information that could lead to a determination of
whether or not they have complied with staffing ratio
requirements.
As requirements imposed upon ancillary day care centers
increase, it is likely that enforcement mechanisms will be
necessary and regulations will have to be promulgated to guide
DSS (or any enforcing agency) on processes for handling
complaints and violations. The Administrative Procedure Act
(beginning at Section 11340 of the Government Code) prohibits
state agencies from issuing or enforcing any rule, regulation,
order, or standard of general application unless it has been
issued as a regulation under the Administrative Procedure Act.
In order to clarify the requirements of this bill, the state
will most likely have to adopt implementing regulations.
This bill expands the requirement in existing law for TrustLine
registry. Existing law requires an adult "who provides child
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care or supervision" in an ancillary day care center to register
with Trustline. This bill expands that provision to anyone who
is "responsible for engaging with children cared for" in such a
facility. Ancillary day care centers currently pay fees for
their employees to register (approximately $170 per applicant),
which cover all costs to DSS administration, TrustLine, and the
Department of Justice to process the application and
registration.
AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED: Amend per author to remove required
staffing ratios.