BILL ANALYSIS Ķ
AB 427
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Date of Hearing: April 28, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Kansen Chu, Chair
AB 427
(Weber) - As Amended March 26, 2015
SUBJECT: Early primary programs: child care services:
eligibility: military families
SUMMARY: Excludes all or a portion of the basic allowance for
housing provided to active duty military personnel from counting
as income for purposes of determining eligibility for child care
and development programs.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Makes a number of legislative findings related to military
families and the role of early education in providing
stability and routine for children whose parents are deployed.
2)States the intent of the Legislature to ensure that military
families have access to the child care development services
that their children need.
3)Excludes the amount of the basic allowance for housing equal
to the lowest rate of the allowance for the military housing
area in which an individual resides from income calculations
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for children of active military personnel, as specified, when
determining eligibility for services under the Child Care and
Development Services Act.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes the Child Care and Development Services Act to
provide child care and development services as part of a
coordinated, comprehensive, and cost-effective system serving
children from birth to 13 years old and their parents and
including a full range of supervision, health, and support
services through full- and part-time programs. (EDC 8200 et
seq.)
2)Defines "child care and development services" to mean services
designed to meet a wide variety of children's and families'
needs while parents and guardians are working, in training,
seeking employment, incapacitated, or in need of respite.
(EDC 8208)
3)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to
administer general child care and development programs to
include, among other things as specified, age- and
developmentally-appropriate activities, supervision, parenting
education and involvement, and nutrition. Further allows such
programs to be designed to meet child-related needs identified
by parents or guardians, as specified. (EDC 8240, 8241)
4)Establishes requirements families must meet in order to be
eligible for federal and state subsidized child development
services, and grants priority enrollment to children who have
been or are at risk of being abused or neglected, as
specified. (EDC 8263)
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5)Provides, pursuant to federal law, a basic allowance for
housing to which a uniformed service member, including a
member with dependents, as specified, is entitled if he or she
is also entitled to basic pay. (37 U.S.C. 403)
6)Authorizes a State Preschool contractor located on or in close
proximity to a military base, with prior written approval, as
specified, to exclude from the child care eligibility and
rankings determination the amount of the basic allowance for
housing provided to an individual on federal active duty,
state active duty, active duty for special work, or Active
Guard and Reserve duty in the military whose family resides on
a military base or in military housing. Requires program
vacancies to first be filled by children pursuant to all
statutorily mandated priorities for State Preschool programs.
(Title 5, CCR, Section 18134)
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
Child development programs: Child care and development services
are provided throughout California pursuant to requirements and
standards included in the Child Care and Development Services
Act. Among other supports, the state's child development system
accommodates parents by ensuring their children are served in a
healthy and safe environment while they are at work, in training
or seeking employment, and it grants families access to programs
that will help children with their social, emotional,
educational and physical development. General child care and
development programs are funded with federal and state dollars,
and serve children from birth through 12 years of age.
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Subsidized child care eligibility and prioritization: Certain
eligibility and prioritization rules apply to subsidized child
care in California. For non-CalWORKs subsidized child care, a
family must meet both eligibility and need criteria. The
eligibility criteria include: currently receiving aid, being
income-eligible, being homeless, or having children who are
recipients of protective services or who have been identified as
being, or are at risk of being, abused, neglected, or exploited.
Families must also meet the need criteria, meaning either the
child has to have been identified by a legal, medical, or social
services agency or emergency shelter as being a recipient of
protective services or being (or at risk of being) abused,
neglected or exploited, or the parents need to be employed or
seeking employment, engaged in vocational training, seeking
permanent housing for family stability, or incapacitated. In
addition to making care for their children more financially
accessible for low-income families, subsidized child care helps
to ensure that providers can operate in low-income communities
where child care would otherwise be unavailable.
Military compensation and allowances: A report prepared for the
US Department of Defense revealed that in 2012, there were
155,985 active duty military personnel in California. In
addition to basic pay, which is provided to a uniformed service
member based on his or her grade (or rank) and years of service,
there are a number of allowances the federal government provides
to service members when it cannot meet an individual's specific
needs. These allowances include a basic allowance for housing
(BAH), which is provided to service members that don't live in
government-provided housing. The amount of the BAH is adjusted
based on pay grade and whether a service member has dependents.
This allowance is also adjusted based on the local median rental
rates across different geographic locations (called military
housing areas), but it is not designed to cover all costs.
According to 2015 rates in California, the beginning BAH amounts
for service members with dependents range from $840 per month in
China Lake and $849 in Twentynine Palms up to $2,925 per month
in Santa Clara County and $3,651 in San Francisco. All of these
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rates increase according to rank.
Because this bill proposes to exclude from child care
eligibility calculations the amount of a service member's BAH
that is equal to the lowest rate of the allowance for the
military housing area in which the individual resides, it will
exclude the entire allowance for beginning-rank service members,
while excluding only a portion of the rate for higher ranking
service members.
Income calculations for state preschool: Section 18134 of Title
5 of the California Code of Regulations provides for an
exception to the calculation of the adjusted monthly income for
military personnel enrolling their children in state preschool.
More specifically, the regulations allow a state preschool
contractor to exclude the BAH from consideration when
determining eligibility and income ranking for families that
include specified active military personnel (consistent with the
individuals identified in this bill), provided the contractor
has prior written approval from the California Department of
Education (CDE). The regulation also requires the state
preschool program for which this exclusion is provided to be on
or in close proximity to a military base, and it requires that
first priority for program vacancies be provided to children
pursuant to all statutorily mandated priorities, which are
consistent with the priorities outlined for subsidized child
care programs.
Need for this bill: According to the author, "Currently, due to
an emergency regulation passed back in 2007, preschool
contractors with written approval from the Department of
Education can exclude the Basic Allowance for Housing given to
military families from being factored into eligibility for state
preschool. This bill simply seeks to both streamline and expand
this process, by codifying the exclusion of the BAH along with
expanding it to more childcare services. Many of these military
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families should be eligible for state funded childcare services,
but they do not qualify because an earmarked affordable housing
allowance inflates their calculated income. These children are
a population in need and deserve to have access to high quality
childcare."
Recommended amendment: Because this bill applies to the entire
Chapter within the Education Code that establishes and sets
forth requirements of the Child Care and Development Services
Act, this bill applies to child care services and overrides the
current regulation relative to the exclusion of the BAH for
state preschool eligibility determinations. As stated by the
author, this bill expands the scope of the current BAH exclusion
and eliminates the requirement that a state preschool contractor
be granted approval from CDE prior to excluding the BAH from
consideration.
While quality child care is essential for all parents to gain
and retain employment in the civilian workforce, the stability
child care can provide to military families is, additionally,
directly linked to an active military member's readiness for
service. Still, without providing an increase in the number of
funded child care slots, this bill could potentially cause
children from military families receiving a BAH, though also
deserving of quality child care, to crowd out the other priority
categories of children, including abused, neglected, and at-risk
children, with often far fewer resources. Efforts to increase
access to adequate child care for military families should most
definitely be made; however, this must be done with care so as
to not consequently diminish access for other vulnerable
populations.
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In order to not jeopardize access to child care for other
vulnerable children, committee staff recommends that this bill
be amended to maintain the prioritization for Child Care and
Development Services Act programs provided for in current law.
PRIOR LEGISLATION:
AB 170 (Saldaņa), 2007, would have excluded the basic allowance
for housing provided to military families from being counted in
state preschool services eligibility determinations. It died on
the Assembly Appropriations Committee suspense file. Title 5,
CCR, Section 18134 was subsequently established through
emergency regulations.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
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(AFSCME), AFL-CIO
San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE)
Educational Enrichment Systems
Military Child Education Coalition
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by:Myesha Jackson / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089