BILL ANALYSIS Ķ
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 427
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|Author: |Weber |
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|Version: |May 6, 2015 Hearing |
| |Date: June 24, 2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Olgalilia Ramirez |
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Subject: Early primary programs: child care services:
eligibility: military families
SUMMARY
This bill excludes the military housing allowance from being
calculated as income when determining eligibility for child care
and development services specified under the Child Care and
Development Services Act.
BACKGROUND
1)Existing law 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 including a full range of supervision, health, and
support services through full- and part-time programs.
(Education Code § 8200 et seq.)
2)Existing law 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. (EC § 8208)
3) Existing law 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
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education and involvement, and nutrition. Further allows such
programs to be designed to meet child-related needs identified
by parents or guardians, as specified.
(EC § 8240 and § 8241)
4)Existing law establishes requirements that families must meet
in order to be eligible for federal and state subsidized child
development services, and grant priority enrollment to
children who have been or are at risk of being abused or
neglected, as specified. (EC § 8263)
5)Existing federal law provides, 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)
ANALYSIS
1)Excludes from income calculation the amount of basic allowance
for housing received by specified active duty military for
purposes of determining eligibility for child care and
development services specified under the Child Care and
Development Services Act.
2)Specifies, that the amount of basic allowance for housing
excluded from income be equal to the lowest rate of the
allowance for the military housing area in which an individual
resides.
3)Makes a number of legislative declarations and findings related
to military families and the role child care and preschools
play for providing a stability environment for military
children.
STAFF COMMENTS
1)Need for the bill: To help cover the cost of housing for a
military family, some service members are issued a housing
allowance. According to the author, many of these families
that could be eligible for subsidized child care services do
not qualify as a result of the housing allowance inflating
their calculated income. This bill seeks to expand access to
state subsidized child care programs for active duty military
families.
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2)Military Allowance for Housing. The housing allowance or the
Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) is based on geographic duty
location, pay grade, and dependency status. The intent of BAH
is to provide service members equitable housing compensation
based on local housing markets, when military housing is not
provided. In California, the beginning BAH for
beginning-ranking personnel with dependents range from the mid
$800's for areas such as China Lake to the mid $3,000's for
San Francisco. The ranges subsequently increase according to
military rank. In order to be eligible for subsidized child
care and development services, state regulations require a
family's adjusted monthly income to be at or below 75% of the
state median income.
This bill proposes to exclude the BAH as income for purposes
of determining eligibility for child care and development
services thereby making families that would not otherwise
qualify eligible for subsidized care. Under the provisions of
this bill the amount of basic allowance for housing excluded
from income must be equal to the lowest rate of the allowance
for the military housing area in which an individual resides.
Leaving a higher ranking official with the same allowance as
lower ranking personnel.
3)Child Care Eligibility. Existing law specifies that children are
eligible for subsidized child care if the family currently
receives aid, meets specified income eligibility requirements,
is homeless, or if the child is the recipient of protective
services, or has been identified as neglected, abused or
exploited (or at risk of such). In addition, the family must
be in need of child care services due to specified social
service circumstances, employment training, or other specified
needs.
Existing state regulations (Title 5, CCR, § 18134) allow for
state pre-school programs located on or in close proximity to
a military base to, exclude the military housing allowance
provided for active military personnel, when calculating
income for eligibility. This bill would expand this process to
include a variety of child care and development services as
defined by current law.
4)Prior legislation.
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AB 170 (Saldaņa, 2007) similar to this bill, excludes from
income calculation the basic housing allowance received by
active military personnel for purposes of determining
eligibility for state preschool. AB 170 died in the Assembly
Appropriations committee.
SUPPORT
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME)
California School Boards Association
California State PTA
San Diego County Office of Education
San Diego Unified School District
OPPOSITION
None received.
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