BILL ANALYSIS Ķ
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 427 (Weber) - Early primary programs: child care services:
eligibility: military families.
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|Version: May 6, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 9 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: July 6, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
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.
Fiscal
Impact:
Unknown, potentially significant, costs and/or cost pressures
to the state to provide funding for services to the extent
additional families become eligible by meeting the income
eligibility requirement from disregarding the military housing
allowance. Increased eligibility would result in General Fund
cost increases in the CalWORKs child care program, as it is an
entitlement, and increased cost pressures resulting from
longer waitlists in the appropriation-capped programs. See
staff comments.
Minor and absorbable costs to the State Department of
AB 427 (Weber) Page 1 of
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Education to amend regulations and to train staff on new
requirements.
Background: 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.)
The state pays for services through vouchers and contracts.
Child care provided through CalWORKs and the Alternative Payment
Program is reimbursed through vouchers. Care provided through
General Child Care, Migrant and Handicapped child care, and
State Preschool is reimbursed through contracts with the State
Department of Education.
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)
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) Basic pay is received
by all in the military and is the main component of an
individual's salary.
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 the child care services
due to specified social service circumstances, employment
training, or other specified needs. Families are required to
report changes in these circumstances throughout their child's
enrollment that could disqualify a child from the program.
AB 427 (Weber) Page 2 of
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State regulations provide that for state preschool programs
located on or in close proximity to a military base, the
contractor may, with the approval of the State Department of
Education, exclude the basic allowance for housing for purposes
of determining eligibility for families with military personnel,
as specified, if the families reside on a military base or in
military housing.
Proposed Law:
For purposes of determining eligibility for child care and
development services, this bill excludes the amount of the basic
allowance for housing provided to the individual that is equal
to the lowest rate of the allowance for the military housing
area in which the individual resides from the income of an
individual who is on federal active duty, state duty, active
duty for special work, or Active Guard and Reserve duty in the
military. This bill also specifies that it does not affect the
priorities for federal and state subsidized child development
services that exist pursuant to existing law.
Related
Legislation: AB 170 (Saldaņa, 2007) similar to this bill,
excluded the basic housing allowance received by active military
personnel from the income calculation for purposes of
determining eligibility for state preschool. AB 170 died in the
Assembly Appropriations committee.
Staff Comments: This bill requires that the basic allowance for
housing provided to individuals in the military, as specified,
be excluded from the income calculation for purposes of
determining eligibility for child care and development services.
The basic housing allowance depends on the individual's
geographic duty location, pay grade, and dependency status.
According to the Department of Defense, rates for Los Angeles
range from about $2,200 per month for lower pay grades and
$3,600 per month for higher pay grades, assuming the individual
has dependents. This bill requires that the deducted amount be
equal to the lowest rate of the allowance for the military
housing area in which the individual resides. This bill could
require exclusion of about $26,000 from a family's income using
Los Angeles as an example.
AB 427 (Weber) Page 3 of
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This bill will likely have the effect of prioritizing military
families for slots in child care programs as they become
available. Since their income will be lower without the
inclusion of the basic housing allowance, they will move higher
on the waitlist for services, while other families will move
down.
To the extent this bill results in increased eligibility for
services for those families that are marginally above the income
eligibility requirement, waitlists for services may grow for
capped programs and General Fund costs could be triggered for
the CalWORKs program. Funding in the 2015-16 fiscal year for
the child care and development services administered by the
State Department of Education that would be affected by this
bill, is about $2.4 billion. Assuming most families that would
be affected by this bill are already receiving prioritization in
the state's preschool program, as authorized by regulations, the
scope of programs that could be affected by this bill amount to
about $1.4 billion. A one percent increase in these programs to
serve additional children would amount to about $14 million.
The Budget Act of 2015 provides an increase of $52.6 million
General Fund to provide child care vouchers for an additional
6,800 children from low-income working families. This would
equate to about $7,700 per slot.
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