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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Version: May 6, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 9 - 0 | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Urgency: No |Mandate: No | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Hearing Date: July 6, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ? 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 ? 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 ? 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. -- END --