BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 598
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Date of Hearing: January 21, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
598 (Rendon) - As Amended January 14, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill standardizes the framework, requirements and
evaluation procedures for family child care home education
network (FCCHEN) contractors and providers.
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FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Ongoing annual costs of $324,000 (salary, benefits and travel
costs) to the California Department of Education (CDE) for one
Field Services Consultant to conduct the additional monitoring
visits required in the bill.
2)One-time cost of $72,000 to CDE to develop regulations for the
implementation of a universal complaint procedure.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. FCCHENs offer the ability for family child care home
providers to access training and services aimed at providing
high-quality care and education for children. According to
the author, "Family Child Care Home Education Networks offer a
promising practice model for the state to improve the quality
of family child care options in California. It is time to
take all the lessons learned through the nearly twenty years
of operating these programs and codify the programs to provide
for greater statewide consistency of services and increase
access to high quality options for families specifically those
with infants and toddlers." This bill provides a uniform
statutory framework that incorporates best and promising
practices regarding FCCHENs.
2)Background. FCCHENs help facilitate the provision of
high-quality child care and development services in family
child care home settings. The CDE contracts with FCCHEN
contractors to provide ongoing training and support to
qualified network providers. Providers must meet standards of
quality set forth by CDE. Children's developmental progress
is closely monitored, and children are evaluated using the
Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), which is a
CDE-developed formative assessment instrument for young
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children and their families, designed to inform instruction
and program development. Providers must meet a number of
other requirements, including offering parent education.
There are two types of FCCHENs in operation. The first
operates under the California Family Child Care Home Education
Network contract type (CFCC) which utilizes the regional
market rate. CDE contracts with 33 agencies/contractors of
this type. The second type operates under the General Child
Care and Development Program (CCTR) and utilizes the standard
reimbursement rate. There are 60 agencies/contractors of this
type. Some agencies hold contracts under both provisions. As
of April 2015, there were 83 FCCHEN separate contractors
serving 1,556 licensed family child care homes which, in turn,
served 6,853 children.
3)Technical amendment. There are two types of FCCHENs in
operation in California, but the bill, as written,
inadvertently only covers one type. The bill should be amended
to correct this oversight.
4)Prior Legislation. AB 379 (Mullin), Chapter 897, Statutes of
2004, defined FCCHENs in statute and adopted requirements
regarding FCCHEN programs.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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