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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