BILL ANALYSIS Ķ
AB 1679
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Date of Hearing: April 20, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
1679 (Weber) - As Amended April 6, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY: This bill expands, and codifies, emergency regulations
that exclude all or a portion of the basic allowance for housing
provided to active duty military personnel from income
considerations for purposes of determining eligibility for state
preschool. The bill further specifies that its provisions do not
supersede state mandated priorities for state-subsidized child
development services.
FISCAL EFFECT:
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Minor and absorbable costs to the California Department of
Education to provide technical assistance to employees and amend
regulations.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, "Because of disruptions in
their school lives from frequent involuntary relocations,
children from military families are at risk of academic
setbacks and delayed graduation. Stress from deployments can
also affect academic performance, social development and
mental health. Access to preschool will help provide routine,
stability and an academic, social and developmental foundation
to mitigate many of these issues.
2)State Preschool. The California State Preschool Program
provides both part-day and full-day services to eligible
three- and four-year-olds. Children are eligible for state
preschool if their families are one of the following: current
aid recipients, income eligible, homeless, or one in which
children are recipients of protective services or children
have been identified as being, or at risk of being, abused,
neglected, or exploited.
For 2015-16, there are an estimated 98,956 part-day state
preschool slots, and an estimated 58,504 full-day slots. Over
the last two years, the state has augmented funding to provide
$247 million for additional state child care and preschool
slots, with over two-thirds of that funding going to state
preschool slots.
3)Basic Housing Allowance. As of August 2013, there were almost
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169,000 active duty military personnel in California. In
addition to basic pay, which is provided to a uniformed
service member based on his or her grade (or rank) and years
of service, there are a number of allowances the federal
government provides including a basic allowance for housing
(BAH), which is provided to service members that don't live in
government-provided housing. The amount of the BAH is
adjusted based on pay grade and whether a service member has
dependents. This allowance is also adjusted based on the
local median rental rates across different geographic
locations, but it is not designed to cover all costs.
The BAH was not counted as income when military housing was
strictly operated by the Department of Defense (DOD), so
military families who met the low-income eligibility threshold
were granted admission to the state-funded preschools. When
DOD moved toward public-private partnerships in military
housing, the BAH was often inaccurately calculated as income
when determining a family's eligibility for access to
state-funded pre-schools.
In response, in 2007, then Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) Jack O'Connell issued an emergency
regulation to allow preschool contractors, with written
approval from the Department of Education, to exclude the BAH
given to military families from being factored into
eligibility for state preschool.
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More recently, waivers have been issued to local education
agencies by the California Department of Education, allowing
them to exclude this amount without seeking individual case
approval. This bill seeks to continue this trend of allowing
access to preschool by codifying the SPI's emergency
regulation and streamlining the process for determining
military family eligibility.
4)Prior Legislation.
a) AB 427 (Weber), 2015, was similar to this bill, in that
it would have excluded all or a portion of the basic
allowance for housing provided to active duty military
personnel from counting as income for purposes of
determining eligibility for child care and development
programs. It was held on the Senate Appropriations
Committee suspense file.
b) AB 170 (Saldaņa), 2007, contained provisions identical
to the provisions in this bill that exclude the basic
allowance for housing provided to military families from
being counted in state preschool services eligibility
determinations. It was held on the Assembly Appropriations
Committee suspense file. Title 5, CCR, Section 18134 was
subsequently established through emergency regulations.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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