BILL ANALYSIS Ķ
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 1679 (Weber) - Child care: state preschool programs:
eligibility: military families
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|Version: April 6, 2016 |Policy Vote: ED. 9 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: June 27, 2016 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill, for purposes of determining eligibility for
state preschool services, excludes the amount of basic allowance
for housing, as specified, from the income of active duty
military personnel.
Fiscal
Impact:
Unknown, potentially significant state cost pressure to
provide additional funding for services to the extent
additional families become eligible for preschool services
that would have otherwise not qualified, by excluding the
basic allowance for housing from income calculations,
resulting in longer waitlists. This bill codifies existing
regulations providing this benefit, and expands upon them by
not limiting it to preschool programs on or near a military
base or base housing, or to families that reside on a military
AB 1679 (Weber) Page 1 of
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base or in military housing. See staff comments.
(Proposition 98)
The California Department of Education (CDE) indicates that
this bill creates minor costs related to issuing technical
assistance to the field and amending regulations which can be
incorporated into existing workload.
Background: Existing law establishes the state preschool program for
purposes of providing part-day and full-day developmentally
appropriate programs designed to facilitate the transition to
kindergarten for three- and four-year-old children in
educational development, health services, social services,
nutritional services, parent education and participation,
evaluation, and staff development. Existing law requires that
to be eligible for preschool, a family must meet at least one of
the following criteria: the family is a current aid recipient,
income eligible, homeless, or one whose children are recipients
of protective services, or have been identified as being abused,
neglected, or exploited. (Education Code § 8235 and 8263)
Existing law requires that first priority go to three- or
four-year-old neglected or abused children who are recipients of
child protective services, or who are at risk of being
neglected, abused, or exploited upon written referral from a
legal, medical, or social service agency. After this priority
is satisfied then the next priority is given to eligible
four-year-old children who are not enrolled in a state-funded
transitional kindergarten program before enrolling eligible
three-year-old children. (Education Code § 8236)
Existing law establishes the income eligibility limit for child
care and development services, including State Preschool, at 70
percent of the state median income that was in use for the
2007-08 fiscal year, adjusted for family size. (Education Code
§ 8263.1)
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) According to the
Department of Defense's website, basic pay is received by all in
AB 1679 (Weber) Page 2 of
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the military and is the main component of an individual's
salary. Monetary allowances are provided when the government
does not provide for a specific need. The majority of military
personnel receive the basic allowance for housing.
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 CDE, exclude the basic
allowance for housing for purposes of determining eligibility
and income ranking for families with military personnel, as
specified, if the families reside on a military base or in
military housing. (Title 5, California Code of Regulations, §
18134)
Proposed Law:
This bill, for purposes of determining eligibility for state
preschool services, excludes from the income of an individual
who is on federal active duty, state active duty, active duty
for special work, or Active Guard and Reserve duty in the
military the amount of 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.
This bill also provides that nothing shall supersede the state
mandated priorities for state-subsidized child development
services.
Related
Legislation: AB 427 (Weber, 2015), similar to 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. This bill (AB 1679) is limited to
state preschool services only. AB 427 failed passage in this
committee.
AB 170 (Saldaņa, 2007) was almost identical to this bill. It
failed passage in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 1679 (Weber) Page 3 of
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Staff
Comments: State Preschool, among other child care programs, is
unable to serve all eligible children since the number of
subsidized slots is capped by the amount authorized in the
annual budget act. Priority is given to certain children and
those that do not receive a slot may be put on waiting lists.
The basic allowance for housing depends on the service member's
geographic duty location, pay grade, and dependency status.
This allowance is on top of the individual's basic pay and other
allowances the federal government provides. This bill requires
the lowest rate of the housing allowance for the military
housing area in which the individual resides to be excluded from
income calculations. According to the Department of Defense's
website, rates in California range from $4,002 per month in San
Francisco and $807 per month in Twenty Nine Palms for the lowest
pay grade, assuming the individual has dependents. Annualized,
these amounts equate to $48,024 and $9,684 respectively, and
would be excluded from a service member's income for determining
State Preschool income eligibility. The annual income cap for a
family of three to receive state preschool services is $42,216.
State Preschool is reimbursed through contracts with the CDE.
To date, 16 contractors covering 96 sites were approved for
waivers to exclude the basic allowance for housing under the
authority provided by regulations. This bill codifies and
expands upon existing regulations as exclusion of the housing
allowance would not be limited to programs on or near a military
base or base housing, or to families that reside on a military
base or in military housing.
There are about 3,000 preschool children of Marines that meet
the income eligibility requirement in California. The Marine
Corps is estimated to have about one-third of the preschool
population in the state for all services, which would be
extrapolated to a total of 9,000 eligible preschool children.
This bill will likely increase eligibility for services to
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families that are currently marginally above the income
eligibility requirement causing waitlists for services to grow.
The annual cost for one part-day State Preschool slot is about
$4,600 and $10,600 for full day, using the anticipated
reimbursement rate effective January 1, 2017. If eligibility
increased by roughly 1 percent, funding needed for 100 more
slots would be about $460,000 for part-day preschool and about
$1 million for full-day, using Proposition 98 funds if the
services take place at a local educational agency.
This bill will also have the effect of prioritizing military
families for slots as they become available. Since their income
will be lower without the inclusion of the basic allowance for
housing, they will move higher on the waitlist for services,
while other families will move down. However, once on the
waitlist, at-risk children and eligible four-year-olds would
continue to have priority in the program. Staff notes that SB
826, the 2016-17 budget bill, provides 2,959 additional full-day
state preschool slots beginning March 1, 2017.
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