BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1712|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1712
Author: Obernolte (R)
Amended: 8/15/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/22/16
AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Huff, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning, Pan,
Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 6/1/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Child care: contractors: digital signatures
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill authorizes child care contractors to use
digital signatures and requires that those signatures have the
same force and effect as manual signatures.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Authorizes local government agencies or non-profit
organizations to contract with the California Department of
Education (CDE) to operate Alternative Payment Programs (APPs)
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and provide alternative payments and support services to
parents and child development providers. APPs help parents
arrange child care services and make payments directly to the
provider, which may be in-home care, family child care or
center-based care, and either licensed or license-exempt.
(Education Code § 8220)
2)Establishes requirements and procedures that APPs and child
development providers must follow as contracted agencies with
the CDE, including but not limited to tracking and reporting
of attendance, accounting and auditing requirements, and
reimbursement and payment procedures. (EC § 8221.5)
3)Requires, under state regulations, child care and development
providers that contract with APPs to submit periodic reports
that must include:
a) Days and hours of enrollment and attendance.
b) Total days of operation.
c) Services, revenues and expenditures relating to care
provided for subsidized and unsubsidized children.
Parents are required to physically sign-in and sign-out their
child when they drop off and pick up their child each day.
(California Code of Regulations, Title 5 § 18065)
4)Requires agencies that receive state funds to, at the request
of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), make all
records pertaining to its state-funded programs available to
the CDE, as specified, and requires that all records be
retained by each agency for at least five years, as specified.
(EC § 33421)
5)Authorizes APPs and providers and other contractors providing
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child care development services to maintain records in
electronic format if the original documents were created in
electronic format. (EC § 8262.1)
6)Authorizes APPs and providers to use digital signatures and
specifies that the digital signature have the same force and
effect as the use of the manual signature if specified
requirements are met. (EC § 8227.5)
7)Establishes the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA),
which permits, but does not require, a record or signature to
be created, generated, sent, communicated, received, stored,
or otherwise processed or used by electronic means or in
electronic form. (CIV § 1633.1, et seq.)
8)Establishes that a digital signature, when used in written
communication with a public entity, shall have the same force
and effect of a manual signature if it meets certain
requirements, as specified. (GOV § 16.5)
This bill:
1)Authorizes child care contractors to use digital signatures
that comply with state and federal standards, as determined by
CDE that may be a marking that is either computer generated or
produced by electronic means and is intended by the signatory
to have the same effect as a handwritten signature.
2)Requires that the use of a digital signature to have the same
force and effect as manual signatures provided that specified
requirements are satisfied.
Comments
1)Need for the bill. Recent legislation, AB 271 (Obernotle,
Chapter 476, Statutes of 2015) provided APPs, contractors and
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providers the option to maintain records electronically
regardless of whether the original documents were created in
electronic format. It also allowed APPs and providers to use
electronic signatures but failed to explicitly give the option
to child care center contractors. This bill seeks give child
care contractors the ability to use digital signatures on
records thereby extending an authorization that is currently
provided to APPs and child care providers.
2)Subsidized child care programs. State subsidized child care may
be available to families that meet certain eligibility
requirements. The three main types of subsidized child care
programs include: CalWORKS child care, APPs and General Child
Care. General Child Care offers child care and
education/development services through contracted child care
centers and family child care home networks that are
administered through public or private agencies, while child
care administered by CalWORKs and APPs is offered through a
voucher system. This bill provides those entities that
contract directly with the CDE for the provision of child care
and development services the ability to use electronic
signatures on documents and have them carry the same weight as
a manual signature.
3)Digital Signature. Current regulations establish criteria for
public entities using digital signature technology. Acceptable
technology must be capable of creating signatures that are
unique to the person using it, capable of verification, under
sole control of the person using it and cannot be altered.
The regulations also provide recommendations of acceptable
digital signature technology.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Costs to the CDE of $73,000 General Fund. These costs would
support one-time activities such as updating the audit guide
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and training staff on the new requirements.
Unknown ongoing costs to the CDE related to audit fieldwork to
verify and test that electronic systems and digital signatures
meet all required standards. These costs could be in the tens
of thousands but will likely decrease over time as digital
signatures become more standard. Costs will largely depend on
the duration and complexity of each audit. (General Fund)
Potential future administrative savings to agencies and
providers from increased operational efficiency due to the use
of digital signatures.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/15/16)
California Alternative Payment Program Association
Kidango
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/12/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 6/1/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth
Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto,
Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper,
Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim,
Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis,
Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting,
Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
Prepared by:Olgalilia Ramirez / ED. / (916) 651-4105
8/15/16 20:10:07
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