BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2368|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2368
Author: Gordon (D), et al.
Amended: 4/5/16 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/15/16
AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Huff, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning, Pan,
Vidak
SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE: 5-0, 6/28/16
AYES: McGuire, Berryhill, Hancock, Liu, Nguyen
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 5/31/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Child care and development services: individualized
county child care subsidy plan: County of Santa
Clara
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill authorizes the County of Santa Clara to
establish a 5-year pilot program for purposes of developing and
implementing an individualized county child care subsidy plan
that meets the particular needs of families in the county.
ANALYSIS:
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Page 2
Existing law:
1)Establishes the Child Care and Developmental Services Act to
provide child care and development services as part of a
coordinated, comprehensive, and cost-effective system serving
children from birth to 13 years old and their parents
including a full range of supervision, health, and support
services through full- and part-time programs. (Education
Code § 8200, et seq.)
2)States legislative intent that all families have access to
child care and development services, regardless of demographic
background or special needs, that families are provided the
opportunity to attain financial stability through employment,
while maximizing growth and development of their children, and
enhancing their parenting skills through participation in
child care and development programs, among other things. (EC
§ 8202)
3)Establishes several programs providing subsidized child care
and development services that service low-income families who
are working, seeking work, in training, or providing community
service. These programs are administered by the California
Department of Education (CDE) and require the Superintendent
of Public Instruction (SPI) to adopt rules and regulations on
eligibility, enrollment, family fees, provider rates, and
priority services. (EC § 8235 and 8263)
4)Authorizes a pilot project in, Alameda (since 2015), San Mateo
County (since 2004) and San Francisco City and County (since
2006) that allows the counties to develop and implement an
individualized county child care subsidy plan in recognition
of the high-cost of living in those counties. (EC § 8335, §
8340 and § 8347)
This bill:
1)Authorizes the County of Santa Clara to establish a 5-year
pilot program for purposes of developing and implementing an
individualized county child care subsidy plan that meets the
particular needs of families in the county, as specified, to
include the following:
a) An assessment to identify the county's goal for its
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Page 3
subsidized child care system, as specified.
b) A local policy to eliminate state-imposed regulatory
barriers that constrain the county from meeting its desired
outcomes for subsidized child care, as specified.
c) Recognition that funding sources utilized by direct
child care service contractors in the county are eligible
to be included in the county's plan.
d) Measurable outcomes to evaluate the success of the plan
in achieving county and state child care goals.
2)States that the plan, and requirements regarding it, shall not
be construed to permit the county to change the regional
market rate survey results for the county.
3)Requires the plan to be submitted to the specified local
planning council, and upon approval the county board of
supervisors shall do all of the following:
a) Hold at least one public hearing before voting on the
plan.
b) Submit an approved plan to Early Education and Support
Division (EESD) or review provided that board votes in its
favor.
4)Requires the CDE's EESD to review and either approve or
disapprove any modification of the plan within 30 days of
receiving it. Specifies that the EESD may only disapprove
those portions of the plan that are not in conformance with
the provisions of this bill or that are in conflict with
federal law.
5)Requires the county, by the end of the first fiscal year of
operation under the approved child care subsidy plan, to
demonstrate an increase in the aggregate days a child is
enrolled in child care as compared to the enrollment in the
final quarter of the 2015-16 Fiscal Year.
6)Requires the county to prepare and submit a report summarizing
the success of the county's plan, as specified, to the
Legislature, the Department of Social Services (DSS), and the
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CDE each year.
7)Requires a participating contractor to receive any increases
or decrease in funding that the contractor would have received
had the contractor not participated in the plan.
8)Makes various legislative findings and declarations related to
the unique circumstances in the County of Santa Clara that
condition a special law including the high-cost of living.
9)Sunsets the provisions of this bill on January 1, 2022.
Comments
1)Need for the bill. According to the author, families seeking
quality child care are adversely affected by the high cost of
living in Santa Clara County. The author notes that families
who earn just enough to meet housing costs are deemed
ineligible for subsidized child care, at the same time
agencies receiving insufficient state reimbursement rates are
unable to cover programing and operational costs. As a
result, child care subsidy funds allocated to the county are
not fully expended thereby reducing access to quality child
care. This bill seeks to maximize state allocated funding and
efficiently use child care subsidy funds to meet local
conditions.
2)Provider Reimbursement Rates. California has established two
methodologies for determining the reimbursement rates for
child care and development services:
a) The Regional Market Rate (RMR) is determined by the RMR
survey and varies depending on the geographical location of
the provider. In Santa Clara, for example, the full-time
daily RMR for a preschool-aged child in a child care center
is $69.77. The RMR is based on a survey of licensed
centers and family child care homes measuring child care
rates of similar socio-economic conditions. Rate ceilings
are established for each county according to estimates of
the 85th percentile of rates for the various types of child
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care settings. The county rate ceilings are differentiated
by the age of the child (infant, preschool, school age),
full-day or part-day care, and frequency of care (days per
week). Families may choose a child care provider that
charges a rate above the RMR, but the provider would only
be reimbursed at the RMR. Current law requires the RMR
survey to be updated every two years. The Budget Act of
2014 based the RMR on the 2009 survey, thereby providing a
lower rate than if based on the most recent survey.
b) Standard Reimbursement Rate (SRR). Child care and
development providers that contract directly with the
California Department of Education (CDE) must meet Title 5
requirements in addition to those of Title 22 (have units
in Early Childhood Education, provide an educational
component to child care). Title 5 providers are reimbursed
using the SRR, which is a specific rate established in
statute. The SRR is $38.29 per child per day for full-day
care, or a maximum of $9,572 per year based on 250 days of
operation.
3)Why Santa Clara County? Santa Clara County serves
approximately 12,600 children in state subsidized child care
programs. According to Santa Clara's County's local Early
Education Planning council, approximately $9.3 million under
the Title 5 state subsidized child care contracts has been
returned to the state. Roughly translating to 1,100 children
who could have been served by the county.
The cost of living in Santa Clara is reported to be well above
the state median. In 2014, for a family of four in Santa
Clara County it is estimated that a family have a
self-sufficiency hourly wage of $22.61 and $95,508 annually.
The median household annual income for the county is $91,142
as compared to state median of about $61,933 per year. To be
eligible for subsidized child care and services the state
requires a family's adjusted monthly income to be at or below
70% of the state median income about $42,000 per year for a
family of three. This bill does not change the total amount of
fund allocated to the count for subsidized child care. This
bill seeks to provide Santa Clara County limited local
flexibility to assess and address local conditions of working
families in the county through a child care subsidy pilot
plan.
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4)Other pilot programs. Current law has authorized three other
Bay Area pilot projects in recognition of the high-cost of
living in those counties. As many have noted, given that there
are other high-cost counties in the state dealing with similar
subsidized child care needs the state may want to a more
comprehensive approach to addressing these issues.
Related/Prior Legislation
AB 833 (Bonta, Chapter 563, Statutes of 2015), similar to this
bill, authorized Alameda County to develop and implement, as a
pilot project, an individualized county child care subsidy plan.
This Committee heard and approved AB 833, by a vote of 9-0.
AB 260 (Gordon, Chapter 731, Statutes of 2013) extended the
sunset dates of the San Francisco and San Mateo County
individualized county child care subsidy plans to 2016 and 2018,
respectively. This Committee heard and approved AB 260, by a
vote of 9-0.
The sunset date of the San Francisco plan has been extended
three times as follows: AB 86 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 48,
Statutes of 2013), SB 1016 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal
Review, Chapter 38, Statutes of 2012), AB 1610 (Committee on
Budget, Chapter 724, Statutes of 2010).
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Senate Committee on Appropriation, this bill
would impose the following costs:
Potentially significant loss in savings to the state due to
Santa Clara County being able to spend more of its allocation
under an individualized county child care subsidy plan. The
plan is allowed to supersede state law in specific areas which
would allow greater access to services within the county.
Without this bill these savings could otherwise be
redistributed for services in other counties. See staff
comments. (General Fund/Proposition 98)
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The CDE estimates that this bill will result in initial costs
to the CDE of $130,000 for the first year and $95,000 ongoing
costs for work across several positions to review and monitor
the new plan. This estimate also includes travel costs.
Costs are expected to decrease over time. (General Fund)
SUPPORT: (Verified8/11/16)
Bay Area Council
California Association for the Education of Young Children
California Child Care Coordinators Association
California Head Start Association
Campbell Union School District
Child Development Incorporated
Community Child Care Council of Santa Clara County, Inc.
Congregation Beth Am
Early Edge California
Educare California at Silicon Valley
First 5 San Mateo County
First 5 Santa Clara County
Gilroy Unified School District State Preschool
Go Kids, Inc.
Kindango
Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County
Local Early Education Planning Council of Santa Clara County
Mountain View Wishman
San Francisco Child Care Planning and Advisory Council
San Francisco SRR Initiative
San Mateo County Office of Education
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Santa Clara County Office of Education
SJB Child Development Centers
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/11/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 5/31/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
AB 2368
Page 8
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 19:39:51
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