BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 548
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|Author: |De León |
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|Version: |April 14, 2015 Hearing |
| |Date: April 22, 2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Lynn Lorber |
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Subject: Child care: family child care providers: bargaining
representatives
NOTE: This bill has been referred to the Committees on
Education and Labor and ???...Industrial Relations. A "do pass"
motion should include referral to the ???...Committee on Labor
and Industrial Relations.
SUMMARY
This bill gives family child care providers the right to form,
join, and participate in provider organizations, requires, if a
family child care provider organization is certified, the State
and the certified provider organization to establish a training
partnership committee to make and implement recommendations
regarding training resources.
BACKGROUND
California's early education and care system includes several
types of programs in various settings, including the Alternative
Payment Program. This program is essentially a voucher program,
where funding for child care follows the child and the family
chooses the child care setting in which they want their child to
attend. Care may be in a licensed center or family child care
home, or be provided by license-exempt providers.
ANALYSIS
This bill gives family child care providers the right to form,
SB 548 (De León) Page 2
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join, and participate in provider organizations, and requires,
if a family child care provider organization is certified, the
State and the certified provider organization to establish a
training partnership committee to make and implement
recommendations regarding training resources. Specifically,
this bill:
1. Defines "family child care providers" as a child care
provider that participates in a state-funded child care
program and is either of the following:
A. A family day care home provider who is
licensed.
B. An individual who meets both of the following:
(1) Provides child care in his or her
own home or in the home of the child receiving
care.
(2) Is exempt from licensing
requirements.
Provider organizations
1. Gives family child care providers the right to form,
join, and participate in provider organizations of their
own choosing for the purpose of being represented.
Training
1. Requires, if a family child care provider organization
is certified, the State and the certified provider
organization to establish a training partnership consisting
of a Joint Committee on Child Care Training, Education, and
Quality Improvement. The membership of the Joint Committee
(training committee) is to include representatives of the
certified provider organization and designees of the
Governor.
2. Requires the provider organization to establish a
training program that carries out the recommendations of
the training committee.
3. Requires the training committee to meet to identify gaps
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in the training available to family child care providers
and barriers that prevent family child care providers from
gaining greater skills and accessing postsecondary
education, and issue recommendations on an annual basis to
improve the quality of care offered by licensed and
license-exempt family child care providers.
4. Requires the training committee to play a coordinating
role in ensuring that the training offered to providers
through the training program:
A. Meets the State's needs for the child care
workforce.
B. Satisfies the health, safety and educational
standards prescribed by the State.
C. Aligns with the State's quality rating
systems.
D. Identifies and works to eliminate barriers to
providers accessing training.
1. Authorizes the training committee's recommendations to
include, but not be limited to:
A. Ways to access federal and private funding for
training to expand capacity to existing State training
resources, such as general education classes and
English language learner classes.
B. Ways to support providers who seek to obtain
training or higher education credentials in child
development.
C. Ways for the training program to work with
existing training providers and educational
institutions, including but not limited to resource
and referral networks, community colleges, and
apprenticeship programs.
D. Ways for the training program to make training
and education available to child care workers and
other workers employed by child care centers and
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schools.
1. States it is the intent of the Legislature to allocate
$1 million in the 2015 Budget to carry out the initial
recommendations of the training committee, and that in
subsequent years, the recommendations of the training
committee be funded by contributions agreed to for that
purpose in the memorandum of understanding between the
provider organization and the Governor.
Best practices
1. Requires the Governor or designee to conduct a study of
best practices for engaging families in their children's
early care and education in family child care settings, and
of federal and other funding that could support parental
engagement efforts without reducing the availability and
affordability of child care.
2. Requires the Governor or designee to report to the
Legislature and Department of Finance, by January 1, 2017,
with the findings and a proposed framework of priorities in
which to invest.
3. Requires the Governor or designee, in conducting the
study, to consult with stakeholders, including the
Department of Social Services, First 5 California, and
organizations that represent parents with young children,
particularly lower income and non-English speaking
families, to consider how best to engage and support those
families in a culturally competent manner.
Additional child care slots
1. States it is the intent of the Legislature to create an
unspecified number of additional slots in alternative
payment programs for children living in extreme poverty,
defined as 50% of the federal poverty level, if funding is
allocated in the Budget.
STAFF COMMENTS
1. Need for the bill. According to the author, specific to
the provisions of the bill that are within the jurisdiction
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of this Committee, "The current subsidized child care
system encompasses more than 120 different agencies
contracting with the state as middlemen, who in turn
administer access to the system for subsidized families and
reimburse providers who care for children whose families
receive subsidies. Low income children have uneven access
to quality child care. Given low reimbursement rates and a
fragmented system, there is also extremely high turnover
among providers. One of the primary work-related costs
that providers struggle to afford is higher education and
training to increase their knowledge of child development
and stay current on the latest theory and practice of early
education and care."
2. Training programs. This bill requires the training
committee to meet to identify gaps in the training
available to family child care providers and barriers that
prevent family child care providers from gaining greater
skills and accessing postsecondary education. According to
the author, existing training opportunities are limited and
unavailable or inaccessible to early education and care
providers in many areas of the state.
3. Role for the Governor. This bill provides the Governor
with a significant role in designating representatives for
participation on the training committee, and the
development of best practices. According to the author,
the goal is to engage the Governor and secure his full
participation in these endeavors. The author may wish to
consider expanding participation on the training committee
to include the Department of Social Services, the
Department of Education, and parents, and include
consultation with the California Department of Education in
the study of best practices.
4. Additional slots. This bill states legislative intent to
create an unspecified number of additional slots in
alternative payment programs for children living in extreme
poverty, defined as 50% of the federal poverty level, if
funding is allocated in the Budget. According to the
author, this bill addresses additional slots only for
alternative payment programs to focus on the greatest area
of need, and provide a balance with recent adjustments that
were made for other types of early education and care
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programs.
5. Organizing family child care providers. Considering the
jurisdiction of the Senate Education Committee, this
Committee may wish to consider the provisions of this bill
that are specific to training programs, best practices, and
additional early education and care slots. This bill is
double-referred to the Senate Labor and Industrial
Relations Committee, which may consider the collective
bargaining provisions of this bill.
6. Fiscal impact. This bill states intent that $1 million be
allocated to implement the initial recommendations of the
training committee, and according to the author, the study
on best practices for parental engagement will cost
approximately $250,000 to complete. Costs for additional
alternative payment programs slots is dependent upon the
number of slots that are added.
7. Related and prior legislation.
AB 641 (Rendon, 2013) among other things, authorized family
child care providers to form, join, participate in, and to seek
the certification of, a provider organization to act as their
exclusive representative on matters related to child care
subsidy programs. AB 641 was held on the Senate Floor.
AB 2573 (Furutani, 2012) authorized family child care providers
to form, join and participate in provider organizations for
purposes of negotiating with state agencies. AB 2573 was never
heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 101 (John Perez, 2011) among other things, authorized family
child care providers to choose whether to be represented by a
single provider organization. AB 101 was vetoed by the
Governor, whose veto message read:
Maintaining the quality and affordability of
childcare is a very important goal. So too is
making sure that working conditions are decent
and fair for those who take care of our children.
Balancing these objectives, however, as this
bill attempts to do, is not easy or free from
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dispute.
Today California, like the nation itself, is
facing huge budget challenges. Given that
reality, I am reluctant to embark on a program of
this magnitude and potential cost.
SB 867 (Cedillo, 2008) authorized family child care
providers to form, join and participate in provider
organizations. SB 867 was vetoed by the Governor, whose
veto message read:
Given California's significant budget challenge,
I cannot consider bills that would add
significant fiscal pressures to the State's
structural budget deficit.
AB 1164 (De Leon, 2007) authorized family child care
providers to form, join and participate in provider
organizations. AB 1164 was vetoed by the Governor, whose
veto message read:
While I support efforts to improve the quality of
child care services and have provided increased
state funding to expand access to subsidized
child care, I cannot support this bill as it has
the potential to add significant fiscal pressures
to the State's structural budget deficit. Family
child care homes currently receive prevailing
market rates for their services. They are
reimbursed for the state-subsidized families they
serve at the same rate as that paid by the
non-subsidized families they serve.
Changes in the current reimbursement structure,
increases in family child care provider
reimbursement rates, expanded provider training
efforts, or other program enhancements could come
at the expense of the number of available child
care slots. In light of the current structural
budget deficit, it is imperative that we balance
our fiscal reality and the need to provide
services to working families.
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SUPPORT
9 to 5
Children Now
National Council of Jewish Women California
Service Employees International Union
Special Needs Network
OPPOSITION
None on current version of the bill.
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