BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 548 (De León) - Child care: family child care providers:
bargaining representatives.
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|Version: April 14, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 7 - 2, L. & |
| | I.R. 4 - 1 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: May 28, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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SUSPENSE FILE. AS AMENDED.
Bill
Summary: This bill gives family child care providers the right
to form, join, and participate in provider organizations that
will act as their exclusive representative, 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.
Fiscal Impact (as approved on May 28,
2015):
Major costs to the state attributed to various state agencies
being involved in the collective bargaining process, potential
increases in provider wages and benefits derived from
negotiations, potential additional child care slots, the
establishment of a training partnership committee, the intent
to provide $1 million to implement initial committee
recommendations, and a best practices study for parent
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engagement. See staff comments.
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.
Proposed Law:
This bill gives family child care providers the right to form,
join, and participate in provider organizations, and requires,
if a family child care provider organization is certified by the
Public Employment Relations Board, 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 that 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,
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join, and participate in provider organizations of their
own choosing for the purpose of being represented.
2. Includes all of the following in the scope of
representation:
A. The administration of laws and regulations
governing licensing for providers.
B. Joint labor-management committees.
C. Contract grievance arbitration.
D. Expanded access to professional development
and training opportunities for providers, including,
but not limited to, through the training partnership
established pursuant to this bill, and state
contributions to the training partnership.
E. Benefits for providers.
F. Payment procedures for state-funded child care
programs.
G. Reimbursement rates, including, but not
limited to, rate add-ons for providers who complete
additional training, and other economic matters.
H. Expanded access to and funding for food and
nutrition programs.
I. The deduction of membership dues and other
voluntary deductions authorized by individual family
child care providers, including, but not limited to,
honoring maintenance of check off agreements, and
allocation of the costs of implementing such a
deduction system.
J. Expanded access to the state-funded child care
program to families in need of subsidies.
AA. Any changes to current practice, as specified.
3. At the request of a provider organization for
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information on child care providers, the State Department
of Social Services must make specified provider information
available within 10 days and the California Department of
Education, within 30 days.
4. Requires a certification process, as specified, that
includes the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to
conduct an election to certify a provider organization as
the exclusive bargaining representative.
5. Creates a representation process that, among other
things, requires the Governor, through the Department of
Human Resources, in consultation with the Superintendent of
Public Instruction, other state agencies that administer
state-funded child care programs, and their contractors, to
meet and confer in good faith regarding on all matters
within the scope of representation with representatives of
a certified provider organization.
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 (training committee). The membership of
the 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
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.
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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.
5. 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
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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
schools.
6. 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.
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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.
Related
Legislation:1.
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, who cited budget constraints. SB 867 (Cedillo, 2008)
and AB 1164 (De Leon, 2007), similar to AB 101, were also vetoed
by the Governor for similar reasons.
Staff
Comments: Ultimately, the costs of this bill are unknown.
However, significant increases in costs sustained by the state
can be anticipated in the following areas:
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Additional slots: This bill includes Legislative intent to
crease an unspecified amount of additional slots in
alternative payment voucher programs for children living in
extreme poverty. For illustrative purposes, an additional
1,000 slots would cost roughly $8 million at current child
care reimbursement rates.
PERB: Significant upfront administrative costs to determine
the bargaining unit, including holding an election. The PERB
would require 3 positions (1 administrative law judge, 1
mediator, and 1 staff attorney) to complete this workload.
This bill specifically provides that the election costs will
be reimbursed by participating provider organizations.
State Negotiations: Significant workload to CalHR for
negotiating and administering a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) with the certified provider organization that is binding
on CDE and DSS. The level of increased staffing needed at
CalHR is unknown since the actual number of potential unit
members is unknown, as this would drive the number of
grievances and litigation. Additional workload of CalHR would
include litigating unfair labor practices before the PERB,
arbitrations over MOU disputes, and lawsuits over alleged wage
and hour violations. To the extent increases in salaries and
benefits for child care providers result from negotiations, it
would lead to higher child care costs. Potentially
significant costs would result if the provider organization
and state are unable to reach future agreements in any area
within the scope of representation.
Best practices study: The Governor or his designee is required
to perform the best practices study for engaging families
which would increase costs to an unspecified department.
These costs could be in the low hundreds of thousands, with an
additional cost pressure to implement identified best
practices.
Partnership on Child Care Training, Education, and Quality
Improvement: This committee is to be made up of
representatives of the certified provider organization and
designees of the Governor. Establishment of the committee
increases costs to an unspecified department, potentially in
the low hundreds of thousands of dollars, to staff the
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committee. This bill also provides that it is the
Legislature's intent to allocate $1 million in the Budget Act
of 2015 to carry out the initial recommendations of the
committee.
Author Amendments (as adopted on May 28, 2015): Amendments would
provide various clarifications such as (1) the requirements
regarding the petitions to be certified as the exclusive
representative for an appropriate group of providers, (2)
defining an appropriate unit of providers, (3) the procedures
for adding providers to an existing unit, and (4) the scope of
the training committee.
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