BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 548
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB
548 (De León)
As Amended August 17, 2015
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE: 25-12
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Labor |5-2 |Roger Hernández, Chu, |Harper, Patterson |
| | |Low, McCarty, | |
| | |Thurmond | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |12-5 |Gomez, Bloom, Bonta, |Bigelow, Chang, |
| | |Calderon, Nazarian, |Gallagher, Jones, |
| | |Eggman, Eduardo |Wagner |
| | |Garcia, Holden, | |
| | |Quirk, Rendon, Weber, | |
| | |Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Authorizes family child care providers to form, join
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and participate in "provider organizations" for purposes of
negotiating with state agencies on specified matters, among
other provisions. Specifically, this bill:
1)Defines "family child care provider" 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:
i) Provides child care in his or her own home or in the
home of the child receiving care.
ii) Is exempt from licensing requirements.
2)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.
3)Extends the state action antitrust exemption to the activities
of the family child care providers and their representatives.
This bill also states, however, that the status of family
child care providers as independent business owners does not
change, nor does this bill classify family child care
providers as public employees.
4)Creates a right for family child care providers to form
provider organizations. Child care providers would retain the
right to join or not join such an organization.
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5)Requires that, within ten days of receipt of a request from a
provider organization, the State Department of Social Services
(DSS) must make available to that provider organization
information regarding licensed family child care providers,
including each provider's contact information.
6)Requires that, within 30 days of receipt of a request from a
provider organization, the California Department of Education
(CDE), with the assistance of the relevant organization, must
collect information regarding family child care providers,
including each provider's contact information. The provider
organization must bear the reasonable costs of collecting the
information.
7)Requires that, upon written request of a family child care
provider, the CDE and the DSS must remove the family child
care provider's home address and telephone number from the
above-described lists.
8)Provides that a unit of provider organizations may choose to
designate the provider organization that shall be the
exclusive representative for negotiations with the state. In
order for a unit of provider organizations to be considered
appropriate, the unit must be statewide and include all family
child care providers.
9)Provides that the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB)
must conduct an election to certify the provider organization
as the exclusive bargaining representative. PERB is also
required to receive and act upon challenges, petitions for
unit certification, and other representation issues. A
provider organization petitioning for an election to be
certified is required to include in its petition proof of a
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30% showing of interest designating the provider organization
to act as the exclusive representative. The provider
organization must pay the reasonable costs of verifying this
showing of interest.
10) Empowers PERB to contract with a neutral third party
to conduct all necessary elections and other representation
requests.
11) Provides that there shall be no more than one
bargaining unit at any time. A certified provider
organization may file a request with the PERB for an election
to add providers to an existing unit.
12) Provides that the child care organization would
represent all child care providers in negotiations with the
Governor and state agencies on issues that fall within the
child care provider organization's scope of representation.
13) Provide that issues within the scope of
representation include:
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.
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e) Benefits for providers.
f) Payment procedures for child care subsidy programs.
g) Reimbursement rates for providers participating in a
child care subsidy program including, but not limited to,
rate add-ons for providers who complete extra training.
h) Expanded access to and funding for food and nutrition
programs.
i) The deduction of membership dues and fair share fees.
j) Expanded access to state-funded child care program to
families in need of subsidies.
aa) Any changes to current practice other than those
listed in above that would improve recruitment and
retention of child care providers, quality of child care
programs, additional education of qualified child care
providers, and the promotion the health and safety of
providers and the children in their care.
14) Requires that the Governor, through the Department
of Personnel Administration, in consultation with the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), other state
agencies that administer state-funded child care programs, and
their contractors, must meet and confer in good faith
regarding all matters within the scope of representation with
representatives of a certified provider organization.
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15) Provides that if an agreement is reached between the
Governor, through the Department of Personnel Administration,
and the certified provider organization, they jointly shall
prepare a written memorandum of understanding.
16) Provides the child care provider organization with
the right to enter an agreement with the state for the
deduction of membership dues and fair share fees from child
care subsidy payments made to providers.
17) Prohibits the child care provider organization from
directing or calling a strike. The bill would also allow for
disputes to be submitted to the California State Mediation and
Conciliation Service for mediation.
18) 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 Partnership on Child Care Training,
Education, and Quality Improvement. The membership of the
Joint Partnership is to include representatives of the
certified provider organization and designees of the Governor.
19) Requires the partnership to make recommendations
regarding, and oversee, the expenditures. Authorizes the
partnership to consult with other early education and care
advocates, the SPI or designees, representatives of community
colleges, higher education institutions, resource and referral
networks, unions that operate training programs,
apprenticeship programs, and early education and care
employers. Requires the certified provider organization to
carry out the recommendations of the partnership.
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20) Requires the partnership 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.
21) Requires the partnership to play a coordinating role
in ensuring that the training offered to providers:
a) Meets the State's needs for the overall 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 in order to create a sustainable career
pathway for the early education workforce.
22) Authorizes the partnership'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.
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b) Ways to expand and improve provider training and skills
on subjects including but not limited to child literacy,
children with special needs, and children's social and
emotional development.
c) Ways to support providers who seek to obtain training or
higher education credentials in child development or a
related field.
d) Ways to work with existing training providers and
educational institutions, including but not limited to
resource and referral networks, community colleges, and
apprenticeship programs.
e) Ways to make training and education, which may include
unit-bearing courses and training, available to child care
workers and other workers employed by child care centers
and schools.
23) States it is the intent of the Legislature that the
recommendations of the partnership be funded by contributions
agreed to for that purpose in the memorandum of understanding
between the provider organization and the Governor.
24) 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.
25) Requires the Governor or designee to report to the
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Legislature and Department of Finance, by January 1, 2017,
with the findings and a proposed framework of priorities in
which to invest.
26) Requires the Governor or designee, in conducting the
study, to consult with stakeholders, including the DSS, 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.
27) Makes related legislative findings and declarations.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill would result in the following:
1)Unknown General Fund costs, potentially in the hundreds of
millions, to the extent collective bargaining leads to
increased salary and benefits and better working conditions
for providers, which will lead to higher child care costs.
2)Ongoing General Fund administrative costs to the Public
Employee Relations Board (PERB), in the range of $450,000, to
process regulations and adjudicate increased unfair practice
caseload. Costs are based on the estimate that 85,000
providers will be added to PERB's current jurisdiction of over
2.2 million public employees. PERB will also need to expend
staff resources to determine the appropriate bargaining unit
for family child care workers. This bill specifically
provides that the election costs relative to this process will
be reimbursed by participating provider organizations.
3)Ongoing General Fund administrative costs to CalHR,
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potentially in the range of $1 million, for workload related
to negotiating and administering a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) with the certified provider organization. CalHR
workload includes litigation of unfair labor practices before
the PERB, arbitrations over MOU disputes, and lawsuits over
alleged wage and hour violations. Potentially significant
costs would result if the provider organization and the state
are unable to reach future agreements in any area within the
scope of representation.
4)Onetime General Fund administrative costs to the CDE of
approximately $106,000 and ongoing costs of approximately
$57,000 to collect information from providers. CDE does not
currently maintain a list of family child care providers. The
CDE would need to compile the information from Alternative
Payment Providers and maintain information in a database.
5)General Fund cost pressure, likely in the low hundreds of
thousands, for staffing of the Partnership on Child Care
Training, Education and Quality Improvement. The bill
expresses the intent of the Legislature that recommendations
made by the partnership are funded with contributions agreed
to in an MOU between the provider organization and the
Governor.
6)General Fund costs in the low hundreds of thousands for the
Governor or his designee to perform the best practices study
for engaging families which would increase costs to an
unspecified department. Additional cost pressure to implement
identified best practices.
COMMENTS: This bill proposes to enact the Raising Child Care
Quality and Accessibility Act. According to the author, "The
current subsidized child care system encompasses more than 120
different agencies contracting with the state as middlemen, who
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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."
The sponsors state that our current system of child care is
fragmented, standards vary greatly, and it is plagued by high
turnover among providers, as approximately 40% of providers are
leaving the profession each year. In addition, the sponsors
note that income inequality is at the forefront of the nation
and our state. They state that, according to data from the
United States Census Bureau, 47% of California's poor children
live in single-mother families and that the majority of
California's single-mother households earned less than 200% of
the poverty threshold. Noting these two factors, the sponsors
argue that California must implement policies that support
families in achieving economic stability and ensure they can
access a stable, affordable, quality child care system so that
they can find work and stay employed. The sponsors believe that
this bill will help achieve this by creating more child care
slots and allowing childcare providers to organize, creating a
more stable workforce and allowing family child care providers
to join together on matters that affect their profession.
The National Right to Work Committee opposes this bill, arguing
that it would force childcare providers to join a union,
depriving childcare providers of the right to negotiate
workplace conditions for themselves. The National Right to Work
Committee argues that allowing childcare workers to organize
will increase state costs and hurt taxpayers, childcare
providers, and the State of California.
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Analysis Prepared by:
Ben Ebbink / L. & E. / (916) 319-2091 FN:
0001631