BILL NUMBER: AB 379 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 15, 2004
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 6, 2004
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Mullin
FEBRUARY 14, 2003
An act to amend Section 8208 of, and to add Article 8.5
(commencing with Section 8245) to Chapter 2 of Part 6 of, the
Education Code, relating to child development.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 379, as amended, Mullin. Family child care home education
networks.
Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to
administer general child care and development programs consisting of
programs that offer a full range of services for children from
infancy to 14 years of age, for any part of a day, by a public or
private agency, in centers and family child care homes.
This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction
to contract with local education agencies, local government agencies,
and nonprofit organizations to operate family child care home
education networks that support educational objectives for children
in family child care homes that serve families eligible for
subsidized child care. The bill would require the family child care
home education network programs to provide specified services,
including age and developmentally appropriate activities for
children, parenting education, and parent involvement. The bill
would provide that its provisions do not impose any new requirement
on a family child care home education network that entered into a
contract with the State Department of Education on or before January
1, 2005, as specified.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. It is the intent of the Legislature to improve and
ensure school readiness of children from state-subsidized families
who receive day care in family child care homes. For the past three
decades, the family child care home education network,
also known as the family child care home system, contracted through
the State Department of Education, has provided quality,
education-oriented, child development programs. It is the intent of
the Legislature in enacting this act, to clarify and codify the
family child care home education network and ensure that
the State Department of Education's desired results system of outcome
measures apply to the network.
SEC. 2. Section 8208 of the Education Code is amended to read:
8208. As used in this chapter:
(a) "Alternative payments" includes payments that are made by one
child care agency to another agency or child care provider for the
provision of child care and development services, and payments that
are made by an agency to a parent for the parent's purchase of child
care and development services.
(b) "Alternative payment program" means a local government agency
or nonprofit organization that has contracted with the department
pursuant to Section 8220.2 to provide alternative payments and to
provide support services to parents and providers.
(c) "Applicant or contracting agency" means a school district,
community college district, college or university, county
superintendent of schools, county, city, public agency, private
nontax-exempt agency, private tax-exempt agency, or other entity that
is authorized to establish, maintain, or operate services pursuant
to this chapter. Private agencies and parent cooperatives, duly
licensed by law, shall receive the same consideration as any other
authorized entity with no loss of parental decisionmaking
prerogatives as consistent with the provisions of this chapter.
(d) "Assigned reimbursement rate" is that rate established by the
contract with the agency and is derived by dividing the total dollar
amount of the contract by the minimum child day of average daily
enrollment level of service required.
(e) "Attendance" means the number of children present at a child
care and development facility. "Attendance," for the purposes of
reimbursement, includes excused absences by children because of
illness, quarantine, illness or quarantine of their parent, family
emergency, or to spend time with a parent or other relative as
required by a court of law or that is clearly in the best interests
of the child.
(f) "Capital outlay" means the amount paid for the renovation and
repair of child care and development facilities to comply with state
and local health and safety standards, and the amount paid for the
state purchase of relocatable child care and development facilities
for lease to qualifying contracting agencies.
(g) "Caregiver" means a person who provides direct care,
supervision, and guidance to children in a child care and development
facility.
(h) "Child care and development facility" means any residence or
building or part thereof in which child care and development services
are provided.
(i) "Child care and development programs" means those programs
that offer a full range of services for children from infancy to 14
years of age, inclusive, for any part of a day, by a public or
private agency, in centers and family child care homes. These
programs include, but are not limited to, all of the following:
(1) Campus child care and development.
(2) General child care and development.
(3) Migrant child care and development.
(4) Child care provided by the California School Age Families
Education Program (Article 7.1 (commencing with Section 54740) of
Chapter 9 of Part 29).
(5) State preschool.
(6) Resource and referral.
(7) Child care and development services for children with special
needs.
(8) Family child care home education network.
(9) Alternative payment.
(10) Child abuse protection and prevention services.
(11) Schoolage community child care.
(j) "Child care and development services" means those services
designed to meet a wide variety of needs of children and their
families, while their parents or guardians are working, in training,
seeking employment, incapacitated, or in need of respite. These
services may include direct care and supervision, instructional
activities, resource and referral programs, and alternative payment
arrangements.
(k) "Children at risk of abuse, neglect, or exploitation" means
children who are so identified in a written referral from a legal,
medical, or social service agency, or emergency shelter.
(l) "Children with exceptional needs" means infants and toddlers,
from birth to 36 months of age, inclusive, who have been determined
eligible for early intervention services pursuant to the California
Early Intervention Services Act (Title 14 (commencing with Section
95000) of the Government Code) and its implementing regulations, and
children 3 years of age and older who have been determined to be
eligible for special education and related services by an
individualized education program team according to the special
education requirements contained in Part 30 (commencing with Section
56000), and meeting eligibility criteria described in Section 56026
and Sections 56333 to 56338, inclusive, and Sections 3030 and 3031 of
Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations. These children may
have an operative individualized education program or individualized
family service plan, and be receiving early intervention services or
appropriate special education and services. These children, ages
birth to 21 years, inclusive, may be autistic, developmentally
disabled, hard-of-hearing, deaf, speech impaired, visually
handicapped, seriously emotionally disturbed, orthopedically
impaired, other health impaired, deaf-blind, multihandicapped, or
children with specific learning disabilities, who require the special
attention of adults in a child care setting.
(m) "Closedown costs" means reimbursements for all approved
activities associated with the closing of operations at the end of
each growing season for migrant child development programs only.
(n) "Cost" includes, but is not limited to, expenditures that are
related to the operation of child care and development programs.
"Cost" may include a reasonable amount for state and local
contributions to employee benefits, including approved retirement
programs, agency administration, and any other reasonable program
operational costs. "Cost" may also include amounts for licensable
facilities in the community served by the program, including lease
payments or depreciation, downpayments, and payments of principal and
interest on loans incurred to acquire, rehabilitate, or construct
licensable facilities, but these costs may not exceed fair market
rents existing in the community in which the facility is located.
"Reasonable and necessary costs" are costs that, in nature and
amount, do not exceed what an ordinary prudent person would incur in
the conduct of a competitive business.
(o) "Elementary school," as contained in Section 425 of Title 20
of the United States Code (the National Defense Education Act of
1958, Public Law 85-864, as amended), includes early childhood
education programs and all child development programs, for the
purpose of the cancellation provisions of loans to students in
institutions of higher learning.
(p) "Family child care home education network" means a local
education agency, local government agency, or nonprofit organization
that contracts with the department pursuant to Section 8245 to make
payments to licensed family child care home providers and
to provide educational and support services to parents
and to providers that serve state-subsidized families. A family
child care home education network may also be referred to as a family
child care home system.
(q) "Health services" include, but are not limited to, all of the
following:
(1) Referral, whenever possible, to appropriate health care
providers able to provide continuity of medical care.
(2) Health screening and health treatment, including a full range
of immunization recorded on the appropriate state immunization form
to the extent provided by the Medi-Cal Act (Chapter 7 (commencing
with Section 14000) of Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and
Institutions Code) and the Child Health and Disability Prevention
Program (Article 6 (commencing with Section 124025) of Chapter 3 of
Part 2 of Division 106 of the Health and Safety Code), but only to
the extent that ongoing care cannot be obtained utilizing community
resources.
(3) Health education and training for children, parents, staff,
and providers.
(4) Followup treatment through referral to appropriate health care
agencies or individual health care professionals.
(r) "Higher educational institutions" means the Regents of the
University of California, the Trustees of the California State
University, the Board of Governors of the California Community
Colleges, and the governing bodies of any accredited private
nonprofit institution of postsecondary education.
(s) "Intergenerational staff" means persons of various
generations.
(t) "Limited-English-speaking-proficient and
non-English-speaking-proficient children" means children who are
unable to benefit fully from an English-only child care and
development program as a result of either of the following:
(1) Having used a language other than English when they first
began to speak.
(2) Having a language other than English predominantly or
exclusively spoken at home.
(u) "Parent" means any person living with a child who has
responsibility for the care and welfare of the child.
(v) "Program director" means a person who, pursuant to Sections
8244 and 8360.1, is qualified to serve as a program director.
(w) "Proprietary child care agency" means an organization or
facility providing child care, which is operated for profit.
(x) "Resource and referral programs" means programs that provide
information to parents, including referrals and coordination of
community resources for parents and public or private providers of
care. Services frequently include, but are not limited to:
technical assistance for providers, toy-lending libraries,
equipment-lending libraries, toy- and equipment-lending libraries,
staff development programs, health and nutrition education, and
referrals to social services.
(y) "Severely disabled children" are children with exceptional
needs from birth to 21 years of age, inclusive, who require intensive
instruction and training in programs serving pupils with the
following profound disabilities: autism, blindness, deafness, severe
orthopedic impairments, serious emotional disturbances, or severe
mental retardation. "Severely disabled children" also include those
individuals who would have been eligible for enrollment in a
developmental center for handicapped pupils under Chapter 6
(commencing with Section 56800) of Part 30 as it read on January 1,
1980.
(z) "Short-term respite child care" means child care service to
assist families whose children have been identified through written
referral from a legal, medical, or social service agency, or
emergency shelter as being neglected, abused, exploited, or homeless,
or at risk of being neglected, abused, exploited, or homeless.
Child care is provided for less than 24 hours per day in child care
centers, treatment centers for abusive parents, family child care
homes, or in the child's own home.
(aa) (1) "Site supervisor" means a person who, regardless of his
or her title, has operational program responsibility for a child care
and development program at a single site. A site supervisor shall
hold a permit issued by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing that
authorizes supervision of a child care and development program
operating in a single site. The Superintendent of Public Instruction
may waive the requirements of this subdivision if the superintendent
determines that the existence of compelling need is appropriately
documented.
(2) In respect to state preschool programs, a site supervisor may
qualify under any of the provisions in this subdivision, or may
qualify by holding an administrative credential or an administrative
services credential. A person who meets the qualifications of a site
supervisor under both Section 8244 and subdivision (b) of Section
8360.1 is also qualified under this subdivision.
(ab) "Standard reimbursement rate" means that rate established by
the Superintendent of Public Instruction pursuant to Section 8265.
(ac) "Startup costs" means those expenses an agency incurs in the
process of opening a new or additional facility prior to the full
enrollment of children.
(ad) "State preschool services" means part-day educational
programs for low-income or otherwise disadvantaged
prekindergarten-age children.
(ae) "Support services" means those services that, when combined
with child care and development services, help promote the healthy
physical, mental, social, and emotional growth of children. Support
services include, but are not limited to: protective services,
parent training, provider and staff training, transportation, parent
and child counseling, child development resource and referral
services, and child placement counseling.
(af) "Teacher" means a person with the appropriate permit issued
by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing who provides program
supervision and instruction that includes supervision of a number of
aides, volunteers, and groups of children.
(ag) "Underserved area" means a county or subcounty area,
including, but not limited to, school districts, census tracts, or
ZIP Code areas, where the ratio of publicly subsidized child care and
development program services to the need for these services is low,
as determined by the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
(ah) "Workday" means the time that the parent requires temporary
care for a child for any of the following reasons:
(1) To undertake training in preparation for a job.
(2) To undertake or retain a job.
(3) To undertake other activities that are essential to
maintaining or improving the social and economic function of the
family, are beneficial to the community, or are required because of
health problems in the family.
SEC. 3. Article 8.5 (commencing with Section 8245) is added to
Chapter 2 of Part 6 of the Education Code, to read:
Article 8.5. Family Child Care Home Education Networks
8245. (a) The Superintendent of Public Instruction, with funds
appropriated for this purpose, shall contract with local educational
agencies, local government agencies, and nonprofit organizations to
operate family child care home education networks that support
educational objectives for children in family child care homes that
serve families eligible for subsidized child care.
(b) Family child care home education network programs shall
include, but are not limited to, all of the following:
(1) Age and developmentally appropriate activities for children.
(2) Supervision of children.
(3) Parenting education and parent involvement.
(4) Social services that include, but are not limited to,
identification of child and family needs and referral to appropriate
agencies.
(5) Health services.
(6) Nutrition.
(7) Training and support for the family child care home education
network's family home providers and staff.
(8) Assessment of each family home provider to ensure educational
and developmentally appropriate programs for children.
(9) Developmental profiles for children enrolled in the program.
8246. (a) Each family child care home education network
contractor, in addition to the requirements set forth in subdivision
(b) of Section 8245, shall do all of the following:
(1) Recruit, enroll, and certify eligible families.
(2) Recruit, train, support, and reimburse licensed family home
providers.
(3) Collect parental sliding scale fees.
(4) Set standards for educational quality and conduct assessments
of the quality of the program offered by each family home providers.
(5) Ensure that basic health and nutrition requirements are met.
(6) Monitor contract compliance.
(7) Provide data and reporting as may be required by the
department.
(b) Each family child care home education network contractor shall
adopt a policy regarding the arrangement to be maintained with each
family child care home provider and shall note in its records whether
the provider is an employee or independent contractor.
(c) A family child care home education network contractor shall
implement the department's desired results system of outcome
measures. The department shall may
modify the measures already developed for contracted child
development centers to fit the services of family child care home
education networks and their family child care homes.
8247. This article does not impose any new requirement on a
family child care home education network that entered into a contract
with the department on or before January 1, 2005, nor does this
article require any increase in reimbursement rates under that
contract. This article does not require the department to modify its
contracting procedure that was in effect immediately prior to
January 1, 2005, for a family child care home education network.