BILL ANALYSIS
AB 379
Page 1
Date of Hearing: January 13, 2004
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Lois Wolk, Chair
AB 379 (Mullin) - As Amended: January 6, 2004
SUBJECT : Child care: funding.
SUMMARY : Defines a Family Child Care Home Education Network
(FCCHEN) and requires that these entities support educational
objectives for children in home-based child care programs that
serve families eligible for subsidized child care.
Specifically, this bill :
1)States the intent to clarify and codify the role of the Family
Child Care Home Network (FCCHEN) and ensure that the
California Department of Education's (CDE) Desired Results
system of outcome measures applies to the FCCHEN.
2)Defines a FCCHEN as a local education or governmental agency
or non-profit that contracts with CDE to make payments to
family child care home providers and provides education
support services to parents and providers that serve
state-subsidized families.
3)Outlines the roles and responsibilities of the FCCHENs.
4)Requires each FCCHEN contractor to adopt a policy regarding
the arrangement made with each family child care home
provider, and whether the provider is an employee or an
independent contractor.
5)Requires each FCCHEN to implement the CDE Desired Results
system of outcome measures after CDE modifies it's existing
set of measures designed for center-based child care
providers.
6)Exempts a FCCHEN that contracted with the CDE on or before
January 1, 2005.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Defines "child care and development programs" as programs that
offer a full range of services for children from infancy to 14
years of age for any part of the day, in centers or family
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child care homes. The list of programs includes campus child
care, migrant child care State preschool, family child care
homes network and alternative payment among others.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown; CDE maintains that costs are
absorbable.
COMMENTS :
What are Family Child Care Home Education Networks?
The author states that since 1972, the CDE has contracted with
FCCHENs "to meet the increasing complexity of provisions of
child development programs during a time when facilities were in
extremely short supply ?" FCCHENs advertise for, recruit,
enroll and certify families in State-funded child care. They
recruit licensed family home providers to provide care; place
children with providers; ensure children receive an appropriate
education program; provide training for both parents and
providers; collect parent co-pays; and collect invoices from
providers, among other things.
In the last 30 years, the State has funded this system without a
statutory provision. The author believes this measure would
codify existing CDE practices and define the use,
responsibilities, funding models and outcome measures for the
FCCHENs.
The sponsors maintain that this model is not unlike the Foster
Family Agency model used in foster care settings. The FCCHENs
will recruit families to a program whose rates are already set,
and offer additional support with the goal of providing a
broader educational service to the children in their care.
Additionally, the FCCHENs will have the responsibility for
collecting data from contracting child care providers.
Currently, alternative payment programs (local agencies or
nonprofits that contract with CDE to provide alternative
payments and support services to parents and providers) collect
data from their members.
How many children do FCCHEN contractors serve ?
CDE does not collect data that would definitively answer this
question. However the data that is available gives an outline
of the services provided:
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1) According to a February 6, 2003 CDE report which cites the
Department's Child Care Annual Aggregate Report (FFY
2001-2002) as the source, 4,158 families and 5,235 children
were served through family child care home contracts in CDE.
In addition, a number of General Child Care contracts funded
services provided within family child care networks.
2)Rosters of the California Family Child Care Systems
Association, Northern and Southern sections, list
approximately 32 member agencies having family child care
networks.
3)In a survey administered by the CCDAA family child care
network task force in 2003, 34 respondents reported providing
network services through 33 family child care contracts and 17
General Child Care contracts with CDE.
What is the difference between the FCCHEN and Alternative
Payment Providers (AP) ?
Currently, CDE contracts with FCCHENs and APs among other
entities to assist in child care and development programs.
There are several differences between these two programs, but
the main difference is that FCCHENs are designed to and must
provide a CDE-monitored quality educational child development
program to enrolled children, while an AP program has no
educational quality requirements. In addition, AP programs are
offered to licensed-exempt providers, licensed family child care
providers and center-based providers. The FCCHENs only contract
with licensed family child care providers. Finally, while
participation in a FCCHEN is voluntary, training is mandatory
for family child care providers in the program; an AP program
does not mandate provider training.
What is the "Desired Results" system of outcome measures ?
Historically CDE has used a process-oriented compliance model of
evaluating the child care and development services it provides.
Recently CDE revised its approach to focus on a system of
desired results for the child care and development system. This
new method is compatible with CDE's accountability system for
elementary schools and is intended to improve the results for
children and families who receive developmental services from
CDE. This approach emphasizes the coordination of programs and
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services to support the continuum of a child's developmental
progress from birth to age 13.
Technical amendments
On page 2 the intent section of the bill inadvertently omits the
word "education" from Family Child Care Home Education Networks
both on line 5 and line 9 and 10. It is suggested that the
committee adopt amendments to include the word "education" in
both those instances.
PRIOR LEGISLATION : None.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Child Development Administration Association
(Sponsor)
California Alternative Payment Program Association
Child Development Policy Institute
OPTIONS - A Child Care and Human Services Agency
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Caitlin O'Halloran / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089