BILL NUMBER: AB 315 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 14, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member De Leon
FEBRUARY 18, 2009
An act to amend Section 8222 of add
Section 8222.2 to the Education Code, relating to child care
and development services.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 315, as amended, De Leon. Child care and development services:
alternative payment programs.
The Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the
State Department of Education, requires the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to administer child care and development programs
, which that offer a full range of
services for eligible children from infancy to 13 years of
age who are eligible for services . The act
authorizes funds appropriated for purposes of the act to be used for
alternative payment programs to allow for maximum parental choice.
This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to
those provisions require the department to adopt
regulations to establish guidelines for alternative payment programs
on specified matters, including timeliness of payment to child care
providers .
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no
yes . State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. It is the Legislature's
intent to:
(a) Eliminate late and inaccurate payments to child care
providers.
(b) Eliminate ambiguities that have led to changing guidelines.
(c) Eliminate insufficient communication about policies, and the
lack of a system that addresses child care provider payment problems
that has led to more experienced, quality providers choosing not to
accept subsidized children, thereby reducing parental choice and
availability of care for families relying on the subsidized child
care system.
(d) Create a uniform and timely system of payments to child care
providers by providing clear and consistent directives for
alternative payment programs.
SEC. 2. Section 8222.2 is added to the
Education Code , to read:
8222.2. The department shall adopt regulations to establish
guidelines for alternative payment programs on all of the following:
(a) Timeliness of payments to child care providers.
(b) Due process and complaint process.
(c) Filling out time sheets.
(d) Manner of issuing payments to child care providers, and
whether an alternative payment program may issue a single check for
multiple children.
(e) Timeliness of notice to providers when a child is no longer
eligible to receive subsidies.
(f) Administrative recourse and penalties for late payments to
child care providers.
SECTION 1. Section 8222 of the Education Code
is amended to read:
8222. (a) Payments made by alternative payment programs shall not
exceed the applicable market rate ceiling. Alternative payment
programs may expend more than the standard reimbursement rate for a
particular child. However, the aggregate payments for services
purchased by the agency during the contract year shall not exceed the
assigned reimbursable amount as established by the contract for the
year. An agency shall not make payments in excess of the rate charged
to full-cost families. This section does not preclude alternative
payment programs from using the average daily enrollment adjustment
factor for children with exceptional needs as provided in Section
8265.5.
(b) Alternative payment programs shall reimburse licensed child
care providers in accordance with a biennial market rate survey
pursuant to Section 8447, at a rate not to exceed the ceilings
established pursuant to Section 8357.
(c) An alternative payment program shall reimburse a licensed
provider for child care of a subsidized child based on the rate
charged by the provider to nonsubsidized families, if any, for the
same services, or the rates established by the provider for
prospective nonsubsidized families. A licensed child care provider
shall submit to the alternative payment program a copy of the
provider's rate sheet listing the rates charged and the provider's
discount or scholarship policies, if any, along with a statement
signed by the provider confirming that the rates charged for a
subsidized child are equal to or less than the rates charged for a
nonsubsidized child.
(d) An alternative payment program shall maintain a copy of the
rate sheet and the confirmation statement.
(e) A licensed child care provider shall submit to the local
resource and referral agency a copy of the provider's rate sheet
listing rates charged, and the provider's discount or scholarship
policies, if any, and shall self-certify that the information is
correct.
(f) Each licensed child care provider may alter rate levels for
subsidized children once per year and shall provide the alternative
payment program and resource and referral agency with the updated
information pursuant to subdivisions (c) and (e), to reflect any
changes.
(g) A licensed child care provider shall post in a prominent
location adjacent to the provider's license at the child care
facility the provider's rates and discounts or scholarship policies,
if any.
(h) An alternative payment program shall verify provider rates no
less than once a year by randomly selecting 10 percent of licensed
child care providers serving subsidized families. The purpose of this
verification process is to confirm that rates reported to the
alternative payment programs reasonably correspond to those reported
to the resource and referral agency and the rates actually charged to
nonsubsidized families for equivalent levels of services. It is the
intent of the Legislature that the privacy of nonsubsidized families
shall be protected in implementing this subdivision.
(i) The department shall develop regulations for addressing
discrepancies in the provider rate levels identified through the rate
verification process in subdivision (h).