BILL ANALYSIS
AB 315
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Date of Hearing: May 13, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 315 (De Leon) - As Amended: May 6, 2009
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:8-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires the State Department of Education (SDE) to
adopt regulations to establish guidelines for alternative
payment (AP) programs on all of the following:
1)Timelines of payments to child care providers.
2)Due process and complaint process.
3)Filling out attendance records.
4)Manner of issuing payments to child care providers and whether
an AP program may issue a single check for multiple children.
5)Timeliness of notice to providers when a child is no longer
eligible to receive subsidies.
6)Administrative recourse and penalties for late payments to
child care providers.
FISCAL EFFECT
GF administrative costs to SDE, of approximately $175,000, to
meet the requirements of this measure. These costs are
associated with establishing a process for administrative
recourse and penalty assessment. SDE is currently in the early
stages of developing regulations regarding payment issues for
child care and development programs.
COMMENTS
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1)Purpose . SB 863 (Sieroty), Chapter 798, Statutes of 1980,
permanently established AP Programs, which provide child care
through various settings (i.e., licensed family child care
homes, center-based care, etc). The programs help families
access child care services and makes payment for those
services directly to the child care provider selected by the
family. The AP program is intended to increase parental
choice and accommodate the individual needs of the family.
The programs are reimbursed based on the number of children
served. The amount of funding allocated to them is determined
on their reporting process and budget estimations. There are
84 AP programs throughout the state and they range from
private, nonprofit organizations to county offices of
education.
Even after the implementation of CalWORKs (welfare reform)
child care, AP programs retained much of their early
flexibility to develop unique operational policies and
procedures. Likewise, CalWORKs was created largely as a
block-grant program with outcome measures. Many operational
standards and procedures, especially for supportive services
such as child care, were left to the discretion of local
agencies, such as AP programs.
According to the author, "Lack of clarity in state regulations
and guidelines has led to inconsistencies in how AP programs
administer payments, which has led to undue burdens on child
care providers. Reported problems have included unpredictable
pay dates after the submitting of timesheets and limited or no
access to due process and compliant processes if payments are
late or inaccurate. These problems have led to more
experienced, quality child care providers choosing not to
accept subsidized children, which reduces choice in providers
and ultimately limits access for working families that rely on
child care to maintain their livelihoods."
This bill requires SDE to adopt regulations to establish
guidelines for alternative payment (AP) programs.
2)Existing law . Current SDE regulations establish broad
guidelines regarding child care providers, including
enrollment, attendance accounting, and rates. There are also
specific regulations related to paying providers. For
example, regulations require contractors to use daily
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attendance sheets with parent signatures as the primary source
of documentation for reimbursement and audit purposes.
Also, regulations require AP programs to develop and implement
written policies and procedures for provider participation.
SDE is currently holding stakeholder and workgroup discussions
on proposed regulations regarding payment of child care and
development providers, including AP programs. These
discussions are in the early stages and are expected to
continue with the end result being SDE proposing regulations.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081