BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1368
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 28, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Jim Beall, Jr., Chair
AB 1368 (Adams) - As Amended: April 16, 2009
SUBJECT : Child day care: safety
SUMMARY : Includes small family day care homes in the health and
safety requirement to ensure that at least one staff member has
completed a course in pediatric first aid and pediatric
cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
EXISTING LAW requires, under the California Child Day Care Act,
that day care centers ensure that at least one staff member who
is trained in pediatric first aid and pediatric CPR be present
wherever children are onsite or offsite.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : This bill seeks to fill a gap in current child day
care safety law. According to the author, "A constituent's
daughter passed away from chocking because the caregiver that
was left at the small family child care home by the licensee was
not trained in pediatric CPR and first aid. While the licensee
was properly trained, the person she left to take care of the
children was not, and therefore, the infant died because the
caregiver did not know how to properly administer pediatric
CPR."
Current law does not include small family child care homes when
requiring at least one caregiver to be trained in pediatric CPR
and first aid and on the premises at all times when children are
present. This is already the case with large family child care
homes and daycare facilities. This bill seeks to include small
family child care homes in the requirements already existing for
large family child care homes and daycare facilities.
The proposed change requires all family child care, not just
large, to ensure that someone with pediatric first aid and CPR
is on-site or off-site with children at all times. It is not
clear why small family child care homes were not included in the
original law, but anecdotally, there may have been an assumption
that they were sole operators. These one-person providers are
required to have the training, and it was probably assumed they
AB 1368
Page 2
were always onsite or with the children. Thus, only the types
of programs with multiple staff would have to be required to
have a trained person always there. According to the Child Care
Law Center, there are in fact many small family child care homes
that do have a part-time assistant, spouse, sibling, or child
who helps out. It seems appropriate to make sure that the
children are always with someone who has CPR and first aid
training.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Frances Chacon / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089