BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2252
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 21, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 2252 (Torrico) - As Amended: April 5, 2010
SUBJECT : California State Preschool Programs
SUMMARY : Provides, commencing with the 2012 fiscal year,
continuous appropriation to the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) from the General Fund an amount sufficient to
enroll all three- and four-year-old children of families who
meet eligibility requirements and who request enrollment.
Expresses the intent of the Legislature to impose a tax for
purposes of funding all California state preschool programs.
Specifies that to the extent that the funds appropriated are
allocated to a school district or a community college district,
those funds would be applied toward the Proposition 98 minimum
funding requirements.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the SPI to administer all California state preschool
programs, which includes part-day and full-day age and
developmentally appropriate programs for three- and four-year
old children in educational development, health services,
social services, nutritional services, parent education and
parent participation, evaluation, and staff development.
(Education Code (EC) 8235)
2)Requires the SPI to adopt rules and regulations on
eligibility, enrollment and priority of services. Specifies
that families must meet at least one requirement in each of
the following areas:
a) A family is a current recipient of social services,
income eligible, homeless, or one whose children are
recipients of protective services, or whose children have
been or are at risk of being identified as being abused,
neglected, or exploited; and,
b) A family needs the child care services because of the
following: 1) the child is identified by a legal, medical,
social services agency, or emergency shelter as a recipient
of protective services or are or at risk of being
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neglected, abused or exploited; or 2) the parents are
engaged in vocational training leading directly to a
recognized trade, paraprofession or profession, employed or
seeking employment, seeking permanent housing, or
incapacitated. (EC 8263)
3)Specifies that "income eligible" means that a family's
adjusted monthly income is at or below 75% of the state median
income, adjusted for family size, and adjusted annually, and
excluding federal Social Security and state supplemental
program benefits. (EC 8263.1)
4)Requires a participating program to include both of the
following:
a) Age and developmentally appropriate activities for
children in participating classrooms that are designed to
facilitate their transition to kindergarten; and,
b) Opportunities for parents and legal guardians to work
with their children on interactive literacy activities.
(EC 8238)
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Background . The CDE administers a child care and
development system, maintaining 1,460 service contracts with
approximately 797 public and private agencies supporting and
providing services to about 500,000 children from birth to 13
years of age. Contractors include school districts, county
offices of education, cities, colleges, other public entities,
community-based organizations, and private agencies. In Fiscal
Year (FY) 2009-10, child care and development programs received
almost $3.1 billion, of which, according to the Legislative
Analyst's Office (LAO), approximately 83% goes to child care,
14% to preschool programs, and 3% for related support
activities. Eligibility for child care and development programs
is limited to families participating in the California Work
Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program and
families whose income is at or below 75% of the State Median
Income according to family size ($50,256 for a family of four).
Priority is also given to neglected or abused children under the
custody of child protective services or children who are at risk
of being neglected or abused.
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AB 2759 (Jones), Chapter 308, Statutes of 2008, consolidated the
funding of programs that serve children between the ages of
three and five into the California State Preschool Program.
Those programs included the State Preschool program, the
Prekindergarten and Family Literacy program, and General Child
Care and Development programs as follows:
1)General Child Care and Development programs are state and
federally funded and are delivered by a variety of providers,
including public or private agencies, local educational
agencies (LEAs), or centers and family child care home
networks. These programs offer an educational component that
is developmentally, culturally, and linguistically
appropriate, and provide parent educations and referrals to
public service agencies. Children between birth and age 12
are eligible for services if they meet income and other
eligibility criteria.
2)State Preschool programs are part-day comprehensive
developmental programs that emphasize parent education and
involvement. These programs are administered through LEAs,
colleges, community-action agencies, and private nonprofit
agencies.
3)State Preschool Full-Day programs enable state preschool
part-day providers to extend their programs to a full day.
Agencies that receive these "wrap-around" funds must operate
as a preschool program for half a day and as a general child
care provider the remainder of the day.
4)The Prekindergarten and Family Literacy (PFKL) program
provides child development and family literacy services to
those who reside in the attendance areas of elementary schools
in deciles 1-3. Eligibility is limited to children who would
be attending kindergarten the subsequent year. PKFL providers
are eligible to receive $2500 per class to provide family and
support services.
5)The PKFL Full-Day program is similar to the State preschool
full-day program in that these programs operate as a PKFL
program for half a day and as general child care for the
remainder of the day. The PKFL full-day program operates a
longer preschool year than the regular PKFL.
This bill requires, beginning the 2012 fiscal year, continuous
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appropriation from the General Fund in an amount sufficient to
enroll all three- and four-year-old children who meet income
eligibility, and expresses the intent of the Legislature to
impose an unspecified tax to generate funds for this purpose.
The FY 2009-10 budget allocated $439 million for state preschool
programs, providing over 110,000 slots for children who meet
income eligibility. According to the California Department of
Education, the County Centralized Eligibility List shows 58,075
income eligible children ages three and four waiting for slots
in subsidized programs. This bill would presumably ensure
access to state preschool programs for these children. At the
state preschool daily rate of $21.22 per child or $3,714 per
year based on 175 days of operations, $215.7 million would be
needed for this purpose.
According to the author, children who attend preschool become
better students and are less likely to commit crimes. The
author states, "According to a study on one particular preschool
program (and highlighted by the organization, Fight Crime:
Invest in Kids California), at-risk 3 and 4 year olds who were
left out of that program were five times more likely to be
chronic law breakers than similar children who attended the
program. This same study showed that early childhood education
helped cut crime so much that it saved the public more than $11
for every $1 invested."
Importance of high-quality preschools . In addition to affecting
pubic safety and potential criminal behaviors, there is
documented research that attendance in high quality preschools
affects future academic achievement. A November 2007 report
titled "Who is Ahead and Who is Behind?" by the RAND Corporation
found that:
Second and third graders are not proficient in
California Standards Tests. In English-language arts, 52%
of second graders and 63% of third graders do not achieve
grade level proficiency. In math, 41% of second graders
and 42% of third graders are not proficient.
English learners and students whose parents did not
graduate from high school have the highest achievement
gaps. In English language arts, 70% do not meet second
grade proficiency standards and 85% do not meet third grade
proficiency standards.
Reading First performance assessments in 17 school
districts show that 45 to 49% of first graders and 33 to
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57% of kindergarteners do not meet reading benchmarks at
the end of the year.
Review of experiences in other states show that high
quality preschool programs may make a difference in
kindergarten readiness and future education performance.
In a subsequent report released in 2009, the RAND Corporation
concludes that preschool can be a solution for raising
achievement overall and in narrowing achievement gaps between
groups of students. To achieve the largest absolute gain in
test scores for Latino and African American children, the RAND
Corporation maintains that preschool and quality of preschools
must be increased for all children through a universal approach.
If preschool is to be used to narrow the achievement gap
between Latino and African American children and whites, a
targeted approach could lead to narrowing of the achievement gap
by about 10 to 20%.
In its analysis of the FY 2007-08 budget, the LAO, projecting
significant increases in Proposition 98 funding, recommended, in
part, investing $2 billion in child care and development
programs and preschools to provide access to state preschool
program for all low-income three- and four-year-old children.
The LAO reported that research shows that early childhood
development programs have long-term positive effect on academic
achievement, graduation rate and fewer referrals to special
education services. The LAO also advocated enrolling English
learners early to provide earlier exposure to the English
language.
Is there program capacity ? Certainly, funding is not adequate
to provide enough slots for all eligible children. However, it
is unclear whether there is program capacity to enroll 58,075
children within a short timeframe, even if the funds are
available. In a CDE report about unspent child care and
development funds, providers indicated that facilities,
licensing and hiring qualified staff were challenges to getting
a program started. This bill requires funding to enroll all
eligible three- and four-year-old children by July, 2012. It is
uncertain whether there will be enough programs to accommodate
thousands of children by that time.
Importance of quality . It is important to ensure that these
programs are high quality programs. The studies by RAND focus
on the importance of quality. The State of Preschool 2008,
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published by the National Institute for Early Education
Research, evaluates state-funded preschool programs and provides
a profile for each state based on access, quality standards, and
resources. California met only four of ten benchmarks
evaluating quality of state preschool programs, which include
measures such as whether the state has early learning standards,
minimum teacher education requirements, maximum class sizes, or
requires monitoring. SB 1629 (Steinberg), Chapter 307, Statutes
of 2008, established the Early Learning Quality Improvement
System Advisory Committee to develop a quality rating system to
ultimately increase a program's ability to prepare children for
school. The bill requires the Advisory Committee to prepare a
preliminary report in December 2009 and complete its final
report and recommendations by December 2010.
Previous related legislation . AB 2759 (Jones), Chapter 308,
Statutes of 2008, consolidated existing programs serving three
and four-year-old children into the California State Preschool
Program.
SB 1629 (Steinberg), Chapter 307, established the Early Learning
Quality Improvement System Advisory Committee to develop a
quality rating scale that parents can use to identify high
quality programs. The Advisory Committee is required to
complete its report and recommendations by December 31, 2010.
AB 571 (Jones), introduced in 2007, would have provided access
to state preschool programs for all low income three- and
four-year-old children, with priority for four-year-old children
by 2011-12. The bill was held on the Assembly Appropriations
Committee suspense file.
AB 172 (Chan), Chapter 211, Statutes of 2006, established the
PFKL and appropriated $5 million for this purpose.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Aspiranet
Opposition
California Taxpayers' Association
AB 2252
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Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087