BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE HUMAN
SERVICES COMMITTEE
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
BILL NO: SB 1099
S
AUTHOR: Correa
B
VERSION: April 5, 2010
HEARING DATE: April 13, 2010
1
FISCAL: Education, Appropriations
0
9
CONSULTANT:
9
Hailey
SUBJECT
Foster care funds: subsidized child care for foster parents
SUMMARY
Makes changes in state law and practice to enable
California to increase federal financial participation when
providing child care and development services to children
who also receive child welfare services.
ABSTRACT
Current federal law :
1) Establishes child welfare services for children who are
abused or neglected, these services include emergency
services, family maintenance, family reunification, and
permanency planning.
2) Directs states to have a state plan for foster care.
3) Provides a cost-sharing formula, between the federal
and state (or local) governments, to divide responsibility
Continued---
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for paying for these welfare services. Note: the federal
share of most child welfare costs is fifty percent.
4) Provides a child care and development block grant to
states, and includes a maintenance of effort (MOE)
requirement in order for states to receive their share of
the federal block grant.
Current state law :
1) Directs the superintendent of public instruction to
establish child care and development programs for children
meeting certain eligibility criteria. (Education Code 8200
et seq.)
2) Gives priority for child care and development services
to children who are neglected or abused and who are
recipients of child protective services, or children who
are at risk of neglect or abuse, upon written referral from
a legal, medical, or social services agency. (Education
Code Section 8263.)
3) Apportions the state and local share of costs for child
welfare services: the state pays 60 percent and counties
pay 40 percent of what the federal government does not
cover.
4) Directs the State Department of Social Services (DSS)
to amend the foster care state plan to authorize counties
that elect to subsidize child care for foster parents to
use specified federal matching funds for that purpose.
This bill :
1) Directs DSS to amend the foster care state plan to
authorize the use of state child care and development funds
administered by the State Department of Education (SDE) as
the nonfederal match needed to draw down federal child
welfare funds to reimburse some of the cost of providing
child care and development services to children receiving
child welfare services or are in foster care or are at risk
of abuse or neglect.
2) Stipulates that the state funds identified shall not be
those being used for any other nonfederal match.
3) Establishes conditions for the use of child development
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funds as a nonfederal match for federal child welfare
funds:
The county shall contract with a local child care
and development agency that is willing to participate.
The county shall claim the full child care costs at
the rate established by SDE for the local area.
The county shall provide the full funding to the
local child care and development agency.
The local child care and development agency shall
use the funds to serve children receiving protective
services or foster children or children at risk of
abuse of neglect.
FISCAL IMPACT
Unknown.
Currently, SDE reports that between one and two percent of
children served are in the category "abused or neglected or
at risk of abuse or neglect." The current annual
expenditure from the General Fund for State Preschool and
general child care programs is $1.1 billion. Two percent
of that amount is $22 million. If these funds are not
already serving as nonfederal matching funds for other
federal programs, then federal financial participation
could potentially cover half of these $22 million costs,
netting the state approximately $11 million for additional
child care services. Other child care and development
contracts, particularly purchase of service contracts under
the "alternative payment" rubric, might also be eligible
for drawing down federal foster care funds through the
provisions of this bill.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Need for the bill
The author points out that 30 percent of the 80,000
children in foster care are five years of age or younger.
An additional 15,000 foster children are in the primary
grades. These young children and others who are at risk of
abuse or neglect are eligible to receive child care and
development services. The author cites research reports
that find that foster children profit cognitively and
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emotionally from participation in high-quality child care
and development programs, such as the State Preschool and
Children's Center programs administered in California by
SDE. Increasing the federal funds that provide these
services will increase the number of California children
who can be helped.
How the bill would work
Currently, more than 1,000 classrooms provide child care
and development programs to low income children through a
direct contract with SDE. In addition, every county in
California has at least one agency that contracts with SDE
to purchase child care services for eligible families;
these are called "alternative payment" contracts. Under
the provisions of this bill, an agency with a child care
and development contract with SDE would enter into a
separate contract with their county. Whenever the child
care and development agency enrolled a child eligible for
federal financial participation through Subtitle IV-E
(child welfare) of the federal Social Security Act, the
county would submit a claim for federal financial
participation for that child. Those funds would be
provided to the local child care and development agency as
partial payment for the costs of services. This
reimbursement would free state funds for the child care and
development agency to enroll additional children.
Federal regulations may limit Title IV-E match to children
in foster care
According to county social services personnel who have been
working to increase the amount of federal Title IV-A
funding coming to California for child welfare services,
federal regulations may limit the claiming to children who
are currently in foster care, rather than to the broader
group of children receiving child welfare services.
Appropriation issue: are state funds available to match
federal funds?
As the bill implies, current General Fund appropriations
for child care and development are used to meet maintenance
of effort requirements of the federal child care and
development block grant. If California is using General
Fund appropriations above that required match, then those
additional funds could potentially be used as the
nonfederal match for federal child welfare funds.
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Note about double referral
The Rules Committee referred this bill to both the Human
Services Committee and the Committee on Education. In
order to meet legislative timelines, any amendments agreed
to during the Human Services Committee should be presented
and adopted in the Education Committee if a motion and
sufficient votes move the bill.
POSITIONS
Support: California State Association of Counties
Oppose: None received
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