BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 1225
AUTHOR: Yee
INTRODUCED: February 18, 2010
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 14, 2010
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Lynn Lorber
SUBJECT : City and County of San Francisco: individualized
plan for subsidized
child care.
KEY POLICY ISSUES
Should the sunset date on San Francisco's existing pilot
project for subsidized child care be extended by 5 and
one-half years?
Should unexpended child care funds be used to provide
subsidized child care for families in San Francisco who earn
an income over the state's eligibility threshold, rather than
allowing those funds to revert back to the state?
SUMMARY
This bill extends the sunset date by five and one-half years,
to June 30, 2016, the authority for the City and County of
San Francisco to implement an individualized child care
subsidy plan.
BACKGROUND
California subsidizes child care through two main categories
of providers: Title 22 (voucher) programs, and Title 5
(direct service contract with the California Department of
Education) programs. Title 5 programs must meet higher
education and training standards, yet programs in some
counties are reimbursed at a lower rate (Standard
Reimbursement Rate) than Title 22 programs (Regional Market
Rate), which are not required to meet those higher standards.
Current law authorizes two counties, San Mateo and San
Francisco, to operate a pilot project that allows Title 5
programs to receive a higher reimbursement rate within
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existing funding (see Comment # 3). The pilot project in San
Mateo is scheduled to sunset on January 1, 2014; the pilot
project in San Francisco is scheduled to sunset on January 1,
2011. (Education Code 8335 and 8340)
Current law requires the City and County of San Francisco to
develop an individualized county child care subsidy plan that
includes specified elements, including an assessment of the
cost of providing child care. Current law also requires the
city and county to show an increase in the aggregate child
days of enrollment in the county as compared to the
enrollment in the final quarter of the 2004-05 fiscal year.
(EC 8335.1)
ANALYSIS
This bill extends the sunset by five and one-half years on
the San Francisco City and County individualized county child
care subsidy plan. Specifically, it:
1) Authorizes the City and County of San Francisco to
implement an individualized county child care subsidy
plan until June 30, 2016.
2) Requires San Francisco to phase out the plan between
June 30, 2016 and January 1, 2018.
3) Extends the due date for the final report from December
31, 2010 to December 31, 2016.
4) Adds the cost of administering contracts to the list of
elements to be considered during the assessment of the
city and county's goal for its subsidized child care
system.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author, "existing
child care income eligibility cut-off adds an
unreasonable burden on working families in high cost
counties. Quality child care and development programs
are being reimbursed less than half the cost of
providing care in high cost counties. The pilot program
has been successful in helping San Francisco keep
subsidized child care available for families in a high
cost county."
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2) Annual report on existing pilot . Current law requires
the City and County of San Francisco to annually submit
to the Legislature, Department of Social Services and
the Department of Education a report that summarizes the
success of the pilot project. According to the 2007-08
annual report, "the pilot has been successful in
retaining contractors and creating a community of
service providers. The increased reimbursement rate and
the community of providers has been an enormous benefit
to those participating in the pilot project. However,
even with the increased reimbursement rate, the regional
rate in San Francisco County far exceeds the
reimbursement, and providers struggle to stay at full
enrollment and to utilize their contract amount even
though there are over 3,500 children waiting for child
care on San Francisco's Centralized Eligibility List."
However, the report also highlighted problems such as
the underlying issue of a low standard reimbursement,
and found that without additional support these
contractors will continue to struggle.
3) Foregone savings . This bill would not result in
additional state costs. As demonstrated by San Mateo
County's pilot project, providing the higher
reimbursement rates within existing funds is possible
because affected programs typically cannot fill all
their subsidized slots and are then required to return
unspent funds to the state. Those unspent funds are
instead used by the pilot programs to provide the higher
reimbursement rate pursuant to this pilot project.
Therefore, this bill would create cost-pressure on the
General Fund if unspent funds are not reverted to the
state.
4) Prior and related legislation .
SB 1326 (Simitian, Chapter 691, 2003)
created a five-year pilot project in San Mateo
County that allows the county to develop and
implement an individualized county child care
subsidy plan.
SB 1304 (Simitian, Chapter 61, 2008)
extended the sunset by five years, to January 1,
2014, on the San Mateo County individualized county
child care subsidy plan.
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SUPPORT
Bay Area Council
California Alternative Payment Program Association
California Child Care Coordinators Association
California Child Care Resource & Referral Network
California Child Development Administrators Association
Children Now
Chinatown Child Development Center
City and County of San Francisco
County Welfare Directors Association of California
Eric Mar, Supervisor, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
FranDelJA Enrichment Center
Holy Family Day Home
Janet Pomeroy Center
Kai Ming, Inc.
Low Income Investment Fund
Mimi and Peter Haas Fund
Nihonmachi Little Friends
Parent Voices
San Francisco Child Care Planning and Advisory Council
San Francisco Human Services Agency
San Francisco Unified School district
South of Market Childcare Inc.
Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center
Tenderloin Childcare Center, Compass Community Services
True Sunshine Preschool Center
Wu Yee Children's Services
OPPOSITION
None received.