BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1312
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Date of Hearing: January 10, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Jim Beall Jr., Chair
AB 1312 (Smyth) - As Amended: January 4, 2012
SUBJECT : Child care: licensure
SUMMARY : Extends the hours and weeks of operation for public
recreation programs for kindergarten through 12th grade from 16
to 20 hours per week or less, and from 12 to 14 weeks or less
during a 12-month period.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Defines a public recreation program as a program operated by
the state, city, county, special district, school district,
community college district, chartered city, or chartered city
and county that meets one of the following three conditions:
a) The program is provided for children in grades K-12 and
operates during non-school hours for less than 16 hours per
week for 12 weeks or less within a 12-month period;
b) The program is provided for children over the age of
four years and nine months and not yet enrolled in school
and operates for less than 16 hours per week and for a
total of 12 weeks within a 12-month period; or,
c) The program is provided to children under the age of
four years and nine months that is operated for 12 hours or
less per week and 12 weeks or less during a 12-month
period, as specified.
2)Provides for the licensing and regulation of child day care
facilities by the Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD) of
the state Department of Social Services (DSS).
3)Provides 14 exemptions from the licensing requirements,
including public recreation programs, of the Child Day Care
Facilities Act (CDCF Act) for the following entities, as
defined:
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a) Health facilities;
b) Clinics;
c) Community care facilities;
d) Family day care homes;
e) Cooperative care arrangements that involve no payment;
f) Care of children by a relative;
g) Public recreation programs ;
h) Extended day care programs operated by public or private
schools;
i) School parenting or adult education child care programs;
j) A child care program that operates only once per week
for four hours;
aa) Temporary child care services;
bb) Any program that provides instructional activities for
children that is operated when school is not in session and
whose sessions do not exceed a specified number of days;
cc) A substance abuse treatment program for women and
children, as specified; and
dd) Crisis nurseries.
4)Requires every public recreation program employer to require all
current and new employees having direct contact with minors to
submit one set of fingerprints to the Department of Justice as a
condition of employment. AB 2986 (Campbell), Chapter 1097,
Statutes of 1992.
5)Defines "child day care facility" as a facility that provides
nonmedical care to children less than 18 years of age in need of
personal services, supervision, or assistance essential for
sustaining the activities of daily living or for the protection of
the individual on less than a 24-hour basis. Child day care
facility includes day care centers, employer-sponsored child care
centers, and family day care homes. Health and Safety Code
�1596.750.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : The author has introduced this bill to assist parents
with their child care needs and ease the challenges of their
busy schedules. He states that,
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Today, the challenges associated with identifying
quality and affordable after school care, can be
daunting for parents struggling to accommodate work
schedules, early release school days, teacher work
weeks, school holidays, and many other school calendar
demands. With a limit of 16 hours per week, before and
after school programs run by public parks and
recreation providers are limited in their ability to
provide for school-aged children during non-school
hours. AB1312 aims to help parents by increasing the
amount of time public parks and recreation programs
are allowed to provide services outside school hours.
The bill will increase the weekly hour limit to 20
hours per week and will increase the total week limit
to 14 weeks per 12-month period.
To accomplish this modification the author would extend the
operational hours of public recreation programs from its current
16 hours per week to 20 hours per week, and from 12 to 14 weeks
during a 12-month period.
Child care licensure
Under the CDCF Act, CCLD requires child day care centers to
provide safe and healthy environments for children. To
accomplish this, the CDCF Act requires that child day care
centers obtain a license and comply with certain standards.
Current law also authorizes DSS or a county licensing agency to
waive licensing requirements under certain conditions.
Several entities are exempted from the licensure requirement for
various policy reasons. Currently, there are 14 categories (see
Existing Law, above, for the full list) exempted from obtaining
a license, including public recreational programs. It is not
entirely clear why public recreation programs were initially
exempted but according to historical analyses, AB 2986
(Campbell), Chapter 1097, Statutes of 1992, it appears that this
exemption was created in part with the rationale that these
public recreation programs were of "short duration."
The policy question raised by this bill is whether an expansion
of the hours that unlicensed public recreation programs are
allowed to operate is appropriate. From a practical
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perspective, extending hours to accommodate a parent's busy
schedule and offer more convenient drop-off and pick-up
schedules makes sense. Unfortunately, there are more
considerations than parental schedule conflicts that come into
play when giving more latitude to unlicensed facilities, such as
public recreation programs, that are responsible for a
vulnerable population such as children. While these programs do
have a requirement to have fingerprints of employees, they are
also exempt from myriad other requirements that ensure that the
child is safe and healthy. The following are several of the
Title 22 General Licensing Requirements for Child Care Centers:
Essential health and safety regulations:
Fire clearance
Capacity determination
Teacher: child ratio
Indoor/outdoor space requirements
Staffing for water activities
Regulations that help ensure quality:
Administrator qualifications
Director qualifications
Teacher and teacher aide qualifications
Food service
Regulations that shouldn't cost too much but are helpful:
Reporting (e.g. injury, unusual incident or epidemic to
CCLD)
Personal rights
Prohibition on physical discipline
Immunization records
Working telephone
Daily inspection for illness
Sign in and sign out
Napping space and equipment
Smoking prohibited
Analysis
Public recreation programs are distinct from child day care
facilities in that they offer focused activities such as art,
karate, and dance programs. The intent of the program is to
offer activities that enhance a child's learning and to some
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extent socialization skills. The fact that the programs are not
as lengthy in hours of operation and are narrow in scope is the
likely reason that the Legislature limited their hours in lieu
of requiring them to be licensed and therefore subject to
oversight by CCLD.
Expanding the hours of operation of public recreation programs
arguably changes the nature of the program from recreation to
child care. Under the provisions of this bill, children could
spend, on average, an increase of almost one additional hour per
day at these programs. Instead of attending for up to 3.2 hours
per day it could be up to 4 hours per day for a 5-day week. The
expansion of hours for a single activity, versus a child care
and development curriculum that is more holistic, seems
unrealistic for children to sit through. In brief, even though
parents face child-rearing challenges and hectic schedules, the
health and safety of a child should be the primary consideration
when considering an extension of hours.
Opposition removed
The California Child Care Resource & Referral Network (R&R
Network) opposed the prior version of this bill. However, with
the January 4th amendments that removed the expansion of hours
for the most vulnerable population, children under age 5, the
R&R Network has withdrawn its opposition. The R&R Network's
prior concerns were:
A brief by the National Association of Regulatory
Administrators and its finding that licensing exemptions
granted to organizations that care for children are a
growing concern and specifically lists public recreation
programs as an example.
Recreational programs are designed to enhance
recreational opportunities to children and not child care
options, and extending hours in these programs would
require licensing them; and
The extension of hours amounts to unfair business
practices as child day care centers must adhere to
oversight licensing fees and requirements while public
recreation programs would not.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Park and Recreation Society (CPRS) sponsor
South Bay cities Council of Governments (SBCCOG)
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Frances Chacon / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089