BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE HUMAN
SERVICES COMMITTEE
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
BILL NO: AB 1872
A
AUTHOR: Alejo
B
VERSION: June 19, 2012
HEARING DATE: June 26, 2012
1
FISCAL: Yes
8
7
CONSULTANT: Mareva Brown
2
SUBJECT
Child day care facilities: nutrition
SUMMARY
Requires the Department of Social Services to post on its
Internet website information about the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Child and Adult Care Food Program and
requires family child care home providers to post a weekly
menu in a visible place.
ABSTRACT
Current law
1. Establishes the California Child Day Care
Facilities act to establish a statewide comprehensive,
quality system for licensing child day care facilities
to ensure a quality day care environment. (HSC 1596.7
et seq)
2. Establishes in federal law the Child and Adult Care
Food Program (CACFP) and identifies nutritional
standards for meals in such facilities. (7 CFR 226.20)
Continued---
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 1872 (Alejo)
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3. Requires that state child care centers adhere to
CACFP nutrition standards, but leaves open the option
to participate in the reimbursement program. Family
Child Care Homes are not required to adhere to CACFP
standards.
4. Requires under state law that certain standards be
used when serving beverages in child care homes, and
exempts from those standards beverages that are deemed
"medical food" or those provided by a parent or legal
guardian. (HSC 1596.808)
This bill
1. Requires the Department of Social Services (DSS) to
inform prospective and current licensed family day
care home providers about the USDA's Child and Adult
Care Food Program (CACFP) by posting information on
the department website, and disseminating information
by other means, including during orientation classes
for new providers.
2. Requires that family day care homes ensure that any
meals and snacks at a minimum include the amount of
food and components specified by the CACFP. (7 CFR
226.20), with specific exceptions.
3. Permits DSS to inform providers of any updated
standards in CACFP by provider bulletins or other
similar instructions.
4. Provides an exemption for children with "medical
food," as documented by a medical provider
5. Provides an exemption for meals or snacks provided
by a parent or legal guardian at the family day care
home.
6. Requires family day care homes to post a weekly
menu in an area visible to parents and guardians.
7. Requires the department to review the status of
compliance of this section only during regularly
scheduled, authorized monitoring inspections and not
through separate and independent visits based solely
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 1872 (Alejo)
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on complaints regarding CACFP compliance.
8. Requires that compliance be determined by examining
the posted menu or observing any meal or snacked
served during the monitoring visit.
9. Requires that if DSS finds the provider
noncompliant with this section, that it recommend
relevant nutrition information and training
opportunities to the family day care home provider.
10. Prohibits penalties from being levied in
conjunction with noncompliance with this section.
11. Directs that these requirements are not intended to
replace requirements in Health and Safety code
1596.808, which specifies appropriate beverages to be
served in licensed child care facilities.
FISCAL IMPACT
An Assembly Appropriations Committee analysis projects a
one-time GF costs in the range of $150,000 for the
Department of Social Services (DSS) to update licensing
forms and materials to include new nutrition requirements.
The analysis also projected on-going annual workload costs
of up to $100,000 GF for including the requirements of this
bill in DSS inspections and for processing an annual
self-certification by providers. Both the
self-certification requirement and the licensing
requirement have been removed from this version of the
bill, however the department still is required to review
compliance.
The analysis also states that to the extent providers
increase participation in CACFP, it would bring additional
federal nutrition funding to the state. Currently more than
75 million free and subsidized meals per year are served to
children in family child care homes. If this bill increases
that number by one percent, it would result in an
additional $1.5 million in federal funding for CACFP. In
addition, those meals would cost approximately $42,000 GF.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
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Purpose of the bill
Nearly 25 percent of children under the age of five are
overweight or obese, with heightened risks of developing
chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.<1> The
author writes that given this trend, and the fact that 37%
of California children are enrolled in child care centers
and thousands more spend time in family day care homes,
the child care environment represents a great opportunity
to promote healthy eating and an arena to battle the
obesity epidemic.
The author also states that enacting this bill would be a
step forward in California's effort to improve the
nutrition quality of meals served in the child care
setting, and would provide an opportunity for family day
care homes to get healthy food paid by an existing federal
program.
Obesity among children
The prevalence of obesity in children has more than doubled
in the past 30 years among young children, aged 2-5,
according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services. It has tripled in among youth ages 6-11, and has
more than tripled among adolescents ages 12-19. The most
recent National Health and Nutrition Survey data shows 1 in
15 boys between ages 2 and 5, and nearly 1 in 10 girls, is
considered obese. Researchers have found that a child who
is overweight between the ages of two and fourandahalf is
five times more likely to be overweight at age twelve, when
compared with children who are not overweight in their
preschool years.
Two national studies the USDAs Nationwide Food Consumption
Survey and the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by
Individuals - demonstrate changes in eating patterns among
American youth that illustrate the complexity that exists
relating food intake to the increased prevalence of
obesity. These include:
----------------------
<1> Nutrition and Physical Activity Environments in
Licensed Child Care: A Statewide Assessment of California,
California Food Policy Advocates, et al, March 2009
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 1872 (Alejo)
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There has been a decline in breakfast
consumption - especially for children of working
mothers.
Average portion sizes increased for salty
snacks from 1.0 oz. to 1.6 oz. and for soft drinks
from 12.2 oz. to 19.9 oz. between 1977 and 1996.
Only 21 percent of young people eat the
recommended five or more servings of fruits and
vegetables each day.
Nearly half of all vegetable servings are fried
potatoes.
Childhood obesity is a public health issue that has been
extensively written about and studied.
CACFP
The USDA's Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
provides day care providers with cash reimbursement for
serving up to two meals and one snack per day to enrolled
children that meet federal nutritional guidelines. Program
payments for day care homes are based on the number of
meals served to enrolled children, multiplied by the
appropriate reimbursement rate for each breakfast, lunch,
supper, or snack they are approved to serve.
Nineteen states require all child care facilities to follow
CACFP nutrition standards, including Maryland, Michigan,
Oregon and Virginia. Twelve states do not require the CACFP
standard be followed as a condition of licensure for all
types of child care, including California.
Nutritional requirements for children in day care
Approximately 50,000 family day care homes and child care
centers are licensed in California, with a combined
capacity of more than one million children. Approximately
50 percent participate in the CACFP.
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As a condition of licensure, California's 10,850 child care
centers, with capacity for nearly 700,000 children, must
follow federally approved nutritional guidelines outlined
in the CACFP. About half of them fully participate in the
CACFP by obtaining federal reimbursement for providing
nutritionally approved menus.
There is no state-mandated nutritional requirement for
providers of care in the state's approximately 39,000
licensed Family Child Care Homes. About half of these
providers - some 20,300 homes -- are approved as CACFP
providers.
Comments
This bill would require any meals and snacks provided in a
family day care home to contain, at a minimum, federally
adopted nutritional standards. It also requires these
providers to post weekly menus in a visible place. To
address concerns raised by providers about the guidelines
for menu posting, the author's office has agreed to amend
language in the bill. In addition, staff recommends the
clarifying changes. Both are as follows:
SEC. 2. Section 1597.50 is added to the Health and Safety
Code, to read:
1597.50. (a) Except as provided in subdivisions (c) and
(d), a family day care home shall ensure, that any meals
and snacks provided by the family day care home include, at
a minimum, provide the amount of food and the components in
any meals and snacks served that are specified by the
United States Department of Agriculture Child and Adult
Care Food Program (CACFP) (7 C.F.R. 226.20). The department
shall explain these nutritional requirements on its
Internet Web site, in appropriate department outreach
materials, and during the orientation of prospective family
day care home providers.
(b) If the CACFP is amended to include new nutritional
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standards, the department may inform providers of these
updated standards by provider bulletin or other similar
instruction.
(c) If a child has a medical necessity, documented in
writing by a medical provider, that includes the need for
"medical food" as defined by Section 109971, a licensed
family day care facility shall be exempt from complying
with the requirements of subdivision (a), to the extent
necessary to meet the medical needs of that child.
(d) This section shall not apply to meals or snacks
provided by a parent or legal guardian for his or her child
at a family day care home.
(e) Family day care homes shall post, in an area open to
parents and guardians, a weekly menu.
(e) Family day care homes shall keep daily menus, available
for parents and guardians to see, of all meals and snacks
served. This requirement shall be interpreted in a manner
consistent with the Menu Records requirements of the CACFP
program.
(f) The department shall review the status of compliance
with this section only during regularly scheduled,
authorized monitoring inspections, and shall not be
required to conduct separate and independent visits based
solely on complaints regarding compliance with the CACFP
nutritional standards . Compliance shall be determined by
examining the posted menu or observing any meal or snack
served during the monitoring visit, if any. If the
department determines that a family day care home is
noncompliant with this section, based on examining the
daily menu or observing any meal or snack served during the
monitoring visit, the department shall recommend to direct
the family day care home to relevant nutrition information
and training opportunities.
Related legislation :
AB 2084 (Brownley), Chapter 593, Statutes of 2010, requires
a licensed child day care facility, as of January 1, 2012,
to follow specified requirements relating to the provision
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of beverages.
PRIOR VOTES
Assembly Floor: 52 - 25
Assembly Appropriations:12 - 5
Assembly Human Services: 4 - 2
POSITIONS
Support: California Food Policy Advocates (sponsor)
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees
American Heart Association
California Association for Family Child Care
California Center for Public Health Advocacy
California Child Care Resource & Referral
Network
California Medical Association
California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
California Teachers Association
Central California Regional Obesity
Prevention Program
Central Coast Hunger Coalition
Child Care Food Program Roundtable
Child Care Law Center
Children Now
Choices for Children
Community Bridges
Community Child Care Council of Santa Clara
County, Inc.
Del Norte Child Care Council
Family Child Care Council
First 5 Shasta
Imperial County Children and Families First
Commission
Los Angeles County Policy Roundtable for
Child Care
Options Child Care and Human Service Agency
Shasta County Office of Education
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 1872 (Alejo)
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UC Berkeley, Atkins Center for Weight and
Health
Valley Oak Children's Services
Oppose:
California Right to Life Committee, Inc.
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