BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2621
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2621 (Garcia and Olsen)
As Amended May 23, 2014
Majority vote
HUMAN SERVICES 6-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Stone, Maienschein, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bigelow, |
| |Ammiano, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Ian Calderon, Garcia, | |Calderon, Campos, |
| |Hall | |Donnelly, Eggman, Gomez, |
| | | |Holden, Jones, Linder, |
| | | |Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Ridley-Thomas, Wagner, |
| | | |Weber |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires specified information on child day care homes
to be posted on a quarterly basis on the Department of Social
Services (DSS) Internet Web site. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires DSS to post on its Web site child day care home
information that includes but is not limited to the status of
the home's license and the number of licensing visits
conducted upon the home, which shall include the number of
substantiated and inconclusive complaint inspections and
noncompliant inspections.
2)Requires DSS to include the name of the small child day care
homes and the name and address of large child day care homes
on its website.
3)Requires DSS to update the information on a monthly basis and
to include information for the preceding five years of each
licensee.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
Ongoing costs to DSS of approximately $700,000 (General Fund)
for additional positions for project development, testing and
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maintenance and other related IT [Information Technology]
contract work related to the website.
COMMENTS :
Background on licensed child care: Under current law, any
person who provides organized nonmedical and nonresidential care
for children other than his or her own children that is not
arranged on a voluntary or otherwise uncompensated basis is
required to be licensed under the Child Care and Development
Services Act (CCDSA). These types of facilities are commonly
referred to as a "Title 22" program due to their required
compliance with Division 2 of Title 22 of the California Code of
Regulations (CCR), which implements the CCDSA and is governed by
the DSS, and can include both small and large family day care
homes and commercially based child care centers.
In order for any person to operate a child development program,
the program must first become a licensed provider under Title
22, which establishes general health and safety requirements,
staff to child ratios, and basic provider training
qualifications. Title 22 providers set their own rates and may
voluntarily accept child development subsidy vouchers, along
with statutorily established family fees, provided through the
California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids
(CalWORKs) program or other state-funded child care subsidy
programs.
According to DSS, as of April 1, 2014, there are 47,069 licensed
child care facilities in the state, including licensed family
child care homes, with a licensed capacity to serve almost 1.1
million children.
Lack of transparency: Under current law, DSS is not required to
operate and post information relating to the status of licensed
child care facilities. However, although DSS currently has
available a searchable database of child care facilities on its
website, it is limited to the name, location, contact
information, type of facility and whether the facility's license
is current or pending. It does not provide information such as
a facility's licensing history, the expertise and certification
of staff, or a facility's complaint history, including whether
the complaint was resolved. In order to acquire additional
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information relating to the quality of a facility, a person must
travel to one of DSS' eight regional licensing offices and
request the information in person.
Other than DSS' searchable database, which is limited to general
information of child care facilities, there is currently no
online or other automated system provided by DSS whereby the
public can review or learn more about licensed child care
facilities. This not only limits the public's access to
information about these types of facilities, but also limits
Community Care Licensing Division's (CCLD) internal ability to
track patterns of poor care within a single facility, much less
across facilities with the same licensee. Under current
practice, when a licensee undergoes a licensing inspection or is
subject to a complaint investigation, the information reported
by CCLD is maintained in a paper-based format. This limits
CCLD's ability to track licensees over time and track whether
they operate other facilities that should undergo additional
scrutiny.
According to DSS, there are approximately 462 licensing program
analysts responsible for the more than 75,000 licensed community
care facilities, including child care facilities, and the nearly
1.4 million individuals they serve, ranging from the earliest
stages of life to the end of life care. This comes to a ratio
of one licensing analyst per 162 facilities and 3,030
individuals in care.
Analysis Prepared by : Chris Reefe / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089
FN: 0003836