BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2621
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 2621 (Garcia and Olsen)
As Amended August 13, 2014
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |78-0 |(May 28, 2014) |SENATE: |36-0 |(August 18, |
| | | | | |2014) |
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Original Committee Reference: HUM. S.
SUMMARY : Requires specified information on child day care
facilities, including family child care homes, to be posted 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,
noncompliant inspections, and citations.
2)Requires DSS to include the name of the child day care homes
on its website.
3)Requires DSS to include information for the preceding
five-year period and update the information on a monthly
basis.
The Senate amendments make clarifying and technical amendments.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill required DSS to post on its
Internet Web site specified information on child day care
facilities.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
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
AB 2621
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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.
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
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
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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.
Analysis Prepared by : Chris Reefe / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089
FN: 0004967