BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 192
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 6, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 192 (Liu) - As Amended: August 4, 2014
Policy Committee: EducationVote:6-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill renames the Child Care and Development Services Act as
the Early Learning and Educational Support Act and reorganizes
and recasts provisions of law to conform to these name changes.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Defines "child care" or "care" to mean programs provided by
licensed or license-exempt providers, including but not
limited to private-for profit, nonprofit and publicly funded
programs for all children from birth to 13 years, including
children with exceptional needs and children from all
linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
2)Strikes the definition of "child care and development
services" and "child care and development programs" and
replaces references to "child care and development" with
"early learning and educational support services" or "early
learning and educational support programs." Defines "early
learning services" as Migrant Child Care and Development
Programs, California State Preschool Programs, General Child
Care and Development programs, family child care home
education networks, and programs that serve severely disabled
children, that are administered by the Superintendent of
Public Instruction (SPI) as specified.
3)Defines "early learning and educational support programs" and
"early learning and educational support services" as those
programs or services that offer a full range of services
designed to meet a wide variety of needs of children, from
birth to 13 years of age, and their families. Services
provided by an applicant or contracting agency may be for any
part of the day that a parent is working, in training, seeking
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employment, incapacitated, or in need of respite. These
services may include, but are not limited to early learning
services and alternative payment programs (APPs).
4)Specifies that for purposes of reimbursement to providers
through an APP, attendance includes any of the following:
a) The hours of service provided that are broadly
consistent with certified hours of need.
b) For families with variable schedules, the actual days
and hours of attendance up to the maximum certified hours.
c) In the case of license-exempt providers that provide
part-time services, the actual days and hours of
attendance.
5)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
develop standards for the implementation of high-quality early
learning and educational support programs based on certain
indicators of quality, including, but not limited to, program
activities and services that meet the needs of children with
exceptional needs and diverse abilities.
6)Requires information provided by the programs to assist
parents in making informed choices about available types of
care that would offer a safe, caring, and age-appropriate
early learning and educational support environment for
children, as well as support the parents' work activities,
including, but not limited to information about high-quality
early learning and educational support options and resources.
Authorizes the program or partnership to utilize resources
from a list posted on the California Department of Education's
(CDE) Internet Web site if this list is available. Specifies
that if the CDE does not create a list of resources, the
program or partnership may develop local resources.
7)Specifies that for purposes of reimbursement to providers
through an APP, contractors shall not be required to track
absences.
8)Redefines, beginning July 1, 2015, a "migrant agricultural
worker family" to mean a family with at least one parent that
has earned at least 50% of his or her income from employment
in fishing, agriculture, or agriculturally related work during
the 12-month period immediately preceding the date of
application for early learning and educational support
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services (rather than both parents earning at least 50% of
income as specified in existing law).
9)Repeals and replaces staffing ratios for center based programs
to conform with existing regulations.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Expansion of the migrant family definition as of July 1, 2015
could create General Fund cost pressure, potentially in the
millions, to the extent more families become eligible for
Migrant Child Care and Development services. The 2014-15
Budget Act provided $27.5 million for this program.
Additional program eligibility changes proposed by this bill
will likely increase the amount of funding provided to
families for child care services, thereby increasing cost
pressure on existing program funds.
2)Minor General Fund administrative costs, according to CDE, in
the range of $18,000 to $24,000 for the department to provide
informational items to parents through the department website
and to update existing regulations. CDE indicates other
associated costs, such as updating documents or the website
for various name changes would be absorbed within existing
resources.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose. According to the sponsor of this bill, Superintendent
of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson, this bill makes
statutory changes towards modernizing California's early
learning system. Additionally, this bill ensures eligible
families receive information necessary to make informed
decisions about the range of high-quality early learning and
educational support services available to their children.
2)Term changes . According to the author, the term "Child Care
and Development" is outdated. The bill replaces the term with
"early learning and educational support" throughout the
education code. The Assembly Education Committee analysis
notes potential problems with this seemingly simple recasting
of terms. For example, this bill use the terms "early
learning and educational support," "early learning and
educational programs," and "early learning services," but
leaves "child care" in some sections, and yet other sections,
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the word "child" is struck, leaving references to "care
facilities" or "care services." There could be unintended
consequences to using multiple terms, some of which may apply
only to Title 5 programs, while others may include both Title
5 and Title 22 programs, while references to CalWORKs benefits
and Title 22 will continue to be "child care," and licensing
under the Department of Social Services will continue to
license "child care facilities."
The shift in focus from quality child care programs to
high-quality early education programs could also result in
significant cost pressure, potentially in the millions, to the
extent these changes result in a higher level of service.
3)Migrant Child Care . According to CDE, the proposed change in
the definition of a migrant agricultural worker family is
reflective of the decline in enrollment in these programs due
to fewer families qualifying because they have had to seek
other forms of employment rather than purely agricultural work
in order to support their family income. The proposed
definition changes would allow more migrant agricultural
families to access child care funds to reflect the changing
needs of these families. CDE does not have data on the number
of additional families that could be eligible under the
updated definition, although CDE acknowledges the child care
need across programs outweighs available resources.
4)Parent information . This bill requires information to be
provided by either the alternative payment programs, the
resource and referral program, or a partnership between the
two agencies, to parents at the time a family is eligible for
services and at recertification. The intent is to enable
parents to make informed decisions regarding high quality
early learning and support services to promote school
readiness and success. It is unclear who will determine
whether the requirement is being met and how the information
will be coordinated.
5)Classroom ratios . This bill makes modifications to staffing
ratios, that, according to the CDE, conform with Title 5 Code
of Regulations following changes to the definition of three
and four year olds. SB 1123 (Liu), pending in this committee,
also proposes changes to classroom ratios.
6)Related legislation . SB 1123 (Liu) establishes new services
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under the General Child Care and Development Programs for
infants and toddlers called California Strong Start services
and makes changes to eligibility, adult- and teacher-to-child
ratios, and staffing requirements in classrooms. SB 1123 is
pending action in this committee.
Analysis Prepared by : Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916)
319-2081