Senate Bill No. 1123

Introduced by Senator Liu

February 19, 2014

An act to relating to child care and development.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 1123, as introduced, Liu. Child care and development: California Strong Start program.

The Child Care and Development Services Act requires the State Department of Education to be the single state agency responsible for the promotion, development, and provision of care of children in the absence of their parents during the workday or while engaged in activities that require assistance of a third party. The act requires the department to develop prekindergarten learning development guidelines. The act requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop standards for the implementation of quality programs.

This bill would state that it is the Legislature’s intent to enact legislation that would establish the California Strong Start program by redesigning the General Child Care Program for infants and toddlers into a comprehensive, evidence-based, locally controlled program, in order to improve the healthy development and school readiness of California’s most vulnerable children.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:

(a) The first three years of life are a period of dynamic and
unparalleled brain development in which children acquire the
ability to think, speak, learn, and reason. During these first 36
months, children need good health, strong families, and positive
early learning experiences to lay the foundation for later school
success. Low-income infants and toddlers are at a greater risk for
a variety of poorer outcomes and vulnerabilities, such as later
school failure, learning disabilities, behavior problems,
developmental delay, and health impairments.

(b) Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction
to administer child care and development programs, including the
General Child Care and Development Program that provides
services to eligible low-income children from birth to 13 years of
age. For children birth to three years of age, the General Child
Care Program funds centers and family child care home networks
to provide full-day, full year child care and development services
that meet the State Department of Education’s Infant/Toddler
Learning and Development Foundations.

(c) The federal Early Head Start program serves low-income
infants and toddlers with a flexible program model intended to
meet the varied needs of families, including child care and
development services, family engagement and support, home
visitation services, and health services. Research shows that
children who participated in Early Head Start had significantly
larger vocabularies and scored higher on standardized measures
of cognitive development, and that children and parents had more
positive interactions, and parents provided more support for
learning. Many different home visiting programs have been shown
to significantly reduce the occurrence of child maltreatment and
abuse, and improve children’s health and school success.

SEC. 2.  

It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation
that would establish the California Strong Start program by
redesigning the General Child Care Program for infants and
toddlers into a comprehensive, evidence-based, locally controlled
program, in order to improve the healthy development and school
readiness of California’s most vulnerable children.