BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1123
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 25, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
SB 1123 (Liu) - As Amended: June 19, 2014
[Note: This bill is doubled referred to the Assembly Human
Services Committee and was heard as it relates to issues under
its jurisdiction.]
SENATE VOTE : 25-11
SUBJECT : Child care and development services
SUMMARY : Establishes new services under the General Child Care
and Development Programs for infants and toddlers and makes
changes to eligibility, adult- and teacher-to-child ratios, and
staffing requirements in classrooms. Specifically, this bill :
1)Adds, as an indicator or quality, continuity of care and the
assignment of primary caregivers for services for infants and
toddlers.
2)Modifies priority for California State Preschool Program
(CSPP) for eligible four-year-olds who are not enrolled in
state-funded transitional kindergarten (TK) programs.
3)Provides eligibility to wraparound child care services to
four-year-old children enrolled in state-funded TK programs,
if they are also eligible for free and reduced-price lunch,
CalFresh or Medi-Cal programs, or if their family's adjusted
monthly income is at or below 70% of the state median income
(SMI), adjusted for family size, and adjusted annually.
4)Deletes the provision specifying that in awarding contracts
for expansion, the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI),
after taking into account geographic criteria, and the
headquarters preferences and eligibility criteria relating to
fiscal or programmatic noncompliance, shall give priority to
applicant agencies that, in expending the expansion funds,
will be serving the highest percentage of four-year-old
children.
5)Provides that general child care services for infants and
toddlers shall be known as California Strong Start services.
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Requires services provided children from birth to their third
birthday to include, but not be limited to, the following:
a) Parent engagement and support services that promote
positive parent-child relationships;
b) Full-day early learning and care services;
c) Part-day early learning and care services;
d) Voluntary home visitation services;
e) Nutrition services; and,
f) Referrals to services such as health and dental care,
child abuse prevention, housing, and early childhood mental
health.
6)Requires the SPI to develop standards, rules, and regulations
for the implementation of high-quality, evidenced-based
infant-toddler services, based on, but not limited to, the
federal Early Head Start model. Requires the standards,
rules, and regulations to achieve the following:
a) Promote language rich environments, including supporting
a child's home language and English acquisition;
b) Promote responsive caregiving by parents, guardians, and
care providers; and,
c) Be based on the Infant/Toddler Learning and Development
Foundations.
7)Specifies that California Strong Start service providers shall
have the flexibility to combine early learning and care
services with one or more of the additional services specified
in (5) above, based on the needs of the children and families
served.
8)Provides that California Strong Start service providers may
coordinate with First 5 California commissions, voluntary home
visitation programs, Early Head Start, child care, child
welfare, early childhood mental health and intervention
including Early Start, and health and nutrition services.
9)Specifies that upon appropriation by the Legislature in the
annual Budget Act or any other statute for purposes of funding
general child care services, a family engagement supplemental
grant shall be made available to qualifying California Strong
Start service providers, as determined by the SPI, at a rate
of $1,000 per eligible child. Requires the SPI to distribute
family engagement supplemental grant funds for the purpose of
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providing evidence-based parent training services as defined
in the California Department of Social Services' (DSS)
California Evidenced-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare.
10)Specifies that a countywide or regional consortium of
California Strong Start providers, with a lead grantee agency
that is a First 5 California commission, county office of
education (COE), or other local public agency, to apply to the
SPI for a countywide or regional grant for the total amount of
eligible children.
11)Specifies that upon appropriation by the Legislature in the
annual Budget Act or any other statute for purposes of funding
general child care services, a voluntary home visitation
supplemental grant shall be made available to qualifying
California Strong Start service providers, as determined by
the SPI. For children who receive full-day early learning and
care services, the supplemental grant amount shall be $2,500
per child. For children who receive part-day early learning
and care services, the supplemental grant shall be $6,000 per
child. Requires the SPI to distribute supplemental grant
funds for the purpose of providing evidence-based voluntary
home visitation services as defined in the DSS' California
Evidenced-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare.
12)Authorizes a countywide or regional consortium of California
Strong Start providers, with a lead grantee agency that is a
First 5 California commission, COE, or other local public
agency, to apply to the SPI for a countywide or regional grant
for the total amount of eligible children.
13)Specifies that in order to promote continuity of services,
subsequent to enrollment in a state or federally funded child
care and development program, a child shall be deemed eligible
for the remainder of the program year.
14)Provides that a family is income eligible for child care and
development services if the family is eligible for CalFresh or
Medi-Cal, or has a schoolaged child eligible for free or
reduced-price lunch.
15)Provides that the income eligibility for the 2014-15 fiscal
year and each year thereafter shall not be less than 70% of
the SMI for the prior fiscal year, adjusted for family size.
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16)Sunsets existing adult-child ratios on July 1, 2019, and
requires child care and development services providers to
maintain revised minimum ratios and group sizes as follows:
a) Infants, birth to 18 months old-1:4 adult-child ratio,
1:8 teacher-child ratio, a group size of 8; or 1:3
adult-child ratio, 1:9 teacher-child ratio, a group size of
9;
b) Toddlers, 18 months up to their 3rd birthday-1:4
adult-child ratio, 1:12 teacher-child ratio, a group size
of 12;
c) Preschool, at least 30 months to kindergarten
eligibility-1:8 adult-child ratio, 1:24 teacher-child
ratio, a group size of 24; or 1:10 adult-child ratio, 1:20
teacher-child ratio, a group size of 20; and,
d) Schoolage, enrolled in kindergarten to their 13th
birthday-1:14 adult-child ratio, 1:28 teacher-child ratio.
17)Specifies the following regarding the revised ratios:
a) Compliance with the ratios shall be determined based on
actual attendance;
b) The ratios do not apply to family child care home
education networks; and,
c) The ratios do not prevent child care and development
services providers from maintaining the ratios before July
1, 2019.
18)Requires, no later than July 1, 2019, child care and
development services providers to have at least one teacher in
each classroom that holds at a minimum a child development
teacher permit issued by the Commission on Teacher
Credentialing (CTC). Specifies that this provision shall
become operative if funds are made available in the annual
Budget Act or in any other statute for this purpose.
19)Requires, no later than July 1, 2017, the CTC to review and
amend the Child Development Permit. Requires the amendments
to include the following requirements:
a) The development of an infant and toddler emphasis that
includes a minimum of six units in infant and toddler
development; and,
b) Each permit holder shall have an individual professional
development plan that includes a minimum of 21 hours of
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annual training, and that such training include
in-classroom coaching. In-classroom coaching may account
for up to 10 of the 21 hours each year.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes eligibility for child care services and child
development programs administered by the California Department
of Education (CDE) and requires the SPI to adopt rules and
regulations on eligibility, enrollment and priority of
services needed for implementation (Education Code (EC)
Section 8263).
2)Defines "income eligible" as a family whose adjusted monthly
income is at or below 70% of the SMI, adjusted for family
size, and adjusted annually. For the 2013-14 fiscal year, the
income eligibility shall be 70% of the SMI that was in use for
the 2007-08 fiscal year, adjusted for family size. (EC
Section 8263.1)
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee:
1)Standards, rules, and regulations: $250,000 - $400,000
(General Fund) for the CDE to develop standards and promulgate
regulations for the new child care program requirements under
the California Strong Start Program, categorical eligibility,
phase-in implementation of staffing ratios, continuity of care
provisions, and caregiver guidance. Costs will partially
depend on how controversial and lengthy the regulations
process is. The CDE will likely also need to provide
increased technical assistance, at least during the initial
years of transition.
2)Staffing ratios: Increased annual costs in the millions of
dollars, depending on child care staff salaries/wages.
3)12-month eligibility: Changing from a system of frequent
reporting-based eligibility determinations to a 12-month
eligibility will likely increase CalWORKs Stage 2 and Stage 3
costs by $11 million - $12 million, due to decreased
attrition. State and local administrative workload will also
be reduced.
4)Home visitation supplemental grants: Subject to a Budget
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appropriation, annual grant costs will likely be in the tens
of millions of dollars, depending on the individual grant
amount. $100,000 in one-time costs to the CDE to establish the
program.
5)Parent engagement supplemental grants: Subject to a Budget
appropriation, annual grant costs will likely be in the
millions of dollars, depending on the individual grant amount.
$100,000 in one-time costs to the CDE, and $50,000 in ongoing
annual costs for program administration.
6)CTC: Likely minor costs to the CTC to review and amend the
Child Development Permit, as specified.
COMMENTS : Background on child care and development programs .
The CDE administers a child care and development system,
maintaining 1,317 service contracts with approximately 750
public and private agencies supporting and providing services to
children from birth through 12 years of age. Contractors include
school districts, county offices of education, cities, colleges,
other public entities, community-based organizations, and
private agencies. In fiscal year (FY) 2013-14, $2.1 billion was
provided for child care and development programs from state and
federal funds, enrolling an estimated 340,000 children. This is
down from $2.669 billion initially provided in the FY 2010-11
budget (prior to midyear trigger cuts) with almost 416,000
slots. According to the Legislative Analyst's Office, overall
funding for the child care and development program has decreased
by almost $1 billion between 2008-09 and 2013-14, with the
elimination of 110,000 slots. The Budget Act of 2014 provided
increases in appropriation and slots for child care and
development programs, including $57 million in General Fund and
$30 million in Proposition 98 General fund for 500 slots for the
Alternative Payment Program, $1,000 slots for General Child Care
programs, 7,500 for the State Preschool Program, and 7,500 for
part-day wrap around child care slots.
This bill makes a number of changes to the child care and
development programs.
California Strong Start services . The bill establishes a new
section in the law for children from birth to their third
birthday called the California Strong Start services. The bill
requires the following to be provided to children in this age
group:
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1)Parent engagement and support services that promote positive
parent-child relationships.
2)Full-day early learning and care services.
3)Part-day early learning and care services.
4)Voluntary home visitation services.
5)Nutrition services.
6)Referrals to services such as health and dental care, child
abuse prevention, housing, and early childhood mental health.
Additionally, upon appropriation in the Budget Act or other
statute, the bill establishes a new family engagement
supplemental grant at a rate of $1,000 per eligible child and a
voluntary home visitation supplemental grant at a rate of $2,500
for a child in full-day care and $6,000 per child in part-day
care. The bill authorizes a countywide or regional consortium
of California Strong Start providers with a First 5 California
commission, COE, or other public agency as a lead grantee agency
to apply for a grant based on the number of eligible children.
This is presumably to enable services to be coordinated and
centralized. According to the author, a higher home visitation
grant is provided for part-day care to enable more frequent
visits to these children.
Some of the services prescribed under the California Strong
Start services are already currently provided. Education Code
Section 8240 specifies that the general child care
and development programs shall include, among others, parenting
education and parent involvement; social services that include,
but are not limited to, identification of child and family needs
and referral to appropriate agencies; health services, and
nutrition.
The new grants proposed by this bill, including family
engagement and voluntary home visitation, are based on the
federal Early Head Start program. Early Head Start programs
support the physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and language
development of each child. Services provided directly or
through referral under Early Head Start include the following:
1)Early education services in a range of developmentally
appropriate settings.
2)Home-visits, especially for families with newborns.
3)Parent education and parent-child activities.
4)Comprehensive health and mental health services.
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5)High quality child care services, provided directly or in
collaboration with community child care providers.
The author states, "Research shows that children who
participated in Early Head Start had significantly larger
vocabularies and scored higher on standardized measures of
cognitive development. Additionally, children and parents
participating in the program had more positive interactions;
enrolled 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. Parent
training programs, such as the Positive Parenting Program, have
shown significant reductions in child abuse and neglect as well
as improvements in school readiness, health and wellbeing."
Eligibility . This bill makes several changes to eligibility as
follows:
1)Income eligibility : Under current law, eligibility is based
on eligibility for CalWORKs or based on an income ceiling of
70% of the SMI ($46,896 for a family of four). This bill
deems a family eligible if the family is eligible for CalFresh
(public food program) or Medi-Cal (public health program), or
if the family has a schoolaged child eligible for free or
reduced-price lunch. Each program has different levels of
income eligibility; all of which appear to be lower than 70%
of SMI.
2)Income eligibility ceilings : Under current law, established
through the budget process, the income ceiling of 70% of SMI
is based on the SMI in use for the 2007-08 fiscal year. This
bill requires, for the 2014-15 fiscal year and each year
thereafter, that the income eligibility limits shall not be
less than 70% of the SMI for the prior fiscal year, adjusted
for family size. This provision conflicts with SB 858
(Committee on Budget), the 2014-15 education budget trailer
bill pending on the Governor's desk, which maintains the
income ceiling at 70% of the 2007-08 SMI.
3)Year-long eligibility : Regulations under Title 5 of the
California Code of Regulations adopted by the CDE specify the
following timelines by which contractors of child care
services must recertify eligibility and need: six months for
families receiving services because of actual or risk of
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abuse, neglect or exploitation; and 12 months for all other
families. The regulations limit services to 60 days for
families needing child care because a parent is seeking a job
or seeking permanent housing but allow the SPI to suspend the
60 days limit if opportunities for employment have diminished
to such a degree that parents cannot be reasonably expected to
find employment within 60 days, and allow contractors to
provide extensions for no more than 20 days for a parent
seeking permanent housing. Regulations also require
contractors to inform families of their responsibility to
report any changes in family income, family size or need for
services within five calendar days. Changes in income or
need, or failure to report changes, can lead to termination of
services. This bill deems a child eligible for a program year
once enrolled in a state or federally funded child care and
development program. There are an estimated 200,000 children
waiting for services, providing a family that no longer meets
eligibility with services prevents other families from
receiving needed care. The CDE does not have data on the
number of families that report changes annually or the number
of families that lose services prior to the 12-month
recertification. It is difficult to assess the true impact of
this proposal without this information. This provision is
similar to AB 1673 (Mitchell), held in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee suspense file in 2012.
4)Wrap around services for children in TK programs : SB 1381
(Simitian), Chapter 705, Statutes of 2010, changed the date by
which a child must turn five to enroll in kindergarten. The
bill moved the birthdate date one month over three years, from
December 2 to September 1 by the 2014-15 school year and every
year thereafter. Kids who turn five years old between
September 2 and December 2 - kids who, prior to SB 1381, would
have been eligible to attend kindergarten - are offered TK
programs, defined as the first year of a two-year kindergarten
program using a modified kindergarten curriculum that is age
and developmentally appropriate. This bill provides wrap
around child care services to four-year-old children enrolled
in state-funded TK program. Under current law, wrap around
child care services are authorized if a child attends a
part-day preschool program. These services are provided for
the remaining portion of the day or remainder of the year
following the completion of part-day preschool services.
Approximately 120,000 children with September 2 through
December 2 birthdays are estimated to be eligible for TK
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programs. It is not known how many have birthdays in each of
the three months. A child who turns five in November benefits
the most from this bill. It is unclear whether a child is
eligible for wrap around services only until the child turns
five or whether the child is eligible for a program year once
enrolled.
Classroom ratios . This bill changes the age categories as well
as the adult- and teacher-to-child ratios for center-based
programs regulated under Title 5 of the California Code of
Regulations. Family child care home education networks, which
are licensed family child care home providers, are exempted.
The changes in this bill conflict with the ratios contained in
another bill, SB 192 (Liu), also scheduled for the June 25th
hearing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Current law | SB 1123 (Liu) | SB 192 (Liu) |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|----------+------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------|
|Infants |1:3 |Infants |1:4 |Infants |1:3 |
|(0-2) |adult-child |(birth-18 |adult-child |(birth-18 |adult-chil|
| |1:18 |months)/group|1:8 |months) |d |
| |teacher-chil| of 8 |teacher-chil| |1:18 |
| |d | |d | |teacher-ch|
| | | | | |ild |
|----------+------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------|
|Infants |1:4 |Infants |1:3 | | |
|and |adult-child |(birth-18 |adult-child | | |
|toddlers |1:16 |months)/group|1:9 | | |
|(0-2) |teacher-chil| of 9 |teacher-chil| | |
| |d | |d | | |
|----------+------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------|
| | |Toddlers (18 |1:4 |Toddlers |1:4 |
| | |months-3rd |adult-child |(18 |adult-chil|
| | |birthday)/gro|1:12 |months-3rd|d |
| | |up of 12 |teacher-chil| |1:16 |
| | | |d |birthday) |teacher-ch|
| | | | | |ild |
|----------+------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------|
|3-6 years |1:8 |Preschool |1:8 | | |
|old |adult-child |(30 months- |adult-child | | |
| |1:24 |kindergarten)|1:24 | | |
| |teacher-chil|/group of 24 |teacher-chil| | |
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| |d | |d | | |
|----------+------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------|
| | |Preschool |1:10 |Preschool |1:8 |
| | |(30 months - |adult-child |(30 |adult-chil|
| | |kindergarten)|1:20 |months-kin|d |
| | |/group of |teacher |dergarten)|1:24 |
| | |20) |teacher-chil| |teacher-ch|
| | | |d | |ild |
|----------+------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------|
|6-10 |1:14 |Schoolage |1:14 |Schoolage |1:14 |
|years old |adult-child |(kindergarten|adult-child |(kindergar|adult-chil|
| |1:28 |-13 years |1:28 |ten-13 |d |
| |teacher-chil|old) |teacher-chil|years |1:28 |
| |d | |d |old) |teacher-ch|
| | | | | |ild |
|----------+------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------|
|10-13 |1:18 | | | | |
|years old |adult-child | | | | |
| |1:36 | | | | |
| |teacher-chil| | | | |
| |d | | | | |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the author's office, the ratios for the "6-10" and
"10-13" categories need to be updated in the law to conform to
Title 5 regulations. The proposed category for "schoolage" in
both SB 1123 and SB 192 reflect current Title 5 regulations. It
is unclear why the remaining categories are different in bills
by the same author. Concerns have been raised that lowering
ratios without increasing rates will create hardships,
especially for infant and toddler programs. Over the last
several years, a number of infant and toddler programs have
closed due to insufficient funding. According to the author,
the number of children served in infant and toddler programs
have decreased from 18,000 to 10,000 since 2009.
Teacher qualifications . This bill increases teacher standards
if funds are made available in the budget for this purpose.
Under current law, individuals employed as teachers must possess
a teacher permit issued by the CTC. Current law authorizes a
person meeting the following to serve in an instructional
capacity in a child care and development program:
1)Possesses a credential issued by the CTC authorizing that
person to teach in an elementary school or a single subject
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credential in home economics.
2)Twelve units in early childhood development (ECE) or child
development, or both, or two years' experience in an early
childhood education or a child care and development program.
The CTC establishes varying level of teacher permits for child
care and development programs. The level that meets existing
law is categorized as the "Associate Teacher," which requires 12
units in ECE or child development courses and 50 days of three
hours or more per day experience completed within two years. SB
1123 increases the qualification to a "Teacher" permit level,
which requires twice as many ECE units - 12 to 24 (including
core classes) - plus an additional 16 general education units
and 175 days of three hours or more per day experience completed
within four years.
This provision conflicts with SB 192 (Liu). SB 192 requires any
person serving as a teacher in an early learning and educational
support program providing early learning services to possess a
permit or credential issued by the CTC, including, but not
limited to, one of the following:
1)An associate teacher permit, or higher, authorizing service in
the care, development, and instruction of children in early
learning and educational support programs.
2)A multiple subject credential with an authorization to teach
prekindergarten through grade 12, in a self-contained
classroom.
3)An elementary credential.
4)A single subject credential in home economics.
This bill also requires the CTC, by July 1, 2017, to review and
amend the Child Development Permit, which shall include a
minimum of six units in infants in toddler development, and
require each permitholder to have an individual professional
development plan that includes a minimum of 21 hours of annual
training. The training must include in-classroom coaching,
which may account for up to 10 of the 21 hours each year. This
requirement is not contingent on appropriation in the budget.
This provision conflicts with the education trailer bill, which
requires the CTC, on or before July 1, 2016, to review, and
update, if appropriate, the requirements for the issuance and
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renewal of permits for the instruction and supervision of
children in child care and development programs.
Use of terms . This bill conflicts with SB 192 on the use of
terms. This bill uses "child care" and "early learning and
care," and SB 192, among other proposals, strikes the use of the
term "child care," changes "child care and development programs"
to "early learning and educational support" programs and
"general child care programs" to "early learning programs." The
author should reconcile all the conflicts between this bill, SB
192, and the education trailer bill.
Arguments in support . The author states, "The most effective
way to help infants and toddlers is to promote positive
parent-child relationships. Currently, California's child care
and development programs lack many of the parent education and
support services other evidence based models such as Early Head
Start, voluntary home visitation, and the Positive Parenting
Program provide."
Arguments of concerns . The Service Employees International
Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees (AFSCME), write with concerns and state,
"Development of ratios, quality standards, and access to
services that support a child's development must be inclusive of
all settings where young children are so that we can achieve our
shared goal of giving every child an opportunity to succeed in
school and beyond. Connected to the above concern, we raise the
bill's home visiting component as an opportunity to address the
diverse settings where children are. Studies have shown home
visiting can be an important tool to increase quality in
license-exempt child care settings, yet this bill is silent on
opportunities to meet this crucial need."
Related legislation . SB 192 (Liu), also scheduled for the June
25th hearing, changes the term "child care and development
services" to "early learning and educational support services,"
and makes several changes to child care development programs in
the areas of contracting, program consolidation, programs
serving migrant populations, classroom ratios, teacher and
director qualifications, and parent education and information.
SB 837 (Steinberg), also scheduled for the June 25th hearing,
specifies uses of funds appropriated in the Budget Act of 2014
for professional development of TK and preschool teachers.
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SB 858 (Committee on Budget), pending on the Governor's desk, is
the education budget trailer bill for the 2014-15 budget and
includes changes to the child care and development programs to
implement the budget, including increasing the Standard
Reimbursement Rate and the Regional Market Rates, eliminating
part-day preschool family fees, establishing a QRIS block grant
for the purpose of improving the quality of preschool programs,
and specifying the use of funds for the Child Care Facilities
Revolving Fund and professional development of preschool and TK
teachers.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce (prior version)
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087