BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1123
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 6, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 1123 (Liu) - As Amended: August 4, 2014
Policy Committee: Human
ServicesVote:5-2
Education 5-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill establishes new services under 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)States Legislative intent to strategically use state and
federal funds to provide a stable, comprehensive, and
adequately funded early learning and educational support
system for children from birth to five years of age that
promotes access to safe, high-quality, part-day and full-day
services that support the development of the whole child.
2)Provides that general child care services for infants and
toddlers shall be known as California Strong Start services.
Requires services provided children from birth to their third
birthday to include, but not be limited to: parent engagement
and support services that promote positive parent-child
relationships; full-day early learning and care services;
part-day early learning and care services; voluntary home
visitation services; nutrition services; and, referrals to
services such as health and dental care, child abuse
prevention, housing, and early childhood mental health.
Authorizes the coordination of services among various child
care providers.
3)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.
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4)Establishes a family engagement supplemental grant for
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 providing evidence-based parent
training services as defined in the California Department of
Social Services' (DSS) California Evidenced-Based
Clearinghouse for Child Welfare. Makes these grant funds
contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature.
5)Establishes a voluntary home visitation supplemental grant for
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. Makes these grant funds contingent upon an
appropriation by the Legislature.
6)Specifies that in order to promote continuity of early
learning and education 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.
7)Provides that a family is income eligible for child care and
development services if the family is eligible for CalFresh or
Medi-Cal.
8)Updates adult-child ratios to conform with Title 5 Code of
Regulations and authorizes new ratios as of July 1, 2019 (see
comment #3)
9)Specifies compliance with the revised ratios is not determined
based on actual attendance; the ratios do not apply to family
child care home education networks; and, the ratios do not
prevent child care and development services providers from
maintaining the ratios before July 1, 2019.
10)Requires, no later than July 1, 2019, child care and
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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 this provision is contingent
upon funding in the annual Budget Act or in any other statute
for this purpose.
11)Requires, no later than July 1, 2017, the CTC to review and
amend the Child Development Permit. Requires the development
of an infant and toddler emphasis that includes a minimum of
six units in infant and toddler development. Further requires
each permit holder to have an individual professional
development plan that includes a minimum of 21 hours of annual
training, including in-classroom coaching.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)General Fund cost pressure, potentially in the millions of
dollars, to provide home visitation and parent engagement
supplemental grants. There are an estimated 10,000 children
between the ages of 0-3 currently served by child care
programs. Actual costs will depend on grant awards
appropriated in the budget act or another statute. Neither
this bill nor the 2014-15 Budget Act appropriate funds for
this purpose.
2)General Fund cost pressures in the range of $3 million to $11
million to provide 12-month eligibility for children enrolled
in state and federal child care programs. Changing from a
system of frequent reporting-based eligibility determinations
to 12-month eligibility will likely result less children
losing services due to ineligibility.
3)General Fund administrative costs to the California Department
of Education (CDE) in the range of $230,000 to $400,000
annually through 2016-17 to develop standards and promulgate
regulations for the new child care program requirements under
the California Strong Start Program, establish categorical
eligibility, phase-in implementation of staffing ratios,
maintain continuity of care and provide caregiver guidance and
technical assistance.
4)General Fund cost pressure in the millions of dollars,
beginning in 2019, to support changes in staffing associated
with lower child-adult classroom ratios.
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5)Costs of approximately $100,000 (special fund) for the
Commission on Teacher Credentialing to review and amend the
Child Development Permit. This assumes costs to convene a
panel of both pre-kindergarten and early childhood experts and
the likely need to develop standards for the new infant and
toddler emphasis.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . This bill changes staffing ratios and increases staff
qualifications and changes polices to increase eligibility and
reduce attrition. The purpose of the bill is to remove
participation barriers and increase the provision and quality
of services. These program changes will likely lead to more
families accessing services thereby increasing state costs.
2)Background . 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.
The Budget Act of 2014 provides over $1.7 billion (GF) for
child care and $530 million (GF/P98) for preschool. This
represents an increase $57 million (GF) and $30 million
(GF/P98) to fund 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.
Some of the services prescribed under the California Strong
Start services are currently provided through existing
programs, for example, child care and development programs
are required to include, among other things, 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. Components of this bill are similar
to 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:
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home-visits, especially for families with newborns; parent
education and parent-child activities; comprehensive health
and mental health services and high quality child care
services, provided directly or in collaboration with community
child care providers.
3)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 prior version of this bill and
SB 192 (Liu) had conflicting ratios. This bill incorporates
ratios proposed by SB 192 (Liu), effective through 2019 and
authorizes alternative ratios starting in 2019.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Current law | SB 1123 (Liu) (effective | SB 192 (Liu) |
| | 2019) | |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|----------+------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------|
|Infants |1:3 |Infants |1:4 |Infants |1:3 |
|(0-2) |adult-child |(birth-18 |adult-child |(birth-18 |adult-chil|
| |1:18 |months) |1:8 |months) |d |
| |teacher-chil| |teacher-chil| |1:18 |
| |d | |d/group | |teacher-ch|
| | | |size 8 or | |ild |
| | | |1:3 | | |
| | | |adult-child,| | |
| | | | 1:18 | | |
| | | |teacher-chil| | |
| | | |d | | |
| | | | | | |
|----------+------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------|
|Infants |1:4 | | | | |
|and |adult-child | | | | |
|toddlers |1:16 | | | | |
|(0-2) |teacher-chil| | | | |
| |d | | | | |
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|----------+------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------|
| | |Toddlers (18 |1:4 |Toddlers |1:4 |
| | |months-3rd |adult-child |(18 |adult-chil|
| | |birthday) |1:16 |months-3rd|d |
| | | |teacher-chil| |1:16 |
| | | |d |birthday) |teacher-ch|
| | | | | |ild |
|----------+------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------|
|3-6 years |1:8 |Preschool |1:8 |Preschool |1:8 |
|old |adult-child |(30 months- |adult-child |(30 |adult-chil|
| |1:24 |kindergarten)|1:24 |months-kin|d |
| |teacher-chil| |teacher-chil|dergarten)|1:24 |
| |d | |d | |teacher-ch|
| | | |or 1:10 | |ild |
| | | |adult-child,| | |
| | | | 20:1 | | |
| | | |teacher-chil| | |
| | | |d/group | | |
| | | |size 20 | | |
|----------+------------+-------------+------------+----------+----------|
|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 | | | | |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
4)Concerns . 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.
SEIU California and AFSCME have also raised concerns that the
bill is silent on efforts to increase quality and support to
home-based licensed and family, friend and neighbor care.
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According to their letter, "Development of ratios, quality
standards, and access to services that support child
development must include all settings to achieve the shared
goal of giving every child an opportunity to succeed in school
and beyond."
5)Related legislation . SB 192 (Liu), pending in this committee,
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.
6)Prior legislation . AB 1673 (Mitchell) contained similar
provisions providing 12 months of eligibility for child care
services. This bill was held on this committee's Suspense
File in 2012.
Analysis Prepared by : Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916)
319-2081