AB 131

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law, the Child Care and Development Services Act, establishes a system of childcare and development services for children up to 13 years of age, which is administered by the State Department of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction and which includes various programs and services, including, among others, CalWORKs stage 2 and stage 3 childcare, migrant childcare, childcare and development services for children with special needs, the alternative payment program, and head start programs. These programs and services are contained in the Education Code. Existing law, effective July 1, 2021, transfers administration of these programs to the State Department of Social Services. This bill would make various statutory changes to reflect the transfer described above, including by repealing the statutes governing those programs, services, and duties from the Education Code and reenacting them in the Welfare and Institutions Code. The bill would also clarify that the State Department of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction would retain administrative supervision of the California state preschool programs and would revise and recast related provisions of the Education Code. The bill would repeal various obsolete provisions and would make other related changes. (2) Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer all California state preschool programs, which include part-day and full-day age and developmentally appropriate programs designed to facilitate the transition to kindergarten for low-income or otherwise disadvantaged 3- and 4-year-old children. This bill would clarify that 4-year-old children eligible to participate in the California state preschool program include those children whose 5th birthday occurs after September 1 of the fiscal year in which they are enrolled in a California state preschool program and whose parent or guardian has opted to retain or enroll them in a California state preschool program. (3) Existing law establishes the standard reimbursement rate for subsidized childcare and development programs and for full-day preschool, and requires those standard reimbursement rates to be increased by a specified cost-of-living adjustment. This bill would revise the standard reimbursement rates in effect as of July 1, 2021, to reflect cost-of-living adjustments and would establish a standard reimbursement rate for part-day preschool programs. The bill would also require, commencing January 1, 2022, contractors who receive the standard reimbursement rate to be reimbursed at the greater of the 75th percentile of the 2018 regional market rate survey or the contract per-child reimbursement amount as of December 31, 2021. Existing law establishes various reimbursement factors to adjust the reimbursement rate paid to providers depending on the length of time per day that the provider serves children and establishes various adjustment factors for a provider agency's reported child days of enrollment in order to reflect the additional expense of serving specified children. This bill would make certain reimbursement factors and adjustment factors applicable only prior to January 1, 2022. Existing law requires the cost of childcare services provided to CalWORKs recipients to be governed by regional market rates, and requires the regional market rate ceilings to be established at the 75th percentile of the 2016 regional market survey for that region or the regional market rate ceiling that existed in that region on December 31, 2017, whichever is greater. Existing law prohibits reimbursement to license-exempt childcare providers from exceeding 70% of the family childcare home rate. This bill would instead require, commencing January 1, 2022, the regional market rate ceilings to be established at the 75th percentile of the 2018 regional market survey for that region or the regional market rate ceiling that existed in that region on December 31, 2021, whichever is greater. The bill would also require, commencing January 1, 2022, the reimbursement to license-exempt childcare providers to be 70% of the commensurate regional market rate. Existing law requires an alternative payment program to reimburse a licensed provider for childcare of a subsidized child based on the rate charged by the provider to nonsubsidized families for the same services, or the rates established by the provider for prospective nonsubsidized families. Existing law authorizes each licensed childcare provider to alter rate level for subsidized children once per year. This bill would instead authorize a licensed childcare provider to alter the rate levels for subsidized children as needed and would require updated rates to be effective within 60 days of submission of the updated information to the alternative payment program. This bill would require the state and Child Care Providers United - California to establish a Joint Labor Management Committee to develop recommendations for a single reimbursement rate structure that has specified characteristics and would require the Joint Labor Management Committee to present those recommendations to the Department of Finance no later than November 15, 2022. The bill would authorize the State Department of Social Services to allocate up to $20,000,000 in previously appropriated funds for these purposes. The bill would also require the State Department of Social Services and the State Department of Education to establish a working group to assess the existing quality standards for childcare and development and preschool programs and the methodology for establishing reimbursement rates for those programs. The bill would require the working group to provide recommendations relating to specified topics to the Joint Labor Management Committee, the Department of Finance, and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee no later than August 15, 2022. (4) Existing federal law, the American Rescue Plan Act, appropriates funds, to be allocated to states, to be used to support the stability of the childcare sector during and after the COVID-19 public health emergency. This bill would require California state preschool program contractors, childcare and development program contractors, and childcare providers to provide specified information to the department in advance of receiving American Rescue Plan Act funds. (5) Existing law generally requires that families utilizing state-subsidized preschool and childcare and development services be assessed a family fee that is based on income, certified family need for full-time or part-time care services, and enrollment. This bill would waive those family fees from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, and allocate $60,000,000 to reimburse subsidized childcare providers for the full amount of the certificate or voucher without deducting family fees. (6) Existing law requires childcare providers authorized to provide services pursuant to the provisions governing alternative payment programs to submit a monthly attendance record or invoice for each child who received services, signed by the child's parent or guardian, to the alternative payment program. This bill would waive, for a specified period of time, the requirement for the attendance record to be signed by the child's parent or guardian if the provider attempts to collect a signature and the parent or guardian is unable to sign due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (7) Existing law authorizes the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Marin, Monterey, San Benito, San Diego, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, and Sonoma, as individual pilot projects, to develop an individualized county childcare subsidy plan, as provided. Existing law concludes this pilot program for the County of Alameda on July 1, 2021. This bill would instead authorize the County of Alameda to continue the individualized county childcare subsidy plan until July 1, 2023. (8) Existing law establishes childcare resource and referral programs, which are established to serve a defined geographic area and provide prescribed services. Among the services provided by these programs is the establishment of a referral process that responds to parental need for information and that makes referrals to licensed child daycare facilities, as specified. This bill would require federal funds allocated to local childcare resource and referral agencies to support their continued participation in COVID-19 relief and recovery to be used to strengthen their role in serving as intermediaries to develop new, and support existing, childcare facilities and capacity and to streamline and improve data collection processes, as specified. (9) Existing law establishes the Early Learning and Care Infrastructure Grant Program under the administration of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to expand access to early learning and care opportunities for children up to 5 years of age by providing resources to build new facilities or retrofit, renovate, or expand existing facilities, as provided. Existing law appropriates $245,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for these purposes, to be released on a prescribed schedule. This bill would clarify that this program is under the jurisdiction of the State Department of Social Services and would instead make implementation of the program subject to an appropriation for those purposes. The bill would also make various other changes to the program, including, among others, expanding eligibility for the program to include unsubsidized childcare providers that meet certain criteria. (10) Existing law establishes the Early Learning and Care Workforce Development Grants Program under the administration of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to expand the number of qualified early learning and care professionals and increase the educational credentials of existing early learning and care professionals across the state, as provided. Existing law appropriates $150,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for these purposes, to be released on a prescribed schedule. This bill would instead make implementation of the program subject to an appropriation for those purposes. (11) Existing law authorizes family childcare providers to form, join, and participate in the activities of provider organizations and to seek the certification of a provider organization to act as the representative for family childcare providers on matters related to childcare subsidy programs pursuant to a petition and election process overseen by the Public Employment Relations Board or a neutral third party designated by the board. Existing law requires the Governor, through the Department of Human Resources or the Governor's designee, to meet and confer in good faith with the certified provider organization on all matters within the scope of representation of the provider organization. Existing law requires the parties to jointly prepare a memorandum of understanding if an agreement is reached, which is required to be presented to the Legislature for determination, and which would be binding on all state departments and agencies, and their contractors and subcontractors, and any political subdivision of the state, that are involved in the administration of state-funded early care and education programs. This bill would provide the Legislature's approval of the agreements between the state and Child Care Providers United – California, dated April 20, 2021, and June 25, 2021. (12) Existing law appropriates the sum of $402,000,000 in specified federal funding to provide subsidized childcare and preschool providers with COVID-19 pandemic-related assistance. Existing law makes various allocations from that appropriation, including an allocation of $244,000,000 to provide a flat-rate one-time stipend amount of $525 per child enrolled in a subsidized childcare or a state preschool program and an allocation of $76,000,000 to existing state-subsidized alternative payment programs to extend childcare services to various groups. This bill would revise those provisions to, instead, appropriate $365,320,000 in federal funding for those purposes. The bill would decrease the allocation to provide a flat-rate one-time stipend, as described above, to $200,020,000, and increase the allocation to state-subsidized alternative payment programs, as described above, to $83,300,000. This bill would also allocate $519,000,000 in previously appropriated federal funds, and appropriate $60,000,000 in federal funds, to the State Department of Education to provide subsidized childcare and preschool providers with COVID-19 pandemic-related assistance, including, among other things, a flat-rate one-time stipend amount of $600 per child enrolled in a subsidized childcare or a state preschool program, a flat-rate one-time stipend to all licensed child daycare facilities, and an additional 16 paid nonoperational days to certain state-subsidized childcare providers when the provider is closed due to COVID-19 related reasons. The bill would require the State Department of Education to transfer $529,000,000 of those funds to the State Department of Social Services to administer these provisions. This bill would authorize the Department of Finance, upon the request of the State Department of Education or the State Department of Social Services, to authorize the transfer of expenditure authority between these allocations, but would prohibit the aggregate amount of allocation increases from exceeding the aggregate amount of allocation decreases. This bill would allocate $3,160,000 in previously appropriated federal funds to issue $500 incentive payments to previously unlicensed individuals who obtain a family daycare home license on or after June 28, 2021, and maintain an active license for 12 months, and allocate $40,000,000 in previously appropriated federal funds to establish the Joint Child Care Providers United-State of California Training Partnership Fund. This bill would allocate $98,630,000 in previously appropriated federal funds, and appropriate $190,370,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Social Services to provide reimbursement rate supplements from January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2023. The bill would authorize Child Care Providers United – California, subject to review and approval by the state, to determine how that funding is used to supplement reimbursement rates and the methodology for supplementing reimbursement rates. This bill would appropriate $739,025,000 in federal funds to the State Department of Education to, upon order of the Department of Finance, be transferred to the State Department of Social Services to fund additional slots under the alternative payment program and the general childcare and development program. This bill would appropriate $29,078,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Social Services to provide cost-of-living increases to childcare providers and would make various appropriations and allocations from previously appropriated funds to provide reimbursement rate supplements and increases to childcare and development and preschool providers. (13) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.