AB 2626: Child care services.

(1)The Child Care and Development Services Act has a purpose of providing a comprehensive, coordinated, and cost-effective system of child care and development services, for children from infancy to 13 years of age and their parents, including a full range of supervision, health, and support service through full- and part-time programs. The act requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to adopt rules and regulations on eligibility, enrollment, and priority of services needed to implement the act. The act provides that a family, upon establishing initial eligibility or ongoing eligibility for services, shall receive those services for not less than 12 months. The act provides, as an exception to the above provision relating to receiving services for 12 months, that a family that establishes initial eligibility or ongoing eligibility on the basis of seeking employment shall receive services for not less than 6 months. The act, for purposes of establishing income eligibility for services, defines income eligible to mean a family has an adjusted monthly income at or below 70% the state median income, as provided.

This bill would delete the 6-month exception for families establishing initial eligibility or ongoing eligibility on the basis of seeking employment. The bill would instead define income eligible to mean that a family has an adjusted monthly income at or below 85% the state median income.

(2)The act requires the Superintendent to administer all California state preschool programs, which include part-day age and developmentally appropriate programs designed to facilitate the transition to kindergarten for 3- and 4-year-old children. The act defines 3-year-old children and 4-year-old children as children who will have their 3rd or 4th birthday, respectively, on or before September 1 of the fiscal year in which they are enrolled in a state preschool program.

This bill would instead define 3- and 4-year-old children as those who will have their 3rd or 4th birthday, respectively, on or before December 1 of the fiscal year in which they are enrolled in a state preschool program. The bill would authorize children who have their 3rd birthday on or after December 2 of the fiscal year, to be enrolled in a state preschool program on or after their 3rd birthday.

(3)The act requires at least ¹/₂ of the children enrolled at a preschool site to be 4-year-old children, as provided.

This bill would delete this requirement.

(4)The act requires the Superintendent to implement a plan that establishes reasonable standards and assigned reimbursement rates, which vary with the length of the program year and the hours of service.

This bill would authorize a center-based child care agency contracting with the State Department of Education to provide center-based child care services to schedule up to 2 days of staff training, per contract period, using state reimbursement funding on specified topics.

(5)The act requires the department to promote full utilization of child care and development funds and match available unused funds with identified service needs. The act requires the department to arrange interagency adjustments between different contractors with the same type of contract when both agencies mutually agree to a temporary transfer of funds for the balance of the fiscal year.

This bill would also require the department to arrange intraagency adjustments between the state preschool program contracts and general child care contracts for the same agency and funding allocation. The bill would require the department to establish timelines for intraagency contract fund transfers. The bill would authorize the department to implement and administer these provisions through the issuance of guidance or other written directives, as provided.

(6)This bills provisions would become operative on July 1, 2019.