(1) The Early Education Act, among other things, requires the Superintendent to administer all California state preschool programs, including, but not limited to, part-day and full-day age and developmentally appropriate programs for 3- and 4-year-old children. The act establishes eligibility criteria for those children.
This bill would require the State Department of Education to develop and implement a streamlined request for application process for existing California state preschool program contractors to be awarded new California state preschool program slots and would require the State Department of Education to collaborate with the State Department of Social Services to ensure the request for application process is, where applicable, similar to the streamlined request for application process in the general childcare and development program. The bill would make certain contractors ineligible for the streamlined request for application process if any of specified conditions are met.
(2) Existing law requires the State Department of Education, in collaboration with the State Department of Social Services, to implement a reimbursement system plan that establishes reasonable standards and assigned reimbursement rates, which vary with the length of the program year and the hours of service, for California state preschool program contractors, as provided. Existing law requires each applicant or contracting agency to give priority for part-day and full-day California state preschool programs according to a specified priority order. Existing law establishes adjustment factors applicable to the reimbursement a contractor receives in order to reflect the additional expense of serving full-day and part-day preschool children who meet certain criteria and requires the adjustment factor for children who are 47 months or younger to be 1.8, as provided.
This bill, until July 1, 2027, would authorize, but not require, a California state preschool contractor operating a part-day, full-day, or both part- and full-day California state preschool program to enroll interested eligible 2-year-old children, as defined, and would make conforming changes. The bill, on or after July 1, 2027, would prohibit a contractor from serving any 2-year-old children, unless the contractor was serving those 2-year-old children before July 1, 2027, as provided. The bill, until July 1, 2027, would instead require the adjustment factor for 2-year-old and 3-year-old children to be 1.8, as provided. The bill would provide that children enrolled in kindergarten who meet other specified criteria are eligible for a part-day California state preschool program.
(2) The act, until June 30, 2025, requires at least 5% of part-day and full-day California state preschool program contracting agency's funded enrollment to be reserved for children with exceptional needs. The act requires, commencing July 1, 2025, at least 7.5% and, commencing July 1, 2026, at least 10% of a part-day and full-day preschool program contracting agency's funded enrollment to be reserved for children with exceptional needs, as provided.
This bill would delete the above provisions relating to the 7.5% and 10% reservations for children with exceptional needs in part-day and full-day California state preschool programs and would instead indefinitely extend the provision relating to the 5% reservation for children with exceptional needs in part-day and full-day California state preschool programs. The bill would also make conforming changes.
(3) The act requires each applicant or contracting agency to give priority for part-day and full-day California state preschool programs according to a specified priority order, including, as the 4th priority category, children from low-income families, as provided.
This bill would revise and recast the above provisions relating to the 4th priority category for part-day and full-day California state preschool programs to, among other things, provide that within the 4th priority category for children from low-income families, after children with exceptional needs are enrolled, 3- and 4-year-old children without exceptional needs shall be enrolled in income ranking order, as provided. The bill would, until July 1, 2027, establish a new 4th priority category for certain 2-year-old children, as provided.
(4) The act establishes the California Universal Preschool Planning Grant Program with the goal of expanding access universally to preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-old children, as provided. The act requires the Superintendent to develop and administer a grant process and award grant funds to each county that applies, as provided. The act provides, to the extent funds are available in the annual Budget Act for the 2023–24 and 2024–25 fiscal years, that existing grantees shall be eligible to apply for a renewal grant, as provided.
This bill would also provide that newly formed consortia of current grantees or individual counties who participated as a grantee in a former consortium for the grant are eligible to apply for a renewal grant, as provided.
(5) The California Public Records Act requires state and local agencies to make their records available for public inspection, unless an exemption from disclosure applies. Existing law exempts information regarding childcare providers from the disclosure exemptions of the act, except as specified.
This bill would make technical and conforming changes to these provisions as they pertain to family childcare providers.
(6) Existing law generally requires the State Department of Social Services to license and regulate various types of child daycare facilities, including, among others, child daycare facilities. Under existing law, a willful or repeated violation of those provisions is a crime.
Existing law requires the director of the State Department of Social Services to annually publish and make available to interested persons a list or lists covering all child daycare facilities, other than small family childcare homes, and the services for which each facility has been licensed or issued a special permit. To encourage the recruitment of small family childcare homes and protect their personal privacy, existing law requires the department to prevent the use of lists containing names, addresses, and other identifying information of facilities identified as small family childcare homes, except as necessary for administering the licensing program, facilitating the placement of children in these facilities, and providing the names and addresses to specified programs. Existing law also authorizes parents seeking local daycare services to receive the names and telephone numbers of local small family childcare providers.
This bill would make a technical conforming change to replace the term "small family childcare homes" with "small family daycare homes." The bill would revise the provisions described above by instead authorizing the department to disclose specified information relating to small family daycare homes to individuals and entities, including, but not limited to, consumer education internet websites available to the public and parents, legal guardians, and caregivers seeking daycare services for purposes of facilitating the placement of children in small family daycare homes. The bill would authorize the department to require an individual or entity to maintain the confidentiality of any information provided pursuant to these provisions and would also authorize the department to deny any individual or entity that violates those regulations access to information on small family daycare homes. The bill would require the department to report any violating individuals or entities to the appropriate funding or licensing agency. By expanding the definition of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(7) Existing law, the Child Care and Development Services Act, requires the State Department of Social Services to administer childcare and development programs that offer a full range of services to eligible children from infancy to 13 years of age, inclusive. Existing law appropriates $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 for the purpose of expanding childcare access by funding additional slots under the alternative payment program and the general childcare and development program in the 2021–22 and 2022–23 fiscal years.
This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to add approximately 206,800 new childcare slots above the slot levels funded during the 2020–21 fiscal year, in accordance with a specified distribution. The bill would state that funding to programs has been added by the state as of May 15, 2024, resulting in an award of an estimated 118,800 new slots, as specified. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature that the remaining slots that have not been added and awarded as of January 1, 2024, may follow a specified distribution in certain fiscal years. The bill would require, subject to appropriation, that any unawarded slots be distributed in each subsequent fiscal year.
The bill would require the department to release at least one request for applications, and to announce awards, as specified. The bill would require the department to annually revise the number of added and awarded slots based on final awardee data. To the extent that updated slot estimates fall below the listed total slot levels, and subject to appropriation, the bill would require the department to add, award, and put into contract additional slots to maintain total slot levels, to the extent requested.
(8) Existing law authorizes, for purposes of implementation of state or federal legislation to expand childcare services, the department to waive regulations regarding the point qualifications for, and the process and scoring of, interviews of contract applicants, or the time limitations for scheduling and notification of appeal hearings and their results.
This bill would additionally authorize the department to utilize an alternative application process to evaluate the ability and standing of existing contractors in determining allocation methodology and eligibility for funding.
The bill would require the department to develop and implement a streamlined request for application process for current childcare and development program contractors to award new childcare and development program contracts. The bill would specify that certain current contractors are ineligible to participate in that streamlined process, including contractors who are on conditional status because of fiscal or programmatic noncompliance. The bill would also authorize the department to consider scoring criteria as necessary to award contracts.
(9) Existing federal law establishes the Child Care and Development Fund authorized under the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014 and administered by states to provide assistance to low-income families who need childcare due to specified reasons. Existing federal regulations require a portion of those funds to be used on specified activities to improve the quality of childcare.
This bill would require the department to provide, no later than May 14, 2025, and no later than May 14 every year thereafter, specified committees with a proposed list of the quality improvement activities, including funding totals by activity, that will be funded in the next fiscal year with the funds from the federal Child Care and Development Fund.
(10) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, to implement a reimbursement system plan that establishes reasonable standards and assigned reimbursement rates. Existing law requires 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 addresses quality standards for equity and accessibility while supporting positive learning and developmental outcomes for children, as specified. Existing law also requires the department, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, to develop and conduct an alternative methodology, as specified, in order to set reimbursement rates for state-subsidized childcare and development services.
Existing law requires the department to, by no later than July 1, 2024, submit necessary information to support use of a single rate structure utilizing the alternative methodology to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families in the Child Care and Development Fund state plan or an amendment to the state plan. Within 60 days of federal approval of the single rate structure utilizing the alternative methodology, existing law requires the department to provide specified committees of the Legislature and the Legislative Analyst's Office with an outline of the implementation components for the approved single rate structure.
This bill would instead require the department to provide the Assembly and Senate Budget Committees and Legislative Analyst's Office with a report that outlines the implementation components for the approved single rate structure. The bill would require the report to include the department's plan to set new reimbursement rates under the alternative methodology by no later than July 1, 2025, and the estimated costs and estimated timelines associated with the implementation components, as specified. The bill would also require the department to, beginning October 1, 2024, until January 1, 2026, provide the Assembly and Senate Budget Committees and the Legislative Analyst's Office with quarterly updates on the implementation of the new reimbursement rates, as specified. The bill would require the Governor and the Legislature to, by no later than July 1, 2025, establish reimbursement rates based on the alternative methodology. If the new reimbursement rates established by the Governor and the Legislature do not take effect on July 1, 2025, the bill would require the department to provide the Legislature with a timeline for transitioning from the rates that are in effect on July 1, 2025, to the new reimbursement rates, as specified. The bill would also prohibit the new reimbursement rates established by the Governor and the Legislature, or any temporary reimbursement established by the department as part of a transition timeline, from being reduced from reimbursement rates that were in effect on June 30, 2024, as specified.
(11) The bill would appropriate $328,000 in specified funds from the Federal Trust Fund to allow the State Department of Social Services to assist the California Health and Human Services Agency with the administration of the Preschool Development Grant.
(12) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
(13) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.

Statutes affected:
06/22/24 - Amended Senate: 8205 EDC, 8207 EDC, 8208 EDC, 8210 EDC, 8211 EDC, 8244 EDC, 8320 EDC, 7927.305 GOV, 1596.86 HSC, 10227.6 WIC, 10267.5 WIC