Updated March 23, 2010
For a more detailed explanation
of any of the following legislative bills go to www.leginfo.ca.gov
Disclaimer: The OCCCA does not guarantee
that the following information represents all legislative issues relating
to family child care providers. Members are encouraged to read and become
informed on issues relating to their profession.
Notes
from Forums, Meetings etc….
Click on the links below to access notes from
the referenced items from our Public Policy Chair, Kelli Sablow.
Los Angeles Provider Forum, Sat., March 20, 2010
How
the Governor’s 10-11 Proposed Budget could affect Child Care
ü
No changes to Community Care Licensing.
ü
CalWORKs child care funding of $1.1 billion, a
decrease of $304.8 million from 09-10.
ü
Of the total $650 million is federal funding, $481
million is state funding.**
ü
A decrease of $25.2 million from the 09-10 budget
for Child Care and Development funding by the California Dept. of
Education. Of the total $352
million is federal funding and $1.28 billion is state Prop. 98 funding.
**In the Orange County Register on May 14, 2010: “But the
proposals getting the most attention were Schwarzenegger calls to
eliminate all $1.1 billion in funding for CalWORKS and $1.2 billion in
funding for needs-based, subsidized child care. CalWORKS, the state's
welfare-to-work program, serves 1.4 million people statewide and 53,000
in Orange County, with the vast majority of recipients everywhere being
children.”
NEW
for 2010 Assembly and Senate Bills
AB 1979 (Adams): This bill would
require annual unannounced licensing inspections of all child care
centers. (Introduced 2/17/10)
AB 2553 (Brownley): This bill would
require the Dept. of Education to collect data assessing the school
readiness of children entering Kindergarten that reflects the major
domains of child development. (Introduced 2/19/10; Passed by Asm 4/21/10)
SB 1109 (Cox): This bill would, subject to approval by
voters, abolish the state and county First 5 Commissions. (Introduced
2/17/10)
SB 797 (Pavley): This bill would
prohibit the distribution, manufacture, or sale of any bottle or cup and
any liquid, food or beverage in a can or jar containing or lined with a
material containing bisphenol A (BPA) above 0.1 parts per billion if the
item is designed or intended to be used primarily by children 3 years or
younger. (Last amended 7/15/09; Status: on the Assembly floor, inactive
9/11/09)
ACR 154 (Fuentes): This bill would
proclaim the fourth week of April each year as Universal Preschool
Week. It would require Legislature
to commemorate U.P.W. with appropriate activities that education
Californians about the value of preschool and encourage people to enroll
their 3- and 4- year old children in preschool programs. (Introduced
4/12/10)
2009
Assembly and Senate Bills
AB
627- Brownley 2009
Child Care: Nutrition Requirements
Status: Still on the Governor’s Desk
This bill would limit meals reimbursed by the
state, if the meal rate is increased after January 1, 2020 and to the
extent allowable under federal law, to include fried potatoes up to an
ounce per week, sweet grains only as a snack and up to twice per week,
processed meat products up to three times per week, prohibit sweetened
drinks, prohibit fruits or vegetables sweetened with anything other than
fruit juice, require one whole grain served each day, require only 100%
juice up to one ounce per day, require only low-fat or nonfat milk be
served to children over 2, require a vegetable be served at lunch and
supper, prohibit deep fat frying on site, limits sugar to 6 grams per
serving for cereals, requires water be accessible and available
throughout the day and limits screen time to quality programming. It would provide an exemption to all of
these requirements for children who have a medical necessity.
SB
177- Lowenthal 2009
Child Passengers
Status: with the Assembly of Transportation
This bill provides that a child who is six years
of age or younger or who weighs less than 60 pounds may be seated in the
front seat of a vehicle when all of the back seats are already occupied
by children under age eight.
SB
293- Runner 2009
Kindergarten Entrance Age
Status: Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant
to Joint Rule 56
This bill would change the required birthday for
kindergarten and 1st grade admission to November 1 for the 2010-11 school
year, October 1 for the 2011-12 school year, and September 1 for the
2012-13 school year and each school year thereafter. An elementary school
would be required, until and including the 2012-13 school year, to admit
a child to the 1st grade if the child has completed one school year of
kindergarten.
Visit the CAEYC website for valuable website and contact information
for the local and federal government.
Stay informed! www.caeyc.org
Chaptered
Bills
SB
1629- Steinburg 2008
Early Learning Quality Improvement System
This bill proposes putting a quality rating
system in place for all early learning programs, including family home
child care. These ratings will
give consumers (parents) a quick reference of how you run, your
qualifications and your ratios.
They believe that with this rating system, parents “can make
informed decisions about child care.”
Since this bill passed in 2008 it has been turned over to the
California Early Learning Quality Improvement System Advisory
Committee. The advisory committee
is charged with the task of developing a plan to, “improve the outcomes
for children and narrow the school readiness gap by improving the quality
of early learning and care programs for children birth to five years old.” In this committee there are 5
sub-committees (Design, Workforce and Professional Development, Family
Improvement and Stakeholder Engagement, Finance and Incentives, and
Data). These committees have come
up with a few recommendations for implementing this early learning
quality rating system.
The rating system will be composed of 5
different Tiers. Depending on if
you are a large or a small family home child care, the following options
are being discussed.
Option
1:
Tiers 1-3 will go by the existing Title 22
guidelines.
Tiers 4-5- 3 children=1 adult; 4-8 children=2
adults (small family child care); 9-14 children=3 adults (lg. family
child care)
Option
2:
Tiers 1-2 will go by the existing Title 22
guidelines
Tiers 3-4- 3:1 ratio w/ 3 infants; 6:1 ratio w/
2 infants; 8:2 ratio (small family child care); 14:3 ratio (lg. family
child care)
Tier 5- 3:1 ratio; 4-8:2 ratio (small family
child care); 9-14:3 ratio (lg. family child care)
A few other areas that they are recommending are
anyone in the higher tiers will also be required to hold a BA degree to
run the child care, assistants will be required to hold an AA degree and
that infants be defined as 0-18 months (instead of 2 yrs). There may be more but these are the key
points that need to be addressed.
For more information you can go to: www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/documents/revisedreport.pdf
