BILL NUMBER: SB 548 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 17, 2015
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 1, 2015
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 14, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Senator De León
(Coauthors: Senators Hancock and Jackson)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Atkins and Weber)
FEBRUARY 26, 2015
An act to add Article 19.5 (commencing with Section 8430) to
Chapter 2 of Part 6 of Division 1 of Title 1 of the Education Code,
relating to child care.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 548, as amended, De León. Child care: family child care
providers: orientation training.
Existing law, the California Child Day Care Facilities Act,
provides for the licensure and regulation of family day care homes by
the State Department of Social Services. Existing law, the Child
Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State
Department of Education, requires the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to administer child care and development programs that
offer a full range of services for eligible children from infancy to
13 years of age, including, among others, resource and referral
programs, alternative payment programs, and family child care home
education networks.
The bill would require the State Department of Education to ensure
that all family child care providers, as defined, attend an
in-person orientation training, as provided. The bill would require
the orientation training to include at least 4 hours of instruction
and include specified information, including minimum health and
safety standards. standards, as provided.
The bill would authorize the Superintendent to adopt rules and
regulations regarding the orientation training. The bill would
provide that the above provisions are contingent upon an
appropriation of funds for these purposes in the annual Budget Act or
other statutes.
The bill would require the State Department of Social Services and
the State Department of Education, with the assistance of specified
state departments and agencies, and their contractors and
subcontractors, to make specified information regarding family child
care providers available to provider organizations, and would require
the provider organization requesting the information to bear the
costs of collecting the information, as provided.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Quality, affordable child care is essential to prepare
California's children to succeed in school and in life and to allow
families to work and contribute to the state's economy with the
assurance that their children are safe, well cared for, and learning.
(b) Family child care is the child care setting of choice for many
families because of its warm homelike environment, convenience, and
affordability. The flexibility offered by many family child care
providers is particularly vital to low-wage workers who are subject
to highly unpredictable work schedules, and to the many California
workers who work nontraditional hours and need child care on
evenings, overnights, and weekends. Close to 40 percent of licensed
family child care homes offer evening, weekend, and overnight care,
compared with only 2 percent of centers.
(c) Family child care providers are small business owners who
contribute significantly to the economies of their communities and
the state. As businesses, family child care providers are engines for
economic growth, generating 100,000 direct and indirect jobs, three
billion five hundred million dollars ($3,500,000,000) in economic
output, and five hundred fifty million dollars ($550,000,000) in tax
revenues. Family child care providers also contribute to the economy
by serving as a vital job support for working families.
(d) Family child care providers face significant health and safety
risks on the job, and will thus benefit from training on
occupational safety and health.
(e) Giving family child care providers training on how to better
navigate the state-funded child care system, including how to become
licensed, will result in a more efficient and cost-effective system
for family child care providers, families, and the state.
(f) California currently does not have a single list of all family
child care providers who participate in the state-funded child care
program. Creating such a list will enable the state to track and
ensure compliance with training and background check requirements.
Making that list available to provider organizations that will enable
family child care providers to meet one another, be informed about
training opportunities, and form and build organizations will allow
them to share their common concerns and advocate to improve the
quality, access, and stability of child care available to California'
s children and families. This will allow the state to maximize its
return on its investment in child care.
SEC. 2. Article 19.5 (commencing with Section 8430) is added to
Chapter 2 of Part 6 of Division 1 of Title 1 of the Education Code,
to read:
Article 19.5. Raising Child Care Quality Act
8430. This article shall be known, and may be cited, as the
Raising Child Care Quality Act.
8431. The purpose of this article is to ensure that family child
care providers receive orientation training on subjects including
occupational health and safety practices and standards and the state'
s early learning foundations, and to make it more possible for family
child care providers to be informed about training opportunities and
to form and join provider organizations to share their common
concerns and advocate for improvements to the state-funded child care
system.
8432. As used in this article:
(a) "Family child care provider" or "provider" means a child care
provider that participates in a state-funded child care program and
is either of the following:
(1) A family day care home provider, as described in Section
1596.78 of the Health and Safety Code, who is licensed pursuant to
the requirement in Section 1596.80 of the Health and Safety Code.
(2) An individual who meets both of the following criteria:
(A) Provides child care in his or her own home or in the home of
the child receiving care.
(B) Is exempt from licensing requirements pursuant to Section
1596.792 of the Health and Safety Code.
(b) "Provider organization" means an organization that has all of
the following characteristics:
(1) Includes family child care providers as members.
(2) Has as one of its main purposes the representation of family
child care providers in their relations with public or private
entities in California or in advancing the concerns of providers
regarding the terms of their participation in state-funded child care
programs.
(3) Is not an entity that contracts with the state or a county to
administer or process payments for a state-funded child care program.
(c) "State-funded child care program" means a program administered
by the State Department of Education, the State Department of Social
Services, or another department, agency, or political subdivision of
the state, including programs established subsequent to the passage
of this article, to subsidize early learning and care for children,
but not including the public education system.
8433. (a) To ensure that family child care providers have the
opportunity to receive substantive training on topics including
health and safety standards for child care workers, child care
subsidy program functioning, and the state's early learning
foundations, the State Department of Education shall ensure that all
family child care providers attend an in-person orientation training.
Providers who are new to the state-funded child care program shall
complete the orientation training within three months after they
begin participating in the state-funded child care program. Providers
who are already participating in the state-funded child care program
shall complete the orientation training within two years after it is
first offered. Other child care providers who are not family child
care providers or who do not participate in the state-funded child
care program may also be invited to attend the orientation training
at no cost to the providers personally.
(b) Family child care providers shall be compensated for their
time attending the orientation training. The orientation training
shall be offered at times and in community-based settings that are
convenient and accessible to family child care providers.
(c) If a substantial number of the family child care providers
participating in the state-funded child care program in a given
county are non-English speaking, some orientation training, including
written material distributed at the training, in that county shall
be provided in the languages spoken by a substantial number of family
child care providers, in order to facilitate full participation from
all providers.
(d) Alternatives to in-person orientation training shall be
offered on a case-by-case basis for providers who have been unable to
attend an orientation training within two years after the training
are is first offered, or within three
months after the family child care provider begins participating in
the state-funded child care program.
(e) An orientation training shall include at least four hours of
instruction and instruction, which shall be
in addition to training currently offered by resource and referral
programs, and which is intended to count towards satisfying
pre-service or orientation training requirements of federal law. The
orientation training shall include information about all of the
following:
(1) Minimum health and safety standards, as required by
Section 658E of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (42
U.S.C. Sec. 9858c). including emergency preparedness
and response planning.
(2) Occupational health and safety for family child care
providers, including information about injuries, infectious diseases,
environmental risks, and job-related stress.
(3) Information about the state-funded child care program,
including the referral and listing process of resource and referral
agencies, alternative payment programs, including family approval and
payment processes, timelines, appeals processes, licensing
guidelines, and the process for becoming a licensed family child care
provider.
(4) Information about the state's early learning foundations and
how they align with K-5 standards.
(5) Information on resources available to providers and the
children and families they serve, including all of the following:
(A) The federal Child and Adult Care Food Program.
(B) The state early intervention system, First 5 county
commissions, and other sources of available training and resources,
particularly related to child development, literacy, and alignment
with K-5 standards.
(C) Information from provider organizations that notify the State
Department of Education they would like to make presentations at or
include information about their organizations at an
orientation training. These programs or organizations may deliver
this information through brief presentations as part of the
orientation training.
(f) The State Department of Education shall offer the orientation
training either directly or through contracts. The occupational
safety and health portion of the training shall be offered through
contracts with a statewide organization that has expertise about the
state-funded child care program, that includes family child care
providers as members, and that is not an entity that contracts with
the state or a county to administer or process payments for a
state-funded child care program. The remainder of the training
shall be offered with local resource and referral programs, as
defined in subdivision (x) of Section 8208.
(g) Only curriculum approved by the State Department of Education
may be used to fulfill the training requirements specified in this
section. In order to ensure that the occupational safety and health
portion of the training reflects providers' needs and the realities
of their work with regard to the occupational safety and health
portion of the training, the State Department of Education shall only
approve training curriculum that has been developed with input from
family child care providers or their representatives.
(h) The Superintendent may adopt rules and regulations regarding
the orientations orientation training
required under this section. The Superintendent may consult with
other appropriate entities, including provider organizations and
other early education and care advocates, representatives of
community colleges, higher education institutions, resource and
referral networks, First 5 county commissions, organizations that
operate training programs or apprenticeship programs, and early
education and care employers in developing these rules and
regulations.
(i) The requirements of this section are contingent upon
appropriation of funds for purposes of this section in the annual
Budget Act or other statutes.
8434. (a) Within 10 days of receipt of a request from a provider
organization, the State Department of Social Services shall make
available to that provider organization information regarding family
child care providers described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of
Section 8432, including each provider's name, home address, mailing
address, telephone number, email address, if known, and license
number.
(b) Within 30 days of receipt of a request from a provider
organization, the State Department of Education, with the assistance
of the State Department of Social Services and any state department
or agency, or its contractor or subcontractor, in possession of the
relevant information, shall collect information regarding family
child care providers, including each provider's name, home address,
mailing address, telephone number, email address, if known, unique
provider identification number, if applicable, and shall make that
information available to the provider organization. The provider
organization shall bear the reasonable costs of collecting the
information described in this subdivision to the extent that the
state is not already collecting it and is not already required by
federal or state law or regulation to collect it.
it, with any such payment going to reimburse the state
departments, agencies, contractors, or subcontractors that incurred
the costs of compiling the list. It is the intent of the Legislature
that this list will assist the State Department of Social
Services and the State Department of Education and their contractors
in tracking provider compliance.
(c) A provider organization under this article shall be considered
a family day care organization for purposes of subdivisions (b) and
(c) of Section 1596.86 of the Health and Safety Code. All
confidentiality requirements applicable to recipients of information
pursuant to Section 1596.86 of the Health and Safety Code apply to
provider organizations and shall apply also to protect the personal
information of family child care providers as defined in paragraph
(2) of subdivision (a) of Section 8432.
(d) Upon written request of a family child care provider, the
State Department of Education and the State Department of Social
Services shall remove the family child care provider's home address
and home telephone number from the mailing lists referenced in
subdivisions (a) and (b) before the release of the lists.