Child Care and Development Services Act: alternative payment programs.

The Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State Department of Education, provides that children up to 13 years of age are eligible, with certain requirements, for child care and development services. The act requires the department to contract with local contracting agencies to provide for alternative payment programs, and authorizes alternative payments to be made for services provided in licensed centers and family day care homes for care provided in the child's home, and for other types of care that conform to applicable law. The act prohibits payments made by alternative payment programs from exceeding the applicable market rate ceiling, but allows alternative payment programs to expend more than the standard reimbursement rate for a particular child, provided that the aggregate payments for services purchased by the agency during the contract year do not exceed the assigned reimbursable amount as established by the contract for the year. This bill would delete that authority to expend more than the standard reimbursement rate for a particular child. The bill, in addition, would require an alternative payment program to establish a program of electronic banking for payments made to licensed and license-exempt family day care homes, and to implement that program no later than one year after the bill takes effect.