Child care and development services.

Under existing law, the Child Care and Development Services Act is enacted for, among other purposes, the 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 services through full- and part-time programs. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer all California state preschool programs. Existing law requires those programs to include, but not be limited to, part-day age and developmentally appropriate programs designed to facilitate the transition to kindergarten for 3- and 4-year-old children in educational development, health services, social services, nutritional services, parent education and parent participation, evaluation, and staff development. Existing law requires the Superintendent to develop standards for the implementation of quality programs with indicators of quality required to include certain things, including parent education. This bill would require the Superintendent to develop standards for the implementation of high-quality early learning and educational support programs. The bill would also include parent education and support and continuity of care and the assignment of primary caregivers for infants and toddlers, among other things, of quality indicators. Existing law requires specified state preschool programs to have at least 12 of the children enrolled at a preschool site to be 4-year-old children and requires certain priority requirements for the award of new funding for the expansion of the preschool program. This bill would delete these requirements. This bill would require the Superintendent to develop standards, rules, and regulations for the implementation of high-quality, evidenced-based infant and toddler services that would be required to, among other things, promote responsive caregiving by parents, guardians, and care providers. The bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or in any other statute, establish supplemental grants for purposes of funding parent training and voluntary home visitation services. Existing law authorizes a family enrolled in state or federally funded child care and development programs whose services would otherwise be terminated because the family no longer meets the program criteria to continue to receive child development services in another state or a federally funded child care and development program, as provided. This bill would require a child to be deemed eligible for the remainder of the program year subsequent to enrollment in a state or federally funded early learning and educational support program. Existing law defines "income eligible," for purposes of the act, to mean that a family's adjusted monthly income is at or below 70% of the state median income, adjusted for family size, and adjusted annually. This bill would also include in this definition a family that is eligible for Cal-Fresh or Medi-Cal. Existing law establishes staffing ratios for center-based programs. This bill would delete these ratios on July 1, 2019. The bill would require, no later than July 1, 2019, early learning and educational support program services providers to maintain updated staffing ratios, as provided. The bill would require no later than July 1, 2019, early learning and educational support program services providers to have at least one teacher in each classroom that holds at a minimum a child development teacher permit issued by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, if funds are made available for that purpose in the annual Budget Act or in any other statute.