Child care and development: priority enrollment: underserved areas.

(1) The Child Care and Development Services Act requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer child care and development programs that provide a full range of services for eligible children from infancy to 13 years of age. Existing law requires a child care resource and referral program, as defined, to publicize its services through all available media sources, agencies, and other appropriate methods. This bill would require a child care resource and referral program to include in the publicity a statement regarding the state's special interest in enrolling children placed by a child welfare agency with a relative or foster parent, children served by a child welfare agency who have an open dependency or voluntary child protective services court case, and children who are dependents of a parent with an open dependency court case, in programs that are operated by licensed child care providers or local educational agencies. (2) Existing law requires an applicant or contracting agency, as defined, of a California state preschool program to give priority to children who meet certain criteria, including children who are recipients of child protective services. This bill would require an applicant or contracting agency to also give first priority enrollment to children placed by a child welfare agency with a relative or foster parent, children served by a child welfare agency who have an open dependency or voluntary child protective services court case, and children who are dependents of a parent with an open dependency court case. The bill would require these priority enrollments to be considered along with the first priority and other priority enrollments for federal and state subsidized child development services administered by the Superintendent, as specified. This bill would require general child care and development programs to include priority enrollment, when slots become available in programs operated by licensed child care providers or local educational agencies, for children from birth to 5 years of age who are supervised by the child welfare system, have an open dependency or voluntary child protective services court case, or are dependents of a parent with an open dependency court case. The bill would require these priority enrollments to be considered along with the first priority and other priority enrollments for federal and state subsidized child development services administered by the Superintendent, as specified. This bill would revise eligibility requirements for federal and state subsidized child development services administered by the Superintendent to include children placed by a child welfare agency with a relative or foster parent, children served by a child welfare agency who have an open dependency or voluntary child protective services court case, and children who are dependents of a parent with an open dependency court case. The bill would require, among other things, that first priority enrollment for these services be given to neglected or abused children from birth to 5 years of age who are recipients of child protective services, or who are at risk of being neglected, abused, or exploited, upon written referral from a legal, medical, or social services agency who meet specified criteria. (3) Existing law requires a local planning council to annually submit local priorities that reflect child care needs in the county to the State Department of Education, and requires a local planning council to conduct an assessment of the child care needs that includes specified factors. This bill would include among those factors the child care needs of children placed by a child welfare agency with a relative or foster parent, children served by a child welfare agency who have an open dependency or voluntary child protective services court case, and children who are dependents of a parent with an open dependency court case. (4) This bill would also express the Legislature's intent that the highest priority for enrollment in child care and development programs be given to children with the greatest need to benefit from those programs. (5) Existing law defines certain terms for purposes of the Child Care and Development Services Act, including the term "underserved area," to mean specified areas where the ratio of publicly subsidized child care and development program services to the need for these services is low, as determined by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. This bill would revise the term "underserved area" to also include the specified areas where the overall number of eligible children without access to publicly subsidized child care and development program services is high, as determined by the Superintendent. (6) This bill would appropriate $1,000 to the State Department of Education for allocation for purposes of the above provisions. (7) To the extent that the funds appropriated by this bill are allocated to a school district or a community college district, those funds would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution. (8) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.