Child care: reimbursement rates: startup costs: grants.

Existing law, the Child Care and Development Services Act, establishes a system of child care and development services for children up to 13 years of age, and requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to implement a plan establishing assigned reimbursement rates, per unit of average daily enrollment, to be paid by the state to provider agencies for the provision of those services. Existing law also provides for an adjustment factor to be applied to units of average daily enrollment if a provider agency serves children who meet specified criteria. Existing law provides adjustment factors for infants who are 0 to 18 months of age, and toddlers who are 18 to 36 months of age, and are served in a child day care center, and for infants and toddlers who are 0 to 36 months of age and are served in a family child care home. This bill would increase the adjustment factor for infants who are 0 to 18 months of age and toddlers who are 18 to 36 months of age, would provide that these adjustment factors apply without regard to the kind of facility that the infant or toddler is served by, and would make conforming changes. The bill would establish the Early Education Expansion Program for the purpose of increasing access to inclusive early care and education programs and increasing early learning infrastructure capacity in high-need communities. The bill would require the State Department of Education to award grants on a competitive basis, and would require a grant to be used for one-time infrastructure costs only. The bill would require an applicant to include specified information in its application. The bill would also establish the Early Education Expansion Program for Local Educational Agencies. The bill would require the department to award grants on a competitive basis, and would require the department's Special Education Division and Early Education and Support Division to provide guidance to local educational agencies on serving young children with exceptional needs in the least restrictive environment. The bill would require a grant to be used for one-time infrastructure costs only. The bill would require an applicant to include specified information in its application. The act establishes the California Child Care Initiative Project and provides that the objective of the project is to increase the availability of quality child care programs in the state. This bill would establish in the department the Family Child Care Recruitment and Training Program of 2018, to be administered by the Superintendent, to support the recruitment and training of a new generation of licensed family child care providers. The bill would require the program to provide resources pursuant to the California Child Care Initiative Project as well as startup costs and resources to new family child care providers, among other things, upon appropriation by the Legislature.