Child day care facilities: infant to schoolage license.

Existing law, the California Child Day Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of day care centers by the State Department of Social Services. Existing regulations require a separate license to be issued for each component of a combination center, and establishes teacher-child ratio requirements. This bill would require the department, in consultation with stakeholders, to adopt regulations on or before January 1, 2021, to create a child care center license to serve infant, toddler, preschool, and schoolage children and would require, before January 1, 2024, all day care centers to be licensed as child care centers. The bill would require the regulations to include components for infant, toddler, preschool, and schoolage children, health and safety standards for children in care, and enhanced ability to transition children from one age group to the next. The bill would authorize the department to charge an applicant for the child care center license a specified fee. Existing law requires the department to develop guidelines and procedures to authorize licensed child day care centers serving infants or preschool age children to create a special optional toddler program component for children between 18 and 36 months of age, and requires the program to be considered an extension of the infant center or preschool license. This bill would authorize the department to extend the period for participation in the toddler program for a maximum of three months for a child in extenuating circumstances, on the request of a day care center, if the center can establish that it is unable to find an alternative placement.