COVID-19 pandemic emergency: contact tracing: childcare.

(1) The Child Care and Development Services Act establishes a system of childcare and development services for children up to 13 years of age. Commencing July 1, 2021, existing law transfers specified childcare programs, responsibilities, services, and systems from the State Department of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to the State Department of Social Services. Existing law provides that the Legislature finds and declares that the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (Public Law 116-136) Child Care and Development Block Grant supplemental payment awarded funds to California to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on childcare providers and the families they serve, including to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the pandemic emergency, to provide assistance to childcare providers in the case of decreased enrollment or closures, and to provide childcare assistance to essential workers during the response to the pandemic. Existing law provides that it is the intent of the Legislature to allocate funds to restore amounts either directly or through reimbursement for obligations incurred relating to childcare and the pandemic. Existing law requires the Controller to transfer, on July 1, 2020, $152,314,000 from the Federal Trust Fund, and consistent with the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act Child Care and Development Block Grant supplemental payment requirements, to the General Fund to offset the state costs incurred in the 2019–20 fiscal year. For the 2020–2021 fiscal year, existing law appropriates $198,000,000 from the Federal Trust Fund to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for COVID-19 pandemic-related relief and assistance for childcare providers, the families those childcare providers serve, and essential workers, as prescribed. This bill would instead require $42,014,000 to be transferred on July 1, 2020, and would instead appropriate $308,000,000 for the 2020–2021 fiscal year thereby making an appropriation. Of the funds appropriated for the 2020–2021 fiscal year, the bill would allocate $30,000,000 to the State Department of Education to reimburse contractors for the cost of waived family fees for families not receiving in-person services from September 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021, inclusive, and would allocate $80,000,000 to the State Department of Education to reimburse contractors pursuant to prioritized factors, including to support costs associated with increased childcare service hours for ongoing enrollments due to school closures. (2) Existing law expresses the intent of the Legislature to prepare for the effective use of childcare funds available from the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery period in order to support the essential workforce through necessary, high-quality childcare, support healthy child development during this historic time, and ensure the stability of California's childcare system. Contingent on the receipt of federal funds that may be used for these purposes during the 2020–21 fiscal year, existing law requires the State Department of Education to prioritize childcare-related funding, as prescribed, including up to $35,000,000 to support alternative payment programs, including migrant alternative payment programs, to reimburse providers for providing short-term childcare to eligible children when a provider is closed. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Education to transfer specified program expenditure authority between schedules to accurately reflect expenditures in the program schedules, upon the approval of the Department of Finance, and authorizes the Department of Finance, at its discretion, to approve a transfer of program expenditure authority to the extent total allocations do not exceed a specified total amount. Upon approval from the Department of Finance, existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to notify the chairs of the relevant policy committees and budget subcommittees of the Legislature of the Superintendent of Public Instruction's intent to transfer program expenditure authority between programs. This bill would repeal these provisions, would instead appropriate the sum of $402,000,000 in specified federal funding to provide subsidized childcare and preschool providers with COVID-19 pandemic-related assistance, and would allocate the money, as specified, including allocating $244,000,000 to provide a flat-rate one-time stipend amount of $525 per child enrolled in a subsidized childcare or a state preschool program, as prescribed. Among other allocations, the bill would allocate $80,000,000 to provide additional emergency vouchers for specified children, including the children of essential workers, through June 30, 2022. The bill would make a state-subsidized childcare provider operating or serving alternative payment programs eligible for an additional 16 paid nonoperational days when the provider is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic emergency. The bill would require specified entities, including alternative payments programs, to track the usage of paid nonoperational days and associated costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic emergency and short-term childcare to eligible children, and to report monthly on usage to the State Department of Education and the State Department of Social Services. The bill would require the State Department of Education to issue guidance related to the additional 16 nonoperational days for COVID-19-related closures to family childcare home education network programs. The bill would make related findings and declarations. (3) Existing law requires the Department of Human Resources to provide to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee any side letter, appendix, or other addendum to a properly ratified memorandum of understanding that requires the expenditure of $250,000 or more related to salary and benefits and that is not already contained in the original memorandum of understanding or the Budget Act. Existing law requires the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, within 30 days after receiving the side letter, appendix, or other addendum, to determine if the addendum presents substantial additions that are not reasonably within the parameters of the original memorandum of understanding and thereby requires legislative action to ratify the addendum. Existing law provisions of the Budget Act of 2020 provide an exception to the above-described provisions and, instead, makes implementation of an addendum that results in any expenditure of funds contingent upon legislative action to ratify the addendum if the agreement results in total net costs greater than $1,000,000 during the 2020–21 fiscal year. Existing law provisions of the Budget Act of 2020 relating to augmentation for employee compensation from the General Fund, unallocated special funds, or unallocated nongovernmental cost funds also make implementation of an addendum that requires those funds contingent upon legislative approval. This bill would approve the addendum to the memorandum of understanding entered into between the state employer and State Bargaining Unit 1, Professional, Administrative, Financial, and Staff Services, State Bargaining Unit 3, Professional Educators and Librarians, State Bargaining Unit 4, Office and Allied, State Bargaining Unit 11, Engineering and Scientific Technicians, State Bargaining Unit 14, Printing and Allied Trades, State Bargaining Unit 15, Allied Services, State Bargaining Unit 17, Registered Nurses, State Bargaining Unit 20, Medical and Social Services, and State Bargaining Unit 21, Educational Consultants and Library, regarding employees that have been assigned to assist with COVID-19 contact tracing, and would appropriate for this purpose $1,793,000 previously appropriated in the Budget Act of 2020 for other purposes related to state employee compensation, as specified. (4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.