Early learning and care.

The Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State Department of Social Services, requires the department to administer childcare and development programs that offer a full range of services to eligible children from infancy to 13 years of age, inclusive. The Early Education Act requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to, among other things, provide an inclusive and cost-effective preschool program. Both acts require that families meet specified requirements to be eligible for federal- and state-subsidized childcare and development services and preschool programs, including, among other requirements, that the family needs childcare services or full-day preschool because, among other reasons, the family is homeless, the child's parents are seeking employment or permanent housing, or the child's parents are employed. The acts require, upon establishing eligibility for services, a family to be considered to meet all eligibility and need requirements for services and to receive those services without being required to report income or other changes for at least 12 months, except as specified. This bill would extend eligibility for childcare and development programs and the preschool program to families in which a member of the family has been certified as eligible to receive benefits from certain means-tested government programs, including Medi-Cal and CalFresh, as specified, and would require those families to submit a self-certification of income for the purposes of prioritizing enrollment and calculating family fees. The bill would, if a family is eligible for services on the basis that they are homeless or that the parents are seeking employment or permanent housing, limit eligibility for services to no more than full-time service and, if the family is eligible for services on the basis that the parent is employed and the parent works a variable schedule, require the contracting agency to use simplifying assumptions to authorize the maximum certified hours of care based on need for care. The bill would also extend the time a family is to be considered to meet all eligibility and need requirements for services to 24 months, and would require the State Department of Social Services and the State Department of Education to implement that requirement through management bulletins or similar letters of instruction on or before October 1, 2022, and until regulations are adopted. Existing law requires the Superintendent to administer 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. This bill would also make a child who is less than 3 years of age, but who is at least 18 months of age, eligible to enroll in the California state preschool program as long as the child meets all other eligibility requirements. The bill would, subject to an appropriation in the annual budget act for this purpose, require the State Department of Education, by November 1, 2025, to submit a report to the Legislature and the Department of Finance, regarding the implementation of this expansion of the California state preschool program. This bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2028.