Early childcare and education.

Existing law, the Early Education Act, among other things, requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer all California state preschool programs, including, but not limited to, part-day and full-day age and developmentally appropriate programs for 3- and 4-year-old children. Existing law requires the State Department of Education, in collaboration with the State Department of Social Services, to implement a reimbursement system plan that establishes reasonable standards and assigned reimbursement rates for purposes of the act, and specifies the reimbursement rate for contractors. Existing law requires $184,794,000 in one-time funding to be made available to address inequities between the standard reimbursement rate and the regional market rate ceiling for center-based childcare providers in the California state preschool program, among other programs, by providing reimbursement rate supplements. This bill would, commencing July 1, 2022, and subject to available funding, authorize the department to issue temporary rate increases to contractors that exceed the existing specified rates and the previously described reimbursement rate supplements. Existing law, the Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State Department of Social Services, establishes a system of child care and development services for children up to 13 years of age. Existing law requires the department, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, to implement a reimbursement system plan that establishes reasonable standards and assigned reimbursement rates, and specifies the reimbursement rate for contractors. Existing law also specifies the reimbursement rates for childcare services provided to CalWORKs recipients. This bill would, commencing July 1, 2022, and subject to available funding, authorize the department to issue temporary rate increases to contractors and childcare providers that exceed those existing specified rates. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services, in consultation with the State Department of Education, to establish a fee schedule for families using preschool and child care and development services and requires families who utilize those services to be assessed a family fee that is based on income, certified family need for full-time or part-time care services, and enrollment. Existing law prohibits those family fees from being collected for the 2022–23 fiscal year. Existing law allocates $519,000,000 in previously appropriated federal funds, and appropriates $60,000,000 in federal funds, to the State Department of Education, and requires the State Department of Education to transfer most of those funds to State Department of Social Services to provide subsidized childcare and preschool providers with COVID-19 pandemic-related assistance, including, among other things, reimbursement for childcare and preschool contractors for family fees that are waived, as specified. Existing law also appropriates $739,025,000 in federal funds to the State Department of Education to, upon order of the Department of Finance, be transferred to the State Department of Social Services for the purpose of expanding childcare access by funding additional slots under the alternative payment program and the general childcare and development program. This bill would extend the prohibition on the collection of those family fees through September 30, 2023, and would require contractors to reimburse subsidized childcare providers for the full amount of the certificate or voucher without deducting family fees during this extended period. The bill would also make the above-described previously appropriated federal funds to expand childcare access slots and provide for family fee waivers and the reimbursement for waived family fees available in the 2023–24 fiscal year in an amount that is equal to the cost to extend family fee waivers from July 1, 2023, to September 30, 2023, inclusive, for all families receiving subsidized childcare services from childcare providers through specified programs administered by the State Department of Social Services. By extending the period of time in which previously appropriated funds are available for encumbrance and by expanding the purposes for which an existing appropriation may be expended, the bill would make an appropriation. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.