SECTIONS 8220-8227 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 8220-8227

8220. Upon the approval of the State Department of Education, funds
appropriated for the purposes of this chapter may be used for
alternative payment programs to allow for maximum parental choice.
Various methods of reimbursement for parental costs for child care
may be utilized. All payment arrangements shall conform to the
eligibility criteria and the parent fee schedule established pursuant
to Sections 8263 and 8265.
To provide for maximum parental choice, alternative payment
programs may include the following:
(a) A subsidy that follows the family from one provider to another
within a given alternative payment program.
(b) Choices, whenever possible, among hours of service including
before and after school, evenings, weekends, and split shifts.
(c) Child care and development services according to parental
choice, including use of family day care homes, general center based
programs, and other state-funded programs to the extent that those
programs exist in the general service area and are in conformity with
the purposes and applicable laws for which those programs were
established, but excluding state preschool programs.

8220.1. (a) The State Department of Education shall contract with
local contracting agencies for alternative payment programs so that
services will be provided throughout the state. The department shall
expand existing alternative payment programs and fund new alternative
payment programs to the extent that funds are provided by the
Legislature.
(b) Funding for the new programs pursuant to this section shall be
allocated to programs which meet all of the following requirements:
(1) Applicants shall conform to the requirements of this article.
(2) Applicants shall demonstrate that an alternative payment child
development program is an appropriate method of delivering child
care services within the county or service area at the level
requested in the application by doing either of the following:
(A) Demonstrating the availability of sufficient licensed or
exempt child care providers.
(B) Providing a plan for the development of sufficient licensed
child care providers working in cooperation with the local resource
and referral agency.
(3) Applicants shall demonstrate the administrative viability of
the alternative payment agency and its capacity to meet performance
requirements.
(4) Existing alternative payment child development programs
receiving funds for expansion into a new service area shall be funded
at a documented rate appropriate to that community and may contract
separately as appropriate.

8220.2. Alternative payment programs shall serve an identifiable
geographic area approved by the State Department of Education. The
service area may be delineated by jurisdictional city or county
boundaries, by natural geographic barriers, streets, roads, or zip
codes.
In the appropriation of expansion funds allocated in this section
and in Assembly Bill 55 of the 1985-86 Regular Session of the
Legislature, first priority shall be given to develop the alternative
payment programs in unserved areas of the state.
Second priority shall be given to expand current alternative
payment programs. The state department shall reserve funds to ensure
that at least 50 percent of the moneys allotted for the alternative
payment program in both Assembly Bill 55 of the 1985-86 Regular
Session of the Legislature and this section shall be used to fund
this second priority.

8220.5. To offer maximum support for parents and providers,
alternative payment programs shall have access to resource and
referral services. Funding shall be adequate to purchase care at the
fee charged the private client for the same service as well as to
provide locally designed support services for parents and providers.
In communities where there are no resource and referral agencies,
alternative payment programs shall provide the following support
services:
(a) Information for parents to assist them in making informed
choices.
(b) Professional and technical assistance and information for
providers.
(c) Parenting information.

8221. Alternative payments may be made for services provided in
licensed centers and family day care homes, for care provided in the
child's home, and for other types of care which conform to applicable
law.

8222. (a) Payments made by alternative payment programs shall not
exceed the applicable market rate ceiling. Alternative payment
programs may expend more than the standard reimbursement rate for a
particular child. However, the aggregate payments for services
purchased by the agency during the contract year shall not exceed the
assigned reimbursable amount as established by the contract for the
year. No agency may make payments in excess of the rate charged to
full-cost families. This section does not preclude alternative
payment programs from using the average daily enrollment adjustment
factor for children with exceptional needs as provided in Section
8265.5.
(b) Alternative payment programs shall reimburse licensed child
care providers in accordance with a biennial market rate survey
pursuant to Section 8447, at a rate not to exceed the ceilings
established pursuant to Section 8357.
(c) An alternative payment program shall reimburse a licensed
provider for child care of a subsidized child based on the rate
charged by the provider to nonsubsidized families, if any, for the
same services, or the rates established by the provider for
prospective nonsubsidized families. A licensed child care provider
shall submit to the alternative payment program a copy of the
provider's rate sheet listing the rates charged, and the provider's
discount or scholarship policies, if any, along with a statement
signed by the provider confirming that the rates charged for a
subsidized child are equal to or less than the rates charged for a
nonsubsidized child.
(d) An alternative payment program shall maintain a copy of the
rate sheet and the confirmation statement.
(e) A licensed child care provider shall submit to the local
resource and referral agency a copy of the provider's rate sheet
listing rates charged, and the provider's discount or scholarship
policies, if any, and shall self-certify that the information is
correct.
(f) Each licensed child care provider may alter rate levels for
subsidized children once per year and shall provide the alternative
payment program and resource and referral agency with the updated
information pursuant to subdivisions (c) and (e), to reflect any
changes.
(g) A licensed child care provider shall post in a prominent
location adjacent to the provider's license at the child care
facility the provider's rates and discounts or scholarship policies,
if any.
(h) An alternative payment program shall verify provider rates no
less frequently than once a year by randomly selecting 10 percent of
licensed child care providers serving subsidized families. The
purpose of this verification process is to confirm that rates
reported to the alternative payment programs reasonably correspond to
those reported to the resource and referral agency and the rates
actually charged to nonsubsidized families for equivalent levels of
services. It is the intent of the Legislature that the privacy of
nonsubsidized families shall be protected in implementing this
subdivision.
(i) The department shall develop regulations for addressing
discrepancies in the provider rate levels identified through the rate
verification process in subdivision (h).

8222.1. Out of funds appropriated in accordance with paragraph (2)
of subdivision (b) of Section 8278 for alternative payment programs,
the department shall reallocate funds as necessary to reimburse
alternative payment programs, excluding programs operating pursuant
to Article 15.5 (commencing with Section 8350), for actual and
allowable costs incurred for additional services. An alternative
payment program may apply for reimbursement of up to 3 percent of the
contract amount, or for a greater amount subject to the discretion
of the department based on the availability of funds. The department
shall approve or deny applications submitted pursuant to this
section, but shall not consider applications received after September
30 of the current calendar year. The department shall distribute
reimbursement funds for each approved application within 90 days of
receipt of the application if it was filed between May 1 and July 20,
inclusive, of the current calendar year. Applications received after
July 20 are not subject to the 90-day requirement for the
distribution of funds. If requests for reimbursement pursuant to this
section exceed available funds, the department shall assign priority
for reimbursement according to the order in which it receives
applications. Funds received by an alternative payment program
pursuant to this section that are not substantiated by the program's
annual audit shall be returned to the department.

8223. The reimbursement for alternative payment programs shall
include the cost of child care paid to child care providers plus the
administrative and support services costs of the alternative payment
program. The total cost for administration and support services shall
not exceed an amount equal to 17.5 percent of the total contract
amount. The administrative costs shall not exceed the costs allowable
for administration under federal requirements.

8224. The audits for such agencies shall include, but not be
limited to, a sampling of the evidence of fees charged to, and paid
by, families of non-subsidized children, the daily enrollment of
subsidized children, the number of days of service provided to
subsidized children, the assessment and collection of parent fees,
and the availability of support services to subsidized children and
their families as needed pursuant to the terms of the contract.

8225. When making referrals, every agency operating both a direct
service program and an alternative payment program shall provide at
least four referrals, at least one of which shall be a provider over
which the agency has no fiscal or operational control, as well as
information to a family on the family's ability to choose a license
exempt provider.

8226. (a) When making referrals, every program operating pursuant
to this article shall provide information to any person who requests
a child care referral of his or her right to view the licensing
information of a licensed child day care facility required to be
maintained at the facility pursuant to Section 1596.859 of the Health
and Safety Code and to access any public files pertaining to the
facility that are maintained by the State Department of Social
Services Community Care Licensing Division.
(b) A written or oral advisement in substantially the following
form will comply with the requirements of subdivision (a):
"State law requires licensed child day care facilities to make
accessible to the public a copy of any licensing report pertaining to
the facility that documents a facility visit or a substantiated
complaint investigation. In addition, a more complete file regarding
a child care licensee may be available at an office of the State
Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Division. You
have the right to access any public information in these files."
(c) Every program operating pursuant to this article shall, within
two days of receiving notice, remove from the program's referral
list the name of any licensed child day care facility with a
revocation or a temporary suspension order or that is on probation.
(d) A program operating pursuant to this article shall, within two
business days of being notified of a revocation or a temporary
suspension order for a licensed child day care facility, do both of
the following:
(1) Terminate payment to the facility.
(2) Notify each parent and the facility in writing that payment
has been terminated and the reason for the termination.
(e) A program operating pursuant to this article shall, upon being
notified that a licensed child day care facility has been placed on
probation, provide written notice to each parent utilizing the
facility that the facility has been placed on probation and that the
parent has the option of selecting a different child day care
provider or remaining with the facility without risk of subsidy
payments to the provider being terminated. The Legislature urges each
agency operating pursuant to this section to provide the written
notice required by this subdivision in the primary language of the
parent, to the extent feasible.

8227. (a) To the extent that funding is made available for this
purpose through the annual Budget Act, the alternative payment agency
in each county shall design, maintain, and administer a system to
consolidate local child care waiting lists so as to establish a
countywide centralized eligibility list. In those counties with more
than one alternative payment agency, the agency that also administers
the resource and referral program shall have the responsibility of
developing, maintaining, and administering the countywide centralized
eligibility list. In those counties with more than one alternative
payment agency and more than one resource and referral program, the
State Department of Education shall establish a process to select the
agency to develop, maintain, and administer the countywide
centralized eligibility list.
(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), in those counties in which a
countywide centralized eligibility list exists, as of the date that
the act adding this section is enacted, the entity administering that
list may receive funding, instead of the entity specified under
subdivision (a).
(c) Each centralized eligibility list shall include all of the
following:
(1) Family characteristics, including ZIP Code of residence, ZIP
Code of employment, monthly income, and size.
(2) Child characteristics, including birth date and whether the
child has special needs.
(3) Service characteristics, including reason for need, whether
full-time or part-time service is requested, and whether after hours
or weekend care is requested.
(d) Information collected for the centralized eligibility list
shall be reported to the Superintendent of Public Instruction on an
annual basis on the date and in the manner determined by the State
Department of Education.
(e) (1) To be eligible to enter into an agreement with the
department to provide subsidized child care, a contractor shall
participate in and use the centralized eligibility list.
(2) A contractor with a campus child care and development program
operating pursuant to Section 66060, migrant child care and
development program operating on a seasonal basis pursuant to Section
8230, or program serving severely handicapped children pursuant to
subdivision (d) of Section 8250 and who has a local site waiting list
shall submit eligibility list information to the centralized
eligibility list administrator for any parent seeking subsidized
child care for whom these programs are not able to provide child care
and development services. A child care and development contractor or
program described in this paragraph may utilize any waiting lists
developed at its local site to fill vacancies for its specific
population. Families enrolled from a local site waiting list shall be
enrolled pursuant to Section 8263.