SECTIONS 8335-8335.7 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 8335-8335.7

8335. The City and County of San Francisco may, as a pilot project,
develop and implement an individualized county child care subsidy
plan. The plan shall ensure that child care subsidies received by the
city and county are used to address local needs, conditions, and
priorities of working families in the community.

8335.1. Prior to implementing the local subsidy plan, the City and
County of San Francisco, in consultation with the department, shall
develop an individualized county child care subsidy plan for the city
and county that includes the following four elements:
(a) An assessment to identify the city and county's goal for its
subsidized child care system. The assessment shall examine whether
the current structure of subsidized child care funding adequately
supports working families in the city and county and whether the city
and county's child care goals coincide with the state's requirements
for funding, eligibility, priority, and reimbursement. The
assessment shall also identify barriers in the state's child care
subsidy system that inhibit the city and county from meeting its
child care goals. In conducting the assessment, the city and county
shall consider all of the following:
(1) The general demographics of families who are in need of child
care, including employment, income, language, ethnic, and family
composition.
(2) The current supply of available subsidized child care.
(3) The level of need for various types of subsidized child care
services including, but not limited to, infant care, after-hours
care, and care for children with exceptional needs.
(4) The city and county's self-sufficiency income level.
(5) Income eligibility levels for subsidized child care.
(6) Family fees.
(7) The cost of providing child care.
(8) The regional market rates, as established by the department,
for different types of child care.
(9) The standard reimbursement rate or state per diem for centers
operating under contracts with the department.
(10) Trends in the county's unemployment rate and housing
affordability index.
(b) Development of a local policy to eliminate state-imposed
regulatory barriers to the city and county's achievement of its
desired outcomes for subsidized child care.
(1) The local policy shall do all of the following:
(A) Prioritize lowest income families first.
(B) Follow the family fee schedule established pursuant to
subdivision (f) of Section 8263 for those families that are income
eligible, as defined by Section 8263.1.
(C) Meet local goals that are consistent with the state's child
care goals.
(D) Identify existing policies that would be affected by the city
and county's child care subsidy plan.
(E) (i) Authorize any agency that provides child care and
development services in the city and county through a contract with
the department to apply to the department to amend existing contracts
in order to benefit from the local policy once it is adopted.
(ii) The department shall approve an application to amend an
existing contract if the child care subsidy plan is approved pursuant
to subdivision (b) of Section 8335.3, or modified pursuant to
subdivision (c) of Section 8335.3.
(iii) The contract of a department contractor who does not elect
to request an amendment to its contract remains operative and
enforceable.
(2) (A) The city and county shall, by the end of the first fiscal
year of operation under the approved child care subsidy plan,
demonstrate an increase in the aggregate child days of enrollment in
the county as compared to the enrollment in the final quarter of the
2004-05 fiscal year.
(B) The amount of the increase shall be at least equal to the
aggregate child days of enrollment in the final quarter of the
2004-05 fiscal year for all contracts amended as provided in
subparagraph (E) of paragraph (1), under which the contractor
receives an increase in its reimbursement rate, times 2 percent.
(3) The local policy may supersede state law concerning child care
subsidy programs with regard only to the following factors:
(A) Eligibility criteria including, but not limited to, age,
family size, time limits, income level, inclusion of former and
current CalWORKs participants, and special needs considerations,
except that the local policy may not deny or reduce eligibility of a
family that qualifies for child care pursuant to Section 8353. Under
the local policy, a family that qualifies for child care pursuant to
Section 8354 shall be treated for purposes of eligibility and fees in
the same manner as a family that qualifies for subsidized child care
on another basis pursuant to the local policy.
(B) Fees including, but not limited to, family fees, sliding scale
fees, and copayments for those families that are not income
eligible, as defined by Section 8263.1.
(C) Reimbursement rates.
(D) Methods of maximizing the efficient use of subsidy funds,
including, but not limited to, multiyear contracting with the
department for center-based child care, and interagency agreements
that allow for flexible and temporary transfer of funds among
agencies.
(c) Recognition that all funding sources utilized by direct
service contractors that provide child care and development services
in the city and county are eligible to be included in the child care
subsidy plan of the city and county.
(d) Establishment of measurable outcomes to evaluate the success
of the plan to achieve the city and county's child care goals and to
overcome any barriers identified in the state's child care subsidy
system. The State Department of Social Services shall have an
opportunity to review and comment on the proposed measurable outcomes
before they are submitted to the local child care planning council
for approval pursuant to Section 8335.3.

8335.2. To ensure that the annual and final reports required
pursuant to Section 8335.4 provide useful comparative information,
the Legislative Analyst and the Senate Office of Research shall
review the evaluation design, the baseline data, and the data
collection proposed in the child care subsidy plan of the City and
County of San Francisco before the plan is submitted to the local
planning council as defined in subdivision (g) of Section 8499, for
approval pursuant to Section 8335.3.

8335.3. (a) The plan shall be submitted to the local planning
council as defined in subdivision (g) of Section 8499, for approval.
Upon approval of the plan by the local planning council, the Board of
Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco shall hold at
least one public hearing on the plan. Following the hearing, if the
board of supervisors votes in favor of the plan, the plan shall be
submitted to the Child Development Division of the department for
review.
(b) Within 30 days of receiving the plan, the Child Development
Division shall review and either approve or disapprove the plan.
(c) Within 30 days of receiving any modification to the plan, the
Child Development Division shall review and either approve or
disapprove that modification to the plan.
(d) The Child Development Division may disapprove only those
portions of the plan or modifications to the plan that are not in
conformance with this article or that are in conflict with federal
law.

8335.4. (a) Upon approval of the plan by the Child Development
Division of the department, the City and County of San Francisco
shall annually prepare and submit to the Legislature, the State
Department of Social Services, and the department a report that
summarizes the success of the pilot project and the city and county's
ability to maximize the use of funds and to improve and stabilize
child care in the city and county.
(b) The City and County of San Francisco shall submit an interim
report to the Legislature, the State Department of Social Services,
and the department on or before December 31, 2010, and shall submit a
final report to those entities on or before June 30, 2013,
summarizing the impact of the plan on the child care needs of working
families in the city and county.

8335.5. The City and County of San Francisco may implement an
individualized child care subsidy plan until July 1, 2013, at which
date the city and county shall terminate the plan. Between July 1,
2013, and July 1, 2015, the city and county shall phase out the
individualized county child care subsidy plan and, as of July 1,
2015, shall implement the state's requirements for child care
subsidies. A child enrolling for the first time for subsidized child
care in the city and county after July 1, 2013, shall not be enrolled
in the pilot program established pursuant to this article and is
subject to existing state laws and regulations regarding child care
eligibility and priority.

8335.6. A participating contractor shall receive any increase or
decrease in funding that the contractor would have received if the
contractor had not participated in the local subsidy plan established
by this article.

8335.7. This article shall become inoperative on July 1, 2015, and
as of January 1, 2016, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that is enacted before January 1, 2016, deletes or extends the dates
on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.