This week, California Assembly and Senate floor sessions will convene on Tuesday and Thursday.    

Last week was the last day to introduce legislation for the 2017 year.  A total of 1687 AB bills and 808 SB bill were introduced.

Both the Assembly and the Senate have begun scheduling budget related hearings.  The first budget hearing has been scheduled for February 28. Click here  to see dates and topics relevant to our field.  Moving forward this link  will be updated as budget hearings are scheduled.  When available, the agenda too will be hosted.

 

Click here  to see all of the legislation that has been identified to be of interest to our field. On this page, CAPPA also will be noting legislative hearings of interest to our field.  To track and/or review legislation or to create your own tracking list,  click here.

Bills identified as of high interest to our field include:

AB 5 (Gonzalez) -  This bill would create the Opportunity to Work Act. The bill would require an employer with 10 or more employees to offer additional hours of work to an existing nonexempt employee before hiring an additional employee.

  AB 60 (Santiago & Gonzalez)  - This bill will establish a not less than 12 month re/eligibility determination process for child care and establishes  "ongoing income eligible" to mean that a family's adjusted monthly income is at or below 85 percent of the most recent state median income.

AB 227 (Mayes) - This bill would create the Educational Opportunity and Attainment Program that would provide education incentive grants to CalWORKs recipients to encourage and support low-income parents who reach certain educational goals and create additional work-study slots and support services for CalWORKs recipients pursuing their education.

AB 231 (Chavez) - This bill will define State Median Income and create a phase out process.

 AB 273 (Aguiar- Curry) - Child care services: eligibility.
AB 1106 (Weber) -  This bill will allow allocated monies to support working families with child care, to be distributed over a longer period of time.  Additionally, the proposal will allow active military personnel to not have their basic housing allowance considered as part of their income when they apply for a child care subsidy.  

Find the fact sheet here.

AB 1164 (Thurmond) -  Foster care placement: funding.

 

California Legislators Should Ensure that all Children are Cared for in Child Care and Preschool

Read the support letter here

A message from the Child Care Law Center:

Dear Friends,

Will your organization sign the letter, asking California legislators and the Governor to:

• Update income guidelines for families who receive child care assistance, so that children can stay in the child care they love as long as their parents need it.
• Increase the reimbursement rates paid to child care providers, as promised in last year's budget, so they can care for the children in their communities.

YES, our organization will sign on!

 

Thank you for taking action for California's kids!

 

The Child Care Law Center Team

The 2017-18 Budget: Proposition 98 Education Analysis

February 9, 2017

The LAO has released an analysis of the 2017-18 Bud

get:  Proposition 98 Education Analysis.

Beginning on page 35, is the topic of preschool.

Throughout this section, it discusses the pros and cons of the preschool models, and notes the challenges some state preschool providers report in earning their contracts.  Beginning on page 38, the LAO notes recommendations including to:

• Allow All Types of Providers to Apply for New Full-Day Slots
• Focus on Unserved Eligible Children Before Expanding Eligibility
• Reject (Governor's) Preschool Proposals, Pursue Alignment More Holistically
• Adopt Transitional Kindergarten/Kindergarten Flexibility in Tandem With Differential Rates

By the end of the month another report will be released by the LAO focused specifically on child care.  

Click  HERE  to read the entire report. 

Federal 

Visual Tools to Support Classroom Procedures, Rules, and Routines
Brittnee Walsh, Preschool Special Education Teacher, Glankler Early Learning Center
Early childhood classrooms are wonderful places for children to learn the social skills necessary for entry into kindergarten and later school success. Research indicates that the structure of the classroom environment, paired with planned instruction, supports the development of social emotional skills as well as prevents behavioral issues. During this webinar, we will address positive classroom management strategies using routines and schedules in the classroom by establishing, posting, and teaching rules and routines, organizing the environment to avoid behavior problems, using visual cues, including gestures, written labels, pictures, or objects, to assist children in understanding routines and managing time as needed.