Last Week, the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network hosted a 2022 Legislative Briefing as part of their 2022 R&R Week in the Capitol. To view our very own Kerry Venegas - Executive Director of Changing Tides, Justin Blakely - Policy Analyst of Crystal Stairs Inc. and more, click the full video above, or visit the R&R webpage.

If you have a question that you would like answered, please submit here.

Question: Are Alternative Payment Programs (APPs) to provide a two-week notice to child care providers when there is a change in services?

Answer: No. According to WIC 10233.5 - (a) Commencing July 1, 2020, alternative payment programs shall provide notice to a child care provider of a change in reimbursement amounts for child care services, a change in the hours of care, rates, or schedules, an increase or decrease in parent fees, or a termination of services, including, but not limited to, a family’s change in provider. For purposes of this section, the notice shall occur either electronically, if requested by the child care provider, or via the United States Postal Service. The alternative payment program shall provide the notice, as well as the effective date of any change described above, on the same day a notice of action is issued to the family.

Question: Are family child care providers and centers to be reimbursed a set amount and not reimbursed based on attendance?

Answer: Yes. Currently, all child care is to be reimbursed based on the maximum certified hours of need of a family. Therefore any provider that accepts a subsidized child care voucher for payment for child care will be guaranteed a set amount. If the amount is more than the voucher, then the family may pay the difference.

However, this policy is set to expire on June 30, 2022. Governor Newsom has indicated that families with unstable work hours should be issued a lessor voucher that will only reimburse child care providers based on attendance.

During the pandemic, Governor Newsom touted this policy as integral to treating child care businesses as critical and central to supporting access for essential and other workers to quality care. However, now the governor is okay with letting this policy lapse and letting tens of thousands of California's poorest infants and children who are in stable child care settings being disenrolled from care to save money.

Question: Will I need to collect family fees again in July?

Answer: The family fee waiver is only in place until June 30, 2022. Family fees are scheduled to resume effective July 1, 2022. There is legislation, AB 92, being pursued to extend the family fee waiver until October 31, 2023, but its outcome is unknown.

Below are hearings if scheduled in addition to any deadlines to be aware. If you would like to provide input or testify at a hearing, please check if they allow for call in options. As more legislation is introduced, bills of interest will be profiled and hosted here

CAPPA Sponsored Bill Update: AB 1649 (Quirk-Silva) - Uniform Child Care Voucher

AB 1649 will be heard in Assembly Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, April 6 at 9:00AM. Click below or for more updates and the latest letters and information on AB 1649 find the following on CAPPA's Website:

AB 1649 by Assemblymember Quirk-Silva will provide to each income eligible subsidized family a child care voucher with a specified dollar amount based on the family's maximum certified need and to a child care provider that accepts the voucher a fixed reimbursement for care that they can count on.

If you would like to add on to the coalition letter, please click here to send your logo and your signature in support. If you would like to submit a letter directly to the committee, click here.

Assembly Bill 2052 (Quirk-Silva) would extend this exception to make a person who is less than 20 years of age eligible for CalWORKs assistance if the child is attending high school or vocational training on a full-time basis and is reasonably expected to complete the educational or training program before the child’s 20th birthday.

Assemblymember Sharon Quirk Silva has been a longtime champion for child care issues. She was first elected to serve California’s 65th Assembly District in 2012. In 2016, she regained her seat to serve the constituents of North Orange County. In 2018, the constituents re-elected her to serve the communities of Anaheim, Buena Park, Cypress, Fullerton, Garden Grove, La Palma, and Stanton. Prior to her service in the State Legislature, she served in local government as a member of the Fullerton City Council from 2004 to 2012, including serving two terms as Mayor.

>Click here to read her full biography.

NOTE: If there is a piece of legislation that you would like to highlight, to our distribution list of roughly 7,200 email CAPPA here.

To help support you with your scheduling to watch or listen in to budget hearings on child care, click here to go to CAPPA's Budget Page. You will see a number of highlighted CALENDAR LINKS for your to click on and add to your calendar. Agendas for the hearings too will be hosted on the budget page. All 2022-23 budget related documents will be hosted on CAPPA's Budget Page.

Hearings for this week below. For a listing of all upcoming budget with links to calendar details and agendas if available, click here.

With newly drawn districts, and retirements, and an ever changing legislature, there is a lot to keep up with this election year. You can view who is running for each Assembly, Senate, and Congressional seat in California via a crowdsourced tracker HERE.

To check your voter registration visit the Secretary of State's voter portal.

Keeping Up: America has cut poverty before — with political will, we can do it again

"On Monday, the government convened lawmakers and child advocates, launched a new website and released other resources for parents and caregivers eligible for an expanded child tax credit — a game-changing policy improvement that experts predict will lift almost half of America’s children above the poverty line. Economic relief is on the way to millions of families whose lives have been challenged by the pandemic, and it recalls another pivotal moment in our nation’s history."

> Read the full article here.

On Monday, President Biden released his FY2023 budget proposal. His proposed budget expands access to affordable, high-quality early child care and learning. The budget provides $20.2 billion for HHS’s early care and education programs, an increase of $3.3 billion, or 19 percent, from the 2021 enacted level:

The reconciliation update is similar to the one in last week’s memo. We are hopeful that the Senate will include the child care and early learning plan as part of an economic package before Memorial Day. It is critical that we keep pressure on the Senate to ensure child care and early learning are included in the economic package currently being crafted.

In response to the need to keep up momentum on child care and early learning at the federal level, Senators Warren (D-MA) and Smith (D-MN) and Congresswoman Clark (D-MA) have a sign-on letter for Members of Congress to President Biden underscoring the urgency - please contact your lawmakers and ask them to sign on. Thanks to First Five Years Fund for the sign-on tool.       

Please click here for a resource compilation on the child care and early learning provisions that may be included in the new version of the plan, based on the House-passed Build Back Better Act.    

As a reminder, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee released updated text of the Build Back Better Act. Please see this resource from the First Five Years Fund to see the line-by-line changes from the House version and their updated FAQs.

 Voter Support Data for Child Care Rivals Drug Pricing, Climate & Energy in Reconciliation 

As Congressional Democrats negotiate the contents of a budget reconciliation package, new polling shows that likely voters in seven Senate battleground states have a clear, two-pronged message for Congress: the legislation should lower the costs for families; and support for lowering the cost of child care rivals prescription drug prices and climate change for inclusion in this package.

A new factsheet from NWLC highlights the potential cost savings for women and families with strong public investment. Families are feeling the financial pinch from every direction. Some families have cut hours of paid work or been pushed out of the labor force due to a lack of affordable, available child care, reducing the income coming into their households. Meanwhile, the pandemic has wreaked havoc on supply chains, driving up prices for basic goods and services. Families’ kitchen table discussions center on the price of milk, but also larger household budget items that have been rising faster than inflation for decades, accelerated by the pandemic. Congress has an opportunity to address these trends and support working families with a fully paid-for set of economic investments. 

Much attention has been importantly focused on the climate provisions, which would cut families’ energy bills by $500 annually, constituting more than a third of a typical American household’s yearly energy bill. Similarly, the Medicare provisions under consideration would lower the annual costs of out-of-pocket prescription drugs for Part D enrollees by 38%, or $1,216.

We Can’t Afford Not to Fix Child Care 

The Center for American Progress’s Hailey Gibbs and Maureen Coffey report on the economic losses associated with child-care issues that continue to strain families and the economy. Gibbs and Coffey pinpoint federal investments as the only way to create lasting change in areas of access, affordability, and quality. “By targeting all sides of the market, a federal investment would (1) put families within the recommended 7% cap on costs, collectively saving millions of dollars each year; (2) create millions of jobs with adequate pay and additional training and credentialing, to ensure that centers are staffed by qualified educators and reducing turnover; and (3) create a unified system that promotes parents’ choices of care for their children.” 

The Coalition on Human Needs and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities are hosting a webinar, on April 6th from 2:30-3:30 ET. The webinar will cover President Biden’s proposed Fiscal Year 2023 budget and offer an opportunity to hear from policy experts who will explain the President's new budget and how it can be the blueprint for congressional action. You’ll learn about these proposals, and how to use them to get Congress to act on its once-in-a-generation opportunities to pass historic economic legislation that would lift millions out of poverty and reduce inequities that hold us back. The time to get the job done is now.

Register here. This webinar will be close-captioned. Even if you can’t attend, register and they’ll follow up with a captioned recording, slides, and other important resources from our presenters.

Child Care Aware of America will be hosting a webinar on Thursday, April 7th from 2:00 -3:30 pm ET on Revitalizing Family Child Care Through Networks and Opportunity. The webinar will be based in part on a resource compilation they’ve created: “Staffed Family Child Care Networks: A Compilation of Resources Promoting Connection and Opportunity.” 

This webinar is meant to highlight and encourage Staffed Family Child Care Networks as a viable and meaningful service delivery option to aid in the recruitment and retention of home-based providers. Register here. 

Child Care Aware of America shares why budget reconciliation is the only path for federal child care and early learning investments. Eligibility, affordability, workforce issues, and the drawbacks of regular order all point to the need for reconciliation. Mario Cardona stresses, “The ideas contained in the reconciliation proposal are not new. The framework is modeled off the Child Care for Working Families Act, legislation that has been introduced during each session of Congress since 2017. It has undergone revision and improvement, with input and support from stakeholders with an interest in early learning – including national advocacy organizations, community-based nonprofits, and those who work in K-12. At no point over those five years has there been a counter-proposal to provide a durable solution to the systemic challenges in our system of care. Without significant new, permanent investments in early care and education in this country, the challenges associated with the child care system will continue.” 

New research from Urban Institute experts uses insights from parents in Connecticut, Oklahoma, and the District of Columbia to inform policymakers on the child care needs of parents working nontraditional hours. Many parents recommended care in the child’s home by a relative or friend for most nontraditional hour periods. However, researchers find that child care policies across a range of areas do not adequately support the child care arrangements that the parents believed were best for their children during nontraditional hours. They suggest several policy changes, including that states make child care assistance more available for in-home care and care by relatives and friends, ensure the unique needs of children and providers during nontraditional hours are recognized in efforts to protect health and safety and support quality, and enhance information on state child care websites to include information on quality nontraditional-hour care.  

Read the policy brief or the full report to hear from parents who work nontraditional-hour schedules and explore strategies for policymakers looking to provide families with improved access to child care that meets their needs.  

In three corresponding fact sheets, researchers also outline the experiences of parents in Washington, DC, the area around New Haven, Connecticut, and southeastern Oklahoma.

Click here to find and contact your representative in congress.

On March 30th, The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Child Care and Development Division (CCDD) posted the following document on its Internet website: TCCB 22-08: Child Care Initiative Project (CCIP), Fiscal Year 2021-2022, One-time expansion funding via the American Rescue Act Plan (CCIP-ARPA, FY 21-23).

On March 28, 2022, The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Child Care and Development Division (CCDD) has recently posted the following document on its Internet website: CCB 22-06: Program Self-Evaluation for Fiscal Year 2021-22.

We are pleased to announce that the Spring 2022 Quarterly Updates have been published and are available on our website. Please share this information with anyone that you feel would benefit.

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) will host its next Child Care and Development Quarterly Stakeholder Call on Monday, Apr. 4th from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm. Please register for the event here. 

At our next quarterly update call, we will be joined by guest speakers from the California Early Child Mentorship Program (CECMP) and the Program for Infant and Quality Care (PITC) who will share exciting updates about their work. The CECMP was founded in 1988 to serve as a career development platform for child care and development professionals throughout California. The PITC was founded in 1985 to increase California’s supply and quality of infant and toddler care through trainings, educational resources and a network of regional trainers and coaches. 

[email protected] 

The California Department of Education (CDE) is pleased to announce the release of the Universal PreKindergarten (UPK) Countywide Planning and Capacity Template to support COEs in the development of their UPK plans. The template includes: (1) Planning questions for COE consideration in developing plans for how they will support LEAs in their county to plan and implement UPK in a way that meet community and family needs, and (2) Data that will be required for COE submission to the CDE to meet the requirements of EC Section 8281.5. This plan can be accessed at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/em/. 

CAPPA is committed to supporting our field with a coordinated calendar. Click here to see current calendar of events. If you have an event to add, email CAPPA and it will be added.

Del Norte Child Care Council offers a Wonder Bus and Toy Room, a FREE weekly event which includes arts & crafts, storytime, and much more! Their goal is to promote parent engagement and provide a space for children of any age to learn and be creative.  Thursdays from 9am-12pm are for the community and Fridays from 10am-11:30am are for FFN Providers.

Let us know what your organization is doing, we would love to feature you in the coming weeks!        

To help support the continuation of this resource and or advertise in the Monday Morning Update, click HERE.

You can also make a donation to CAPPA and CAPPA Children's Foundation HERE.

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Visit the CAPPA Member's Only website for more information on this webinar series and other benefits available to CAPPA Members.  

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CCB 21-17: Fiscal Year 2021-22 Child Care and Development Budget Act Amendments.

Contractor Connections – Upcoming Webinar Trainings 

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Child Care Coordinating Council, Inc. of San Mateo County

-Communications Coordinator

-Administrative Program Support II

First 5 Monterey County

-Outreach Project Coordinator

-Child Care Services Specialist (Provider Services)

-Child Care Services Specialist (Family Services)

-Child Care Service Specialist

YMCA Child Care Resource Service San Diego

-Administrative Assistant Subsidy Division

-Clerical Assistant II

-Family Services Specialist I

Solano Family and Children's Services

- Division Director of Accounting

-Case Manager (Afghan Placement Assistance and Reception & Placement)

-Case Aide

-Accounting Clerk

-Staff Attorney