Tis The Season of Joy & Peace

Season's Greetings! Thriving Families California continues to highlight events relative to the theme of giving back to our communities. Many California Legislators are either hosting toy drives, partnering with local food banks to collect and distribute food, or hosting community events for our unhoused community to provide resources that are not readily available to them. The list of events will be continuously updated as more events are shared and added, so please continue to refer back to it throughout this holiday season.

• Free turkeys, Thanksgiving groceries can be found at these Sacramento-area locations
• Food and Turkey Giveaways in District 33 (Senator Lena Gonzalez)
• Feeding San Diego hosts several holiday food distribution events
• Food Banks and Resources in Lassen County
• Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services
• River City Food Bank
• Central California Food Bank
• Yuba Sutter Food Bank

If there are events you think should be added to this list, please reach out to TFC staff.

If you or someone you know needs a little extra help this holiday season, TFC staff are here to help you find the resources you may need.

California State Budget, Legislature & The Capitol

STATEWIDE ADVOCACY DAY: On January 22nd, Thriving Families California will join fellow advocates and partners from across California at the State Capitol in Sacramento to champion programs that lift up the needs of families and children. Mark your calendar and email mckenzie@thrivingfamilies-ca.org if you would like to get involved in the planning process with partners. Registration is coming soon!

ECONOMIC BLUEPRINT: Last week, Governor Newsom unveiled the framework for the new California Jobs First Economic Blueprint which will establish a strategy for creating more jobs, faster, while fostering regional economic development.

The complete Economic Blueprint will be released early next year with $120 million over 3 years to create job-creating projects aligned to state priority sectors.

GENDER EQUITY SUMMIT: California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom hosted a Gender Equity Summit focused on women's health and safety in collaboration with the California Partners Project. This is the second annual event after the event was first hosted in 2023. Last year's event focused on women's wealth, power, and opportunity.

NEXT 2-YR SESSION: The California State Legislature is in final recess until next Monday, December 2, 2024. At that time, those newly & re-elected and returning legislators will convene for a new two-year legislative session, including the new extraordinary session called by Governor Newsom.

The 2025-26 Budget: Fiscal Outlook for Schools and Community Colleges

Last week, the Legislative Analyst Office released a brief detailing the "minimum guarantee" for school and community college funding based on Prop 98.

In their outlook, the LAO finds that the guarantee in 2025-26 is $1.5 billion, or 1.3%, above the 2024-25 budget level. Additionally, $3.7 billion is freed up this year with the expiration of one-time costs and formula-driven adjustments.

The above figure is from the Executive Summary on page 3 of the report.

November 5th General Election Results So Far

County election officials have until Dec. 5 to process and count ballots. The Secretary of State will certify the results of the election on Dec. 13. After 16 days, the Secretary of State's office states California only has 315,000 votes left to count. Click here to see current election results for all races.

PRESIDENTIAL: This KQED article reports that California largely shifted to the right in the 2024 election. A KCRA3 article shows California election maps that depict counties that flipped to red in 2024.

CONGRESS PROGRESS: As of last Friday, 3 House of Representative seats were still uncalled by the Associated Press. 2 of those races are California districts 13 and 45, and the other race is Iowa's District 1. Below are the updates for the two California districts:

• District 13 (Merced) - Rep. John Duarte (R) narrowly leads against Adam Gray (D) with 50.1% percent of the vote. As of last Wednesday, Duarte led Gray by 227 votes out of 203,000+ cast. Around 5,000 votes remain to be counted.
• 50-50 District 45 (Garden Grove): Derek Tran (D) narrowly leads against Rep. Michelle Steel (R) with 50.1% of the vote. As of last Friday, Tran led Steel by 480 votes out of 300,000+ cast. Several thousand votes remain to be counted.

Below are the winners called by the Associated Press for the closest congressional races in California:

• District 9 (Stockton) - Rep. Josh Harder (D) wins the seat against Kevin Lincoln (R) with 51.9% percent of the vote.
• District 21 (Fresno) - Rep. Jim Costa (D) wins the seat against Michael Maher (R) with 51.4% percent of the vote.
• UPSET: District 27 (Santa Clarita) - George Whitesides (D) unseats incumbent Rep. Mike Garcia (R) with 51.3% of the vote.
• OPEN SEAT District 47 (Irvine) - State Senator David Min (D) wins seat against Scott Baugh (R) with 51.3% of the vote. This was the only open seat in the most competitive California races. Katie Porter (D) represented the district before running for the U.S. Senate.

STATE LEGISLATURE PROGRESS:

TFC will provide updates each week of interesting election results, particularly upsets and results of the 36 open seats.

State Senate -

• OPEN SEAT District 7 (Oakland): Jesse Arreguin (D) is leading with 57.2% of the vote over competitor Jovanka Beckles (D). If elected, he will replace Senator Nancy Skinner who termed out.
• OPEN SEAT District 23 (Saugus): Suzette Martinez Valladares (R) won against Kipp Mueller (D). She will replace Senator Scott Wilk who termed out.
• HUGE UPSET District 37 (Fullerton): Former Assemblyman Dr. Steven Choi (R) won against incumbent Senator Josh Newman (D). This is the first time in 44 years that a Republican flipped a State Senate seat against an incumbent Democrat. Read Politico's coverage of the election results and how a labor union spent millions on a campaign to unseat Newman here.

State Assembly -

• UPSET District 32 (Bakersfield): Rep. Vince Fong (R) "won" his Assembly race against city councilmember Ken Weir (R), who Fong endorsed, despite the fact that he left his position as Assemblyman to make a successful run for Congress. The district will now have to run a special election to fill the seat that Fong will be vacating. To prevent this from happening again, Governor Newsom signed AB 1784 earlier this fall to prevent a candidate from appearing on the same ballot for simultaneous races.

BALLOT PROPOSITIONS PROGRESS:

• Prop 2 (Education bonds): PASSED 57.8%
• Prop 3 (Same-sex marriage): PASSED 62.1%
• Prop 4 (Climate bonds): PASSED 58.9%
• Prop 5 (Lowers votes to approve bonds): FAILED 55.5%
• Prop 6 (Prohibits slavery & involuntary servitude): FAILED 53.5%
• Prop 32 (Raises minimum wage): Currently failing 51.1%
• Prop 33 (Repeals ban on local rent controls): FAILED 60.5%
• Prop 34 (Regulates spending by certain health care entities): PASSED 50.8%
• Prop 35 (Extends tax on managed health care plans): PASSED 67.3%
• Prop 36 (Increases penalties for certain theft and drug crimes): PASSED 70.2%

Important Dates, Deadlines,

Hearings, and Bills

Dates & Deadlines:

• December 2 - Convening of the 2025–26 Regular Session at 12 p.m. noon, swearing in ceremony of new legislators
• December 23-25 - Winter Holiday
• January 1, 2025 - Statutes take effect

Legislative Resources:

• See the full 2024-25 Legislative Calendar here.
• Visit TFC's legislation page to find a comprehensive list of bills of interest.
• Visit TFC's Budget Page for full budget bill details, as well as budget hearing video archive links.
• Visit TFC's dedicated page to find a full list of Senate and Assembly Committee chairs and contact information.
• Click here to view all the bills that the Assembly and Senate introduced this legislative year.

Did you know?

Child Care Q&A's

NOTE: If you have a question you would like answered or researched, please email.

Question: What are the eligibility requirements for a child care provider to receive the final American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) stipend authorized by Assembly Bill 179 and Assembly Bill 110?

Answer: The same eligibility rules apply to this final stipend that applied to the $1442, $440, and $275 stipends. To receive this stipend:  

• Child care providers must have already completed the ARPA survey 
• Licensed child care providers must be open or temporarily closed   
• License-exempt, family, friend and neighbor child care providers must be currently providing subsidized care   
• Child care providers must have cared for a child enrolled in one of the below programs in April 2022:  
• CalWORKs Stages One, Two (C2AP), and Three (C3AP)   
• California Alternative Payment Program (CAPP)   
• California Migrant Alternative Payment Program (CMAP)   
• Migrant Child Development Programs (CMIG)   
• General Child Care and Development Programs (CCTR)   
• Family Child Care Home Education Networks (CFCC)   
• Child Care and Development Services for Children with Special Needs (CHAN)  
• Emergency Child Care Bridge Program for Foster Children (Bridge Program) 

Thriving Families CA Events

On November 13th and 14th, Thriving Families CA and The R&R Network hosted the virtual portion of our joint conference this year, and it was a huge success! On behalf of the Network and TFC, we want to thank you for attending the 12th Annual Joint Conference (and the 5th Annual VIRTUAL Joint Conference).

For those who attended the virtual conference, don't forget that you have access to the workshops until December 14, 2024! Use the same link and log-in information.

We'd like to thank our amazing sponsors for all of your help and support. To our workshop leaders and speakers, thank you for taking the time to create informative and impactful sessions for our attendees. And finally, to our attendees, thank you for returning and supporting yet another successful conference. We look forward to having you again next year!

Last but not least, TFC would like to extend our gratitude to The Network and its staff for all of your hard work and help in facilitating our joint conference.

Federal Update

We're shortening this section! Click here to read the most recent weekly federal update from the National Women's Law Center.

1. Federal Update & Take Action

This week, President Biden released a Letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Requesting for Additional Funding for Disaster Relief | The White House. While the request includes meaningful funding for Head Start programs, it lacks a dedicated request for CCDBG funding. Yet, as the letter linked below highlights, the CCDBG program is the most effective mechanism for delivering emergency funding to child care providers, as demonstrated during the implementation of the American Rescue Plan Act. Distributing these funds through a program other than CCDBG could lead to a disruptive delay in delivering a critical need.

In partnership with 165 state and national organizations, NWLC is urging congressional leaders to include at least $100 million for child care in the upcoming disaster relief package. We released the letter on Wednesday (11/20) but are encouraging organizations to continue to sign on to demonstrate this effort's broad and growing support.

Please sign:

• Read the letter and see current signers here. We’re currently at 187 signers as of 11/22/24.
• Sign the letter here.

Calls to Action

• Please urge your Members of Congress to prioritize maintaining the Senate increases as they negotiate annual spending bills. Funding to address our country's child care crisis is more urgent now than ever before.
• Demand Congress pass a comprehensive disaster funding package (CHN)
• Please urge your Members of Congress to support the $16 billion proposal supported by President Biden and many congressional Democrats.
• Tell your federal policymakers to fight for funding for child care (NWLC)
• All polling, reports, and research on child care from approx. the last two years collected in one place (Child Care for Every Family Network)
• Messaging Guide for Child Care (c3 version) (c4 version) (Child Care for Every Family Network)
• CACFP Federal Advocacy Toolkit 2024 
• If you have questions, please contact: Becky Levin, AFSCME blevin@afscme.org; Samantha Marshall, CACFP Roundtable samantha@ccfproundtable.org; or Mary Beth Testa, Home Grown marybeth@mbstsolutions.com
• CHN budget and tax toolkit for local groups (2024) (Coalition on Human Needs)

2. Hurricane and Natural Disaster Resources

• General Resources
• Resources for Children

3. Explainer - House Republican Bills Deeply Cut Programs That Help Low-Income People and Underserved Communities

Read the explainer here | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

4.Explainer - How Does Budget Reconciliation Work?

Read the explainer here | Center for American Progress

5.Updated - National Database of Childcare Prices

The NDCP database is downloadable on the WB website and includes a blog post, two interactive maps that show childcare prices and childcare prices as a share of family income at the county level, and county-level factsheets. The new county-level factsheets allow you to compare childcare prices and socioeconomic indicators across multiple counties within a state. 

6.Brief - Understanding Obstacles to Foreign Qualification Recognition for Key U.S. Early Childhood Education and Care Positions

Read the brief here

7.Webinar (12/5) - Showing Up With Courage To Face Racial & Gender Disparities in Our Field

Dec 5, 2024 : 4pm ET | 3pm CT | 2pm MT | 1pm PT/MT

Click here to register

8.Blog - The Harsh Reality of Parenting Student Homelessness

Read the blog here | New America

Most Viewed Bills of the Week:

1.H.R.82 [118th] Social Security Fairness Act of 2023

2.H.R.9495 [118th] Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act

3.S.597 [118th] Social Security Fairness Act

4.S.4912 [118th] BITCOIN Act of 2024

5.S.4973 [118th] No Kings Act

6.S.4361 [118th] Border Act of 2024

7.H.R.5342 [118th] Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act of 2023

8.S.596 [117th] Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2021

9.H.R.3967 [117th] Honoring our PACT Act of 2022

10.H.R.5074 [118th] Kidney PATIENT Act of 2023

Social Media Spotlight

Follow TFC on Instagram and LinkedIn!

Since our rebranding to Thriving Families California, we've created a new Instagram account and a LinkedIn page! Give us a follow to stay up-to-date with important updates from TFC. And tag us in posts and photos!

Click here for our Instagram

@thrivingfamiliescalifornia

Click here for our LinkedIn Page

"Thriving Families California"

You can also click the icons below to be redirected to our corresponding social media account!

Field Highlights

CDSS & CDE Information & Updates

Upcoming Meetings & Webinars

Guardian Training Webinar for Licensees and Providers

PIN 24-15-CCLD: GUARDIAN TRAINING WEBINAR FOR LICENSEES AND PROVIDERS

The Community Care Licensing Division’s (CCLD) Care Provider Management Branch (CPMB) is pleased to announce a webinar! This webinar is designed to provide helpful information and training to guide you through more advanced topics when utilizing the Guardian system for the background check process. Please be sure to mark your calendars for this important training opportunity.

This webinar includes the following topics:

• Starting a Background Check
• Fingerprint Journey
• At-a-Glance Dashboard
• Question and Answer session

A PDF of the PowerPoint is available on our website: Guardian Advanced Webinar.

The webinar will take place on December 11, 2024, from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) via Zoom.

Click here to join the webinar.

Information & Updates

CDMIS Update: Transition to Reporting California Department of Social Service Contracts in CDSS – CDMIS

Attention: Program Directors, Executive Directors, Active CDMIS Users, and Software Vendors

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) would like to inform you of a revised timeline for the availability of the new CDSS – CDMIS system.

CDSS – CDMIS is now expected to be available on Tuesday, November 19, 2024, rather than the previously reported date in Child Care Bulletin 24-18. CDSS, in partnership with CDE, is working tirelessly to ensure that all data is accurate and reliable before we go live. We understand that this adjustment may cause some inconvenience, and we appreciate your patience. CDSS will continue testing the new system’s functionality and data accuracy to ensure a smooth transition. Should this date change, all Directors, users, and software vendors will be promptly notified.

Please note that the reporting periods submitted to CDSS – CDMIS remain unchanged; however, the system will not be accessible from November 1 through November 18, 2024, while we complete the data migration. October 31, 2024, is the last day agencies contracted with CDSS will be able to access the California Department of Education's (CDE’s) CDMIS, unless you hold a CSPP contract. A link to access the new CDSS system will be provided to all Active CDMIS Users, and Executive and Program Directors via the CDSS Listserv, on the specified Go-Live date.

Note: This update does not affect the availability or due dates for CDE’s CDMIS or CAPSDAC systems.  

RELEASED October 30, 2024: Child Care Bulletin (CCB) 24-25: PROCESS TO ASSIGN RELINQUISHED FUNDS TO CHILD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT CONTRACTORS

This Child Care Bulletin provides guidance for Child Care and Development contractors on the process the Child Care and Development Division (CCDD) will use to reassign relinquished funds to a permanent contractor. 

RELEASED October 22, 2024: Child Care Bulletin (CCB) 24-24: ALTERNATIVE PAYMENT PROGRAM ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT ALLOCATION

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Child Care and Development Division (CCDD) has recently posted the following document on its Internet website: Child Care Bulletin (CCB) (CCB) 24-24:

The purpose of this Child Care Bulletin is to provide information to child care and development contractors regarding administrative allocations appropriated in Assembly Bill (AB) 104 to support SB 140 (Chapter 193, Statutes of 2023) implementations.

Happening This Week, November 25 - November 29, 2024:

Tuesday, November 26th:

• TFC Weekly Member Connections Meeting @ 1:00pm. Email to register.

Thursday, November 28th:

• Thanksgiving

Thriving Families California 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 us and it will be added.

The Weekly Good

An uplifting way to start the week, for those of us who need a break from the chaos that is our lives.

During this time where we are all stressed, it would be great to celebrate the positive. Each week we will celebrate everyday heroes, inspiring movements and great things happening in our field.