On November 19, 2014, President Barack Obama signed S.1086, the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014, into law (CCDBG). The legislation passed both the House and Senate in the fall of 2014 with strong bipartisan support and was authored by Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Richard Burr (R-NC), Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Tom Harkin (D-IA). This is the first reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant in nearly 20 years. The original law, which was first passed in 1990, is a major source of federal funding and requirements for child care throughout the nation.
The work of implementing CCDBG law now moves to the states as they develop their new plans in alignment with the changed federal rules. California’s effort is led by the California Department of Education (CDE), who are currently in the process of taking public input into their plan. Some of the major issues to be addressed in the plan include:
- Increased health and safety requirements for providers including pre-service and ongoing training requirements, criminal background checks and annual visits to child care providers
- Transparent systems of consumer and provider education information, creating better web access for provider specific information and development of a national website linking families to their local child care resource and referral programs
- Family friendly eligibility policies which allow for 12 month eligibility and job search when parents lose employment
- Activities to improve child care quality including development and support for Quality Rating Improvement Systems, provider training and resource and referral services through an increase in the percent of funding used for quality services
You can have your voice heard in the development of the California plan.
Links below will provide you information about upcoming public hearings and information sessions as well as where to submit your written comments.
The draft plan is due to be submitted to the California Legislature and Governor in March of 2015 and the final plan must be submitted to the Administration of Children and Families Office of Child Care by July 1, 2015 for implementation in the 2015/16 Federal Fiscal Year.
Public Hearing and Input Session Information:
http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/ccdfstplnhear1618.asp
http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/ccdftopicalinput.asp
Links for More information about New Requirements and History of CCDBG:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/occ/summary_of_s1086.pdf
