Bill Text: CA AB2832 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Whole Child Community Equity.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Passed) 2022-09-28 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 699, Statutes of 2022. [AB2832 Detail]

Download: California-2021-AB2832-Introduced.html

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CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 2832

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Introduced by Assembly Members Robert Rivas, McCarty, and Wicks

February 18, 2022

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An act to add Chapter 34 (commencing with Section 10492) to Part 1.8 of Division 9 of, the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to childcare.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 2832, as introduced, Robert Rivas. Whole Child Community Equity.

Existing law, the Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State Department of Social Services, establishes a system of childcare and development services for children up to 13 years of age.

This bill would require the State Department of Social Services, in consultation with the Early Childhood Policy Council, to develop the Whole Child Equity Framework that specifies certain indicators that the department will use to end racial and economic inequity in childcare, and to develop the Whole Child Community Equity Screening Tool to collect community-level data for the Whole Child Equity Framework indicators and classifies communities based on higher or lower values for these indicators. The bill would, subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act for these purposes, require the department to provide new funding to target early childhood investments and whole child resources to help build infrastructure and strengthen local early childhood systems in the state’s highest needs communities, as identified by the equity screening tool. The bill would establish the Whole Child Community Equity Fund in the State Treasury, and would require the moneys in the fund to be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the above-described purposes.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Chapter 34 (commencing with Section 10492) is added to Part 1.8 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:

CHAPTER  34. Whole Child Community Equity

10492.

 This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the End Racial and Economic Inequities in Childcare in California Initiative.

10492.1.

 The Legislature finds and declares both of the following:

(a) The state will place racial equity and economic justice at the forefront as California strengthens and expands the early childhood system by developing a process to look beyond poverty and take a more nuanced look at community need.

(b) This equity approach will enable the state to identify communities that have multiple, compounding factors impacting children by establishing and using a whole child community equity screening tool that tracks whole child data in areas, including, but not limited to, education, health, community safety, economic well-being, and built environments.

10492.2.

 The State Department of Social Services, in consultation with the Early Childhood Policy Council, shall develop the Whole Child Equity Framework that specifies indicators that the department will use to end racial and economic inequity in childcare. These indicators shall include, but are not limited to, indicators of all of the following:

(a) Children between 0 to 8 years of age, inclusive.

(b) Learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(c) Access to early care and education, health and mental services, and other programs that support families and children.

(d) Racial inequities existing in education, health, community safety, economic well-being, and built environments.

(e) Racial inequities that have been exacerbated because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

10492.3.

 (a) The department, in consultation with the Early Childhood Policy Council, shall develop the Whole Child Community Equity Screening Tool to collect community-level data for the Whole Child Equity Framework indicators and classifies communities based on higher or lower values for these indicators.

(b) The department shall develop the screening tool using an existing index or set of indicators from existing indices, including, but not limited to, the Child Opportunity Index, California Healthy Places Index, Human Development Index, California Strong Start Index, COVID-19 Statewide Vulnerability and Recovery Index, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Social Vulnerability Index, as well as other whole child-centered data, to identify the highest needs communities across the state that have disparities that need to be addressed.

(c) On or before January 1, 2024, the department and the council shall engage counties, representatives from the local level, childcare resource and referral programs, local First 5’s, and other early care and education stakeholders through the quarterly council meetings to seek their input for the establishment of the Whole Child Community Equity Screening Tool.

10492.4.

 Subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act for these purposes, the department shall provide new funding to target early childhood investments and whole child resources to help build infrastructure and strengthen local early childhood systems in the state’s highest needs communities, as identified by the equity screening tool.

10492.5.

 (a) The Whole Child Community Equity Fund is hereby established in the State Treasury. The fund shall consist of state and federal funds, and the moneys in the fund shall be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes specified in this chapter.

(b) Funding provided under this chapter shall supplement, and not supplant, existing funds.