10280.
(a) The department, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, shall implement a reimbursement system plan that establishes reasonable standards and assigned reimbursement rates, which vary with the length of the program year and the hours of service.(1) Parent fees shall be used to pay reasonable and necessary costs for providing additional services.
(2) When establishing standards and assigned reimbursement rates, the department and the State Department of Education shall confer with applicant agencies.
(3) The reimbursement system, including
standards and rates, shall be submitted to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.
(4) The department may establish any regulations deemed advisable concerning conditions of service and hours of enrollment for children in the programs.
(b) Commencing July 1, 2021, the standard reimbursement rate shall be twelve thousand eight hundred eighty-eight dollars ($12,888) and, commencing with the 2022–23 fiscal year, shall be increased by the cost-of-living adjustment granted by the Legislature annually pursuant to Section 42238.15 of the Education Code.
(c) (1) Commencing January 1, 2022, contractors who, as of December 31, 2021, received the standard reimbursement rate established in this section
shall be reimbursed at the greater of the following:
(A) The 75th percentile of the 2018 regional market rate survey.
(B) The contract per-child reimbursement amount as of December 31, 2021.
(2) In accordance with federal requirements for Child Care Stabilization Grants appropriated pursuant to the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2), contractors shall provide information via a one-time application or survey in advance of receiving American Rescue Plan Act funds. The department shall specify the timeline and format in which this information shall be submitted, and information shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
(A) Address,
including ZIP Code.
(B) Race and ethnicity.
(C) Gender.
(D) Whether the provider is open and available to provide childcare services or closed due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.
(E) What types of federal relief funds have been received from the state.
(F) Use of federal relief funds received.
(G) Documentation that the provider met certifications as required by federal law.
(3) Rate increases shall be subject to federal usage limitations and federal and
state program eligibility requirements.
(d) (1) The department, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, shall develop an alternative methodology for calculating subsidy payment rates for services provided under this part and California state preschool program services administered by the State Department of Education, in accordance with both of the following:
(A) The alternative methodology shall build on the recommendations of the working group established pursuant to Section 10280.2, and shall be aligned with the recommendations of the Joint Labor Management Committee established pursuant to Section 10280.2.
(B) The alternative methodology shall use a cost estimation model
that includes all of the following:
(i) Program models will meet the current statutory and regulatory requirements for each program.
(ii) Staff salaries and benefits.
(iii) Training and professional development.
(iv) Curricula and supplies.
(v) Group size and ratios.
(vi) Enrollment levels.
(vii) Facilities and other costs.
(viii) Family engagement.
(2) If
necessary, the department department, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, shall develop an interim transition plan to implement the alternative methodology by increasing the various rates from their current level to the alternative methodology level over time as funds are appropriated for these purposes in the annual Budget Act. Commencing in the 2027–28 fiscal year, the department shall fully implement the alternative methodology. methodology, no sooner than 30 days after notification in writing to the chairperson of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, or not sooner than whatever
lesser time the chairperson of the joint committee, or their designee, determines is appropriate.
(3) Any funding provided in the Budget Act of 2023 to increase reimbursement rates shall be distributed using the interim transition plan described in paragraph (2), if that plan has been developed, until the alternative methodology described in paragraph (1) is adopted.
(4) Funding and subsidy payments shall be based on enrollment of certified children with the contract rates set using the alternative methodology.
(5) The department
department, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, shall review and update the alternative methodology every three years.
(6) The department department, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, shall seek preapproval from the United States Department of Health and Human Services to amend the state’s current Child Care and Development Fund State Plan to change its current methodology for determining childcare and development and preschool subsidy payment rates to an alternative methodology, as described in this section.
(7) The application for preapproval in paragraph (6) shall be submitted no sooner than 30 days after notification in writing to the chairperson of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, or not sooner than whatever lesser time the chairperson of the joint committee, or their designee, determines is appropriate.
(e) This section shall become inoperative on the date the department notifies the Legislature in writing that the department has adopted the alternative methodology described in subdivision (d), and, as of January 1 of the following year, is repealed.