SACRAMENTO – The California Assembly passed with unanimous support a bill by Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla (D-Concord) to allow for greater use of technology to streamline California’s early childhood development system.
Assembly Bill 274 seeks to increase efficiencies in the state’s child development system in order to allow providers to target scarce resources towards serving needy families instead of spending inordinate time towards filling out paperwork. The bill heads to the Governor’s desk for his consideration.
Currently, no statutes authorize the use of technology for child care and early education contractors. Instead, they are relegated to using outdated systems to comply with their contracts. For example, each month the State Controller’s Office mails thousands of checks to child care providers, rather than using direct deposit. This can result in delayed or lost payments.
“AB 274 would allow providers to be paid via direct deposit, a practice which is common among many state agencies,” said Bonilla. “It is time to bring our child development system into the 21st century, reduce government bureaucracy, and implement cost effective efficiencies for our providers.”
“Assemblywoman Bonilla is a wonderful champion for children and families,” said Kate Ertz-Berger, Executive Director, Contra Costa Child Care Council. “AB 274 will help us better and more efficiently serve the child care needs of families in Contra Costa County.”
The bill also simplifies attendance sheet requirements by allowing for monthly verification of care, instead of daily. And finally, AB 274 allows for the electronic storage of files. Current regulations require child care contractors to keep paper copies of family case files for five years. This results in hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on storage.
AB 274 was the result of hearings held by Bonilla with her Select Committee on High Quality Early Childhood Education and has broad support by early education providers and related organizations, including the California Alternative Payment Program Association, Northern Directors Group, Solano Family & Children’s Services, and Contra Costa Child Care Council.
Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla was first elected to the Assembly in November 2010, and represents California’s 14th Assembly District, which is comprised of the north and central portions of Contra Costa County and southern portion of Solano County.
1 comment
We really need to do more for our children and youth to keep them on the path to success. We don’t want to continue this downward spiral of youth that drop out of school and adopt the gangster criminal lifestyle. Spend less on prisoners, spend more on children.
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