Article 3. Alternative Payment Programs of California Education Code >> Division 1. >> Title 1. >> Part 6. >> Chapter 2. >> Article 3.

Upon the approval of the State Department of Education, funds appropriated for the purposes of this chapter may be used for alternative payment programs to allow for maximum parental choice. Various methods of reimbursement for parental costs for child care may be utilized. All payment arrangements shall conform to the eligibility criteria and the parent fee schedule established pursuant to Sections 8263 and 8265. To provide for maximum parental choice, alternative payment programs may include the following:
  (a) A subsidy that follows the family from one provider to another within a given alternative payment program.
  (b) Choices, whenever possible, among hours of service including before and after school, evenings, weekends, and split shifts.
  (c) Child care and development services according to parental choice, including use of family day care homes, general center based programs, and other state-funded programs to the extent that those programs exist in the general service area and are in conformity with the purposes and applicable laws for which those programs were established, but excluding state preschool programs.

(a) The State Department of Education shall contract with local contracting agencies for alternative payment programs so that services will be provided throughout the state. The department shall expand existing alternative payment programs and fund new alternative payment programs to the extent that funds are provided by the Legislature.
  (b) Funding for the new programs pursuant to this section shall be allocated to programs which meet all of the following requirements:
  (1) Applicants shall conform to the requirements of this article.
  (2) Applicants shall demonstrate that an alternative payment child development program is an appropriate method of delivering child care services within the county or service area at the level requested in the application by doing either of the following:
  (A) Demonstrating the availability of sufficient licensed or exempt child care providers.
  (B) Providing a plan for the development of sufficient licensed child care providers working in cooperation with the local resource and referral agency.
  (3) Applicants shall demonstrate the administrative viability of the alternative payment agency and its capacity to meet performance requirements.
  (4) Existing alternative payment child development programs receiving funds for expansion into a new service area shall be funded at a documented rate appropriate to that community and may contract separately as appropriate.

Alternative payment programs shall serve an identifiable geographic area approved by the State Department of Education. The service area may be delineated by jurisdictional city or county boundaries, by natural geographic barriers, streets, roads, or zip codes. In the appropriation of expansion funds allocated in this section and in Assembly Bill 55 of the 1985-86 Regular Session of the Legislature, first priority shall be given to develop the alternative payment programs in unserved areas of the state. Second priority shall be given to expand current alternative payment programs. The state department shall reserve funds to ensure that at least 50 percent of the moneys allotted for the alternative payment program in both Assembly Bill 55 of the 1985-86 Regular Session of the Legislature and this section shall be used to fund this second priority.

To offer maximum support for parents and providers, alternative payment programs shall have access to resource and referral services. Funding shall be adequate to purchase care at the fee charged the private client for the same service as well as to provide locally designed support services for parents and providers. In communities where there are no resource and referral agencies, alternative payment programs shall provide the following support services:
  (a) Information for parents to assist them in making informed choices.
  (b) Professional and technical assistance and information for providers.
  (c) Parenting information.

Alternative payments may be made for services provided in licensed centers and family day care homes, for care provided in the child's home, and for other types of care which conform to applicable law.

(a) Child care providers authorized to provide services pursuant to this article shall submit to the alternative payment program a monthly attendance record or invoice for each child who received services that, at a minimum, documents the dates and actual times care was provided each day, including the time the child entered and the time the child left care each day. The information shall be documented on a daily basis.
  (b) The monthly attendance record or invoice shall, at a minimum, be signed by the parent or guardian of the child receiving services and the child care provider once per month to attest that the child's attendance is accurately reflected. The verification of attendance shall be made by signature at the end of each month of care and under penalty of perjury by both the parent or guardian of the child receiving services and the child care provider.
  (c) The monthly attendance record or invoice shall be maintained by the child care provider in the unaltered original format in which it was created, which may be in paper form or electronic format.
  (d) The alternative payment program shall accept the monthly attendance record or invoice as documentation of the hours of care provided if the attendance record or invoice includes adequate information documented on a daily basis, including, at a minimum, the dates and actual times care was provided each day, including the time the child entered and the time the child left care each day. The alternative payment program shall reimburse child care providers based upon the following criteria:
  (1) The hours of service provided that are broadly consistent with certified hours of need.
  (2) For families with variable schedules, the actual days and hours of attendance, up to the maximum certified hours.
  (3) For license-exempt providers that provide part-time services, the actual days and hours of attendance, up to the maximum certified hours.
  (e) For purposes of reimbursement to providers through an alternative payment program, contractors shall not be required to track absences.
  (f) For purposes of this section, a monthly attendance record or invoice is defined as documentation that includes, at a minimum, the name of the child receiving services, the dates and actual times care was provided each day, including the time the child entered and the time the child left care each day, that is signed under penalty of perjury by both the parent or guardian and the child care provider, attesting that the information provided is accurate.
  (g) This section shall become operative on July 1, 2014.

(a) Payments made by alternative payment programs shall not exceed the applicable market rate ceiling. Alternative payment programs may expend more than the standard reimbursement rate for a particular child. However, the aggregate payments for services purchased by the agency during the contract year shall not exceed the assigned reimbursable amount as established by the contract for the year. No agency may make payments in excess of the rate charged to full-cost families. This section does not preclude alternative payment programs from using the average daily enrollment adjustment factor for children with exceptional needs as provided in Section 8265.5.
  (b) Alternative payment programs shall reimburse licensed child care providers in accordance with a biennial market rate survey pursuant to Section 8447, at a rate not to exceed the ceilings established pursuant to Section 8357.
  (c) An alternative payment program shall reimburse a licensed provider for child care of a subsidized child based on the rate charged by the provider to nonsubsidized families, if any, for the same services, or the rates established by the provider for prospective nonsubsidized families. A licensed child care provider shall submit to the alternative payment program a copy of the provider's rate sheet listing the rates charged, and the provider's discount or scholarship policies, if any, along with a statement signed by the provider confirming that the rates charged for a subsidized child are equal to or less than the rates charged for a nonsubsidized child.
  (d) An alternative payment program shall maintain a copy of the rate sheet and the confirmation statement.
  (e) A licensed child care provider shall submit to the local resource and referral agency a copy of the provider's rate sheet listing rates charged, and the provider's discount or scholarship policies, if any, and shall self-certify that the information is correct.
  (f) Each licensed child care provider may alter rate levels for subsidized children once per year and shall provide the alternative payment program and resource and referral agency with the updated information pursuant to subdivisions (c) and (e), to reflect any changes.
  (g) A licensed child care provider shall post in a prominent location adjacent to the provider's license at the child care facility the provider's rates and discounts or scholarship policies, if any.
  (h) An alternative payment program shall verify provider rates no less frequently than once a year by randomly selecting 10 percent of licensed child care providers serving subsidized families. The purpose of this verification process is to confirm that rates reported to the alternative payment programs reasonably correspond to those reported to the resource and referral agency and the rates actually charged to nonsubsidized families for equivalent levels of services. It is the intent of the Legislature that the privacy of nonsubsidized families shall be protected in implementing this subdivision.
  (i) The department shall develop regulations for addressing discrepancies in the provider rate levels identified through the rate verification process in subdivision (h).

Out of funds appropriated in accordance with paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 8278 for alternative payment programs, the department shall reallocate funds as necessary to reimburse alternative payment programs, excluding programs operating pursuant to Article 15.5 (commencing with Section 8350), for actual and allowable costs incurred for additional services. An alternative payment program may apply for reimbursement of up to 3 percent of the contract amount, or for a greater amount subject to the discretion of the department based on the availability of funds. The department shall approve or deny applications submitted pursuant to this section, but shall not consider applications received after September 30 of the current calendar year. The department shall distribute reimbursement funds for each approved application within 90 days of receipt of the application if it was filed between May 1 and July 20, inclusive, of the current calendar year. Applications received after July 20 are not subject to the 90-day requirement for the distribution of funds. If requests for reimbursement pursuant to this section exceed available funds, the department shall assign priority for reimbursement according to the order in which it receives applications. Funds received by an alternative payment program pursuant to this section that are not substantiated by the program's annual audit shall be returned to the department.

The reimbursement for alternative payment programs shall include the cost of child care paid to child care providers plus the administrative and support services costs of the alternative payment program. The total cost for administration and support services shall not exceed an amount equal to 17.5 percent of the total contract amount. The administrative costs shall not exceed the costs allowable for administration under federal requirements.

The audits for such agencies shall include, but not be limited to, a sampling of the evidence of fees charged to, and paid by, families of non-subsidized children, the daily enrollment of subsidized children, the number of days of service provided to subsidized children, the assessment and collection of parent fees, and the availability of support services to subsidized children and their families as needed pursuant to the terms of the contract.

When making referrals, every agency operating both a direct service program and an alternative payment program shall provide at least four referrals, at least one of which shall be a provider over which the agency has no fiscal or operational control, as well as information to a family on the family's ability to choose a license exempt provider.

(a) When making referrals, every program operating pursuant to this article shall provide information to any person who requests a child care referral of his or her right to view the licensing information of a licensed child day care facility required to be maintained at the facility pursuant to Section 1596.859 of the Health and Safety Code and to access any public files pertaining to the facility that are maintained by the State Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Division.
  (b) A written or oral advisement in substantially the following form will comply with the requirements of subdivision (a): "State law requires licensed child day care facilities to make accessible to the public a copy of any licensing report pertaining to the facility that documents a facility visit or a substantiated complaint investigation. In addition, a more complete file regarding a child care licensee may be available at an office of the State Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Division. You have the right to access any public information in these files."
  (c) Every program operating pursuant to this article shall, within two days of receiving notice, remove from the program's referral list the name of any licensed child day care facility with a revocation or a temporary suspension order or that is on probation.
  (d) A program operating pursuant to this article shall, within two business days of being notified of a revocation or a temporary suspension order for a licensed child day care facility, do both of the following:
  (1) Terminate payment to the facility.
  (2) Notify each parent and the facility in writing that payment has been terminated and the reason for the termination.
  (e) A program operating pursuant to this article shall, upon being notified that a licensed child day care facility has been placed on probation, provide written notice to each parent utilizing the facility that the facility has been placed on probation and that the parent has the option of selecting a different child day care provider or remaining with the facility without risk of subsidy payments to the provider being terminated. The Legislature urges each agency operating pursuant to this section to provide the written notice required by this subdivision in the primary language of the parent, to the extent feasible.

(a) To the extent that funding is made available for this purpose through the annual Budget Act, the alternative payment agency in each county shall design, maintain, and administer a system to consolidate local child care waiting lists so as to establish a countywide centralized eligibility list. In those counties with more than one alternative payment agency, the agency that also administers the resource and referral program shall have the responsibility of developing, maintaining, and administering the countywide centralized eligibility list. In those counties with more than one alternative payment agency and more than one resource and referral program, the State Department of Education shall establish a process to select the agency to develop, maintain, and administer the countywide centralized eligibility list.
  (b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), in those counties in which a countywide centralized eligibility list exists, as of the date that the act adding this section is enacted, the entity administering that list may receive funding, instead of the entity specified under subdivision (a).
  (c) Each centralized eligibility list shall include all of the following:
  (1) Family characteristics, including ZIP Code of residence, ZIP Code of employment, monthly income, and size.
  (2) Child characteristics, including birth date and whether the child has special needs.
  (3) Service characteristics, including reason for need, whether full-time or part-time service is requested, and whether after hours or weekend care is requested.
  (d) Information collected for the centralized eligibility list shall be reported to the Superintendent of Public Instruction on an annual basis on the date and in the manner determined by the State Department of Education.
  (e) (1) To be eligible to enter into an agreement with the department to provide subsidized child care, a contractor shall participate in and use the centralized eligibility list.
  (2) A contractor with a campus child care and development program operating pursuant to Section 66060, migrant child care and development program operating on a seasonal basis pursuant to Section 8230, or program serving severely handicapped children pursuant to subdivision (d) of Section 8250 and who has a local site waiting list shall submit eligibility list information to the centralized eligibility list administrator for any parent seeking subsidized child care for whom these programs are not able to provide child care and development services. A child care and development contractor or program described in this paragraph may utilize any waiting lists developed at its local site to fill vacancies for its specific population. Families enrolled from a local site waiting list shall be enrolled pursuant to Section 8263.

(a) Alternative payment programs and providers operating or providing services pursuant to this article may maintain records electronically, in compliance with state and federal standards, as determined by the department. Any conversion from a paper record to an electronic format, as well as the storage of the electronic record, shall comply with the minimum standards described in Section 12168.7 of the Government Code and the standards for trustworthy electronic document or record preservation described in Chapter 15 (commencing with Section 22620.1) of Division 7 of Title 2 of the California Code of Regulations.
  (b) Pursuant to Section 33421, the records shall be retained by each contractor for at least five years, or, where an audit has been requested by a state agency, until the date the audit is resolved, whichever is longer.
  (c) This section does not require an alternative payment program or provider to create records electronically.

Alternative payment programs and providers operating or providing services pursuant to this article may use a digital signature that complies with state and federal standards, as determined by the department, that may be a marking that is either computer generated or produced by electronic means and is intended by the signatory to have the same effect as a handwritten signature. The use of a digital signature shall have the same force and effect as the use of a manual signature if the requirements for digital signatures and their acceptable technology, as provided in Section 16.5 of the Government Code and in Chapter 10 (commencing with Section 22000) of Division 7 of Title 2 of the California Code of Regulations, are satisfied.