AB190 - Early care and education.

Amended IN Senate August 28, 2026 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 190 Introduced by Assembly Member Gabriel Committee on Budget (Assembly Members Gabriel (Chair), Addis, Ahrens, Alvarez, Bennett, Bonta, Caloza, Connolly, Fong, Haney, Hart, Jackson, Lee, Ortega, Patel, Petrie-Norris, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Rogers, Schiavo, Schultz, Sharp-Collins, Solache, Stefani, Ward, and Wilson) January 08, 2025 An act relating to the Budget Act of 2025. An act to amend Sections 8205, 8208, 8210, 8211, 8213, 8217, 8242, 8251, and 8252 of the Education Code, to amend Section 1597.63 of, and to amend, repeal, and add Section 1596.866 of, the Health and Safety Code, and to amend Section 10227.6 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to childcare, and making an appropriation therefor, to take effect immediately, bill related to the budget. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 190, as amended, Committee on Budget. Budget Act of 2025. Early care and education. (1) Existing law, the Early Education Act, among other things, requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer all California state preschool programs. The act establishes a standard reimbursement rate for both the part-day and full-day preschool programs, as provided. The act defines the term “attendance” for purposes of this reimbursement to include excused absences for days a child is not in attendance during an appeal process regarding expulsion or suspension. This bill would revise the definition of the term “attendance” for purposes of reimbursement to additionally include excused absences for expulsion or suspension, as provided. (2) The Early Education Act establishes eligibility requirements, including income eligibility requirements, and a specified priority sequence for enrollment, for the part-day and full-day preschool programs. The act requires the State Department of Education to, on or before January 1, 2027, implement these eligibility requirements through management bulletins or similar letters of instruction. The act specifies, for purposes of establishing ongoing income eligibility, that ongoing income eligibility means that a family’s initial income eligibility for services at the time of enrollment will be in effect, regardless of income. The act authorizes a provider operating a California state preschool program within the attendance boundary of a school district or certain public schools where at least 80% of the enrolled pupils are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, foster youth, or English learners, to enroll 3-year-old and 4-year-old children in accordance with the above-described enrollment priorities, and any remaining spots to families not meeting the enrollment priorities, as specified. This bill would require the department, notwithstanding the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, to implement, interpret, or make specific these above-described eligibility requirements, ongoing income eligibility establishment, and enrollment authorization prior to regulatory action and would require these management bulletins or similar letters of instruction to have the same force and effect as regulations until the adoption of regulations, as provided. The bill would revise the priority sequence for eligibility by including, as the final priority, enrolling any eligible child in income ranking order, as specified. (3) Existing law authorizes a California state preschool program to schedule up to 5 days of staff training, per contract period, using state reimbursement funding on specified topics. This bill would authorize those training days to be used to cover additional topics, including, among others, meeting certain staff professional development requirements, and to be used as full days or partial days, as specified. The bill would require a training day scheduled during a contractor’s regular hours of operation without children in attendance to be considered a day of operation for purposes of meeting the minimum days of operation for part-day and full-day California state preschool programs, as provided. The bill would also require family childcare home providers, as specified, who use the staff training days to be paid based on the maximum certified hours of care for that training time, as provided. The bill would authorize these family childcare home providers to use the training days or partial training days to access training offered by the family childcare home education network or training offered by the Joint Child Care Providers United - State of California Training Partnership Fund. (4) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services, in consultation with the State Department of Education, to establish a fee schedule for families using preschool and childcare and developmental services and requires families who utilize those services to be assessed a family fee that is based on income, certified family need for full-time or part-time care services, and enrollment. Existing law requires the Superintendent to use the fee schedule developed in conjunction with the State Department of Social Services for families using full-day preschool services. Existing law requires, by no later than January 1, 2027, contractors to reimburse California state preschool program providers for the full amount of the certificate or voucher without deducting family fees and to collect family fees, as specified. This bill would instead require, by no later than January 1, 2027, contractors to pay family childcare providers for California state preschool program services without deducting family fees while still requiring contractors to collect those family fees, as specified. (5) Existing law, the California Child Day Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of child daycare facilities by the State Department of Social Services. A person who willfully or repeatedly violates any provision of the California Child Day Care Facilities Act, or any rule or regulation promulgated under the act, is guilty of a crime. Existing law requires all staff who provide childcare at those facilities, each family daycare home licensee, and each substitute adult in a family daycare home to complete at least 15 hours of specified health and safety training that includes pediatric first aid, pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and preventive health practices. This bill would instead just require at least one director or teacher at each daycare center and each family daycare home licensee who provides care to complete that safety training, and would, commencing October 1, 2027, revert back to the above-described existing law. Existing law requires a family daycare home licensee to be present in the home and ensure that children in care are provided care and supervision during all hours of operation. Existing law requires the licensee to arrange for a substitute adult to provide care and supervision of the children in care when circumstances require a licensee to occasionally be temporarily absent from a family daycare home during its hours of operation, and requires a family daycare home to report and submit a written report on a temporary absence of the licensee to the department, as specified. This bill would instead require at least one family daycare home licensee to be present in the home, would instead require the arrangement of a substitute adult when a licensee is temporarily absent from a family daycare home during the time period when children in care are present, and would remove the requirement for temporary absence reporting to the department. (6) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, to implement a reimbursement system plan that establishes reasonable standards and assigned reimbursement rates for subsidized childcare and development services, and to develop and conduct an alternative methodology for ratesetting, as specified. Existing law requires the department, from October 1, 2024, to July 1, 2027, inclusive, to submit quarterly updates on the implementation of the new reimbursement rates set under the alternative methodology to specified committees of the Legislature and to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. This bill would instead require those quarterly reports to continue being submitted until July 1, 2028, and would require the quarterly report that is required to be issued in July 2027, to consist of the considerations required to add monthly cost of care plus rates to existing reimbursement rates that are funded within existing childcare and development contracts for alternative payment programs. Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that the rate structure established under the alternative methodology include certain components, including, among other things, that rates vary based on specified factors, including child age. This bill would further specify the age groupings the Legislature intends the rate structure to include. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature for the rate structure to include enhanced inclusion rates, to be administered as a per-child amount, as specified. The bill would also state the intent of the Legislature that the alternative methodology be based on a cost study and cost estimation model that considers certain costs. (7) The Budget Act of 2025 made appropriations related to social services. This bill would reappropriate $1,000,000 of those funds for activities related to safety and regulation of children’s camps and extend the period in which the reappropriated funds may be encumbered until June 30, 2027. (8) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact statutory changes relating to the Budget Act of 2025. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO YES Fiscal Committee: NO YES Local Program: NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Section 8205 of the Education Code, as amended by Section 1 of Chapter 25 of the Statutes of 2026, is amended to read: 8205. As used in this chapter: (a) “Applicant or contracting agency” means a school district, community college district, college or university, county superintendent of schools, county, city, public agency, private nontax-exempt agency, private tax-exempt agency, or other entity that is authorized to establish, maintain, or operate services pursuant to this chapter. Private agencies and parent cooperatives, duly licensed by law, shall receive the same consideration as any other authorized entity with no loss of parental decisionmaking prerogatives as consistent with the provisions of this chapter. (b) “Assigned reimbursement rate” is that rate established by the contract with the agency in accordance with Section 8242. (c) “Attendance” means the number of children present at a preschool facility. “Attendance,” for purposes of reimbursement, includes excused absences by children because of illness, quarantine, illness or quarantine of their parent, family emergency, medical and educational appointments, or to spend time with a parent or other relative as required by a court of law or that is clearly in the best interest of the child. For purposes of reimbursement, a California state preschool program contractor may claim attendance for days that the child is not in attendance during an appeal process and not in attendance pursuant to Section 8489.1. (d) “Capital outlay” means the amount paid for the renovation and repair of childcare and development and preschool facilities to comply with state and local health and safety standards, and the amount paid for the state purchase of relocatable childcare and development and preschool facilities for lease to qualifying contracting agencies. (e) “Preschool facility” means a residence or building or part thereof in which preschool services are provided. (f) “Early childhood programs” means those programs that offer a full range of services for children from infancy to 13 years of age, for any part of a day, by a public, private, or proprietary agency, in centers and family childcare homes. (g) “Children at risk of abuse, neglect, or exploitation” means children who are so identified in a written referral from a legal, medical, or social service agency, or emergency shelter. (h) “Children with exceptional needs” means either of the following: (1) Children under three years of age who have been determined to be eligible for early intervention services pursuant to the California Early Intervention Services Act (Title 14 (commencing with Section 95000) of the Government Code) and its implementing regulations. These children include an infant or toddler with a developmental delay or established risk condition, or who is at high risk of having a substantial developmental disability, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 95014 of the Government Code. These children shall have active individualized family service plans and shall be receiving early intervention services. (2) Children 3 to 21 years of age, inclusive, who have been determined to be eligible for special education and related services by an individualized education program team according to the special education requirements contained in Part 30 (commencing with Section 56000) of Division 4 of Title 2, and who meet eligibility criteria described in Section 56026 and, Article 2.5 (commencing with Section 56333) of Chapter 4 of Part 30 of Division 4 of Title 2, and Sections 3030 and 3031 of Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations. These children shall have an active individualized education program and shall be receiving early intervention services or appropriate special education. (i) “Cost” includes, but is not limited to, expenditures that are related to the operation of preschool programs. “Cost” may include a reasonable amount for state and local contributions to employee benefits, including approved retirement programs, agency administration, and any other reasonable program operational costs. “Cost” may also include amounts for licensable facilities in the community served by the program, including lease payments or depreciation, downpayments, and payments of principal and interest on loans incurred to acquire, rehabilitate, or construct licensable facilities, but these costs shall not exceed fair market rents existing in the community in which the facility is located. “Reasonable and necessary costs” are costs that, in nature and amount, do not exceed what an ordinary prudent person would incur in the conduct of a competitive business. (j) “Elementary school,” as contained in former Section 425 of Title 20 of the United States Code (the National Defense Education Act of 1958, Public Law 85-864, as amended), includes early childhood education programs and all child developmen [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]