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 Governor and the Legislature to, by no later than July 1, 2025, establish reimbursement rates based on the alternative methodology, as specified. If the new reimbursement rates do not take effect on July 1, 2025, existing law requires the department to provide the Legislature with a timeline for transitioning from the rates that are in effect on July 1, 2025, to the new established rates.

This bill would instead, under those circumstances, require the department to provide the Chairperson of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee with the department’s anticipated timeline for the above-described rate transition. The bill would require that the information be sent no later than January 31, 2027, and every subsequent year until the established rates are in effect.