SUPPORT of AB 1883 (Weber): Child care and development services: military families: alternative payment programs.
We would like to communicate our SUPPORT of AB 1883, a bill which expands access to affordable child care and food programs for military families. This bill is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Human Services Committee on March 6th. AB 1883 seeks to alleviate a multitude of poverty stressors on military families by seeking to clarify that the basic allowance for housing (BAH) should not be considered income in determination of eligibility for CalFRESH and Child Care Voucher programs. For California's CalFRESH program and for California's subsidized child care "voucher" program, the BAH must be counted. However, it is not counted for eligibility purposes for: Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, WIC (Women, Infants, and Children), Head Start, and other federal programs. This bill would align state law with other similarly situated programs and improve access to food and early learning environments for low-income military families. This bill also allows providers of subsidized child care to adjust their rates as they deem appropriate. Current law restricts subsidized child care providers to an adjustment of their rates only once per year, yet private pay providers can adjust as needed to reflect the ongoing costs of running a private business. Additionally, this bill deletes the burden on alternative payment programs to randomly sample 10 percent of licensed provider rates yearly since California already captures this information via a biannual Regional Market Rate (RMR). To conclude, AB 1883 would ensure that military families residing in California will have better access to the necessities needed to survive; at a bare minimum food and child care. Further, it would ensure that child care providers are granted fair and equitable pay practices. This bill is good public policy and supports working families and children. For this and the reasons stated above, we support AB 1883.
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