Resource and referral agencies.

Existing law, the Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State Department of Social Services, establishes a system of childcare and development services for children up to 13 years of age. Existing law establishes childcare resource and referral programs to serve a defined geographic area and provide prescribed services. Among the services provided by these programs is the establishment of a referral process that responds to parental need for information and that makes referrals to licensed child daycare facilities, as specified. Existing law requires federal funds allocated to local childcare resource and referral agencies to support their continued participation in COVID-19 relief and recovery to be used to strengthen their role in serving as intermediaries to develop new, and support existing, childcare facilities and capacity and to streamline and improve data collection processes, as specified. This bill would repeal that provision and instead require, upon appropriation by Legislature, local childcare resource and referral agencies to take specified actions relating to assisting childcare providers during a disaster, including, among others, implementing certain roles and responsibilities assigned to them in specified disaster plans. The bill would also require, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network to implement the roles and responsibilities assigned to it in those disaster plans. The bill would require the department, in consultation with local childcare resource and referral agencies, to establish data collection and reporting requirements relating to disasters and disaster preparedness for childcare providers.