Early care and education.

The bill changed from a one-section placeholder expressing legislative intent to a multi-code amendment covering Education Code (Sections 8205, 8208, 8210, 8211, 8213, 8217, 8242, 8251, 8252), Health and Safety Code (Sections 1596.866, 1597.63), and Welfare and Institutions Code (Section 10227.6). It now includes an appropriation and takes effect immediately.

The definition of 'attendance' for reimbursement purposes was expanded to include excused absences for expulsion or suspension, in addition to the existing provision for days during an appeal process.

Added a requirement that the State Department of Education implement eligibility requirements, ongoing income eligibility rules, and enrollment authorizations through management bulletins with the same force and effect as regulations, notwithstanding Administrative Procedure Act rulemaking provisions. Also revised the enrollment priority sequence to add a final priority of enrolling any eligible child in income ranking order.

Expanded staff training day provisions: training days can now cover additional topics including professional development requirements, can be used as full or partial days, count as days of operation when scheduled during regular hours without children present, and family childcare home providers using training days are paid based on maximum certified hours. Providers may also use training days to access family childcare home education network or Joint Child Care Providers United training.

Reduced the health and safety training requirement (pediatric first aid, CPR, preventive health practices) from requiring ALL staff at daycare centers and all substitute adults in family daycare homes to complete 15 hours of training, to requiring only at least one director or teacher per daycare center and each family daycare home licensee. This is a temporary change that reverts to the original requirement on October 1, 2027.

Relaxed family daycare home presence rules: changed from requiring the licensee to be present during all hours of operation to requiring at least one licensee to be present; changed the substitute adult requirement to apply only when children in care are present; and removed the requirement to report temporary absences to the department.

Changed the family fee provision from requiring contractors to reimburse all California state preschool program providers for the full certificate or voucher amount without deducting family fees, to specifically requiring payment to family childcare providers without deducting family fees while still requiring contractors to collect those fees.

Added legislative intent that the rate structure include specific age groupings, enhanced inclusion rates administered as a per-child amount, and that the alternative methodology be based on a cost study and cost estimation model considering certain costs.

Reappropriated $1,000,000 from social services appropriations for activities related to safety and regulation of children's camps, with the encumbrance period extended until June 30, 2027.

Extended the quarterly reimbursement rate implementation reports from ending July 1, 2027 to July 1, 2028. Added a requirement that the July 2027 report include considerations for adding monthly cost of care plus rates to existing reimbursement rates for alternative payment programs.