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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

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ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2-10-06

2/11/06 HB 729

SHORT TITLE

CYFD EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

TRAINING

SB

ANALYST Lucero

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$100.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to HB491, SB79

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 729 appropriates $100.0 from the general fund to Children, Youth and Families De-

partment for the purpose of providing early childhood education training.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $100.0 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund. Any

unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of 2007 shall revert to the general

fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

There are approximately 8,500+ early education providers working in more than 1000 licensed

centers and homes who are required to complete 24 educational contact hours annually to main-

tain their licensing status.

The CYFD child care quality improvement initiative STARS/AIM HIGH also requires providers

House Bill 729 – Page

2

to continually learn additional skills to progress toward higher levels of quality service and be-

come eligible for higher levels of reimbursement.

Licensed child care centers are currently required to have staff trained in the 45-Hour Entry-

Level Course by July 1, 2006 or within the first six-months of employment.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

The bill would positively impact the CYFD performance measure of percent of licensed child

care providers increasing in AIM HIGH/STARS level.

By increasing the availability of training to early childhood education programs, the number of

child care programs prepared to participate in the AIM HIGH quality initiative is expected to in-

crease. The number of eligible programs participating in AIM HIGH is a CYFD performance

measure.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

CYFD will absorb any additional administrative impact associated with passage of this bill

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

Relates to HB491, SB79.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

•

It is estimated that 15 – 20% of early childhood population is at high risk for developing

a disability or being delayed. Trained child-care workers may be able to help identify

these at-risk children early on so that support services can begin sooner.

•

Integrating children with disabilities into early childhood care settings can often depend

on a “well-prepared and well-trained staff”.

•

There is a need for local training and technical support for child-care providers. TTAPs,

FIT and PED programs do not meet the current needs for training and technical assis-

tance.

•

It would be good to clarify if these could be on-site training, direct consultation, orienta-

tions, online courses, etc… Also, it would be good to specify any requirements the train-

ings or programs must meet to be funded by the appropriation.

The bill might want to support an effort to build community support:

•

Early childhood education and care is undervalued by the general public. The public

lacks knowledge of the strong link between a child’s early experiences and later aca-

demic and life success.

•

Parents often do not have information necessary to determine the level of quality in early

childhood programs. CYFD is addressing this with the “5 Star Licensing” program.

House Bill 729 – Page

3

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

PED notes that rural communities do not have easy access to professional development and tech-

nical assistance for early childhood programs. Many of these communities also lack adequate

available local resources to provide these services. High-quality technical assistance and profes-

sional development are necessary to meet state and national program and staff licensing require-

ments.

DL/mt