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Administration presents technical childcare budget proposals, staffing requests and cleanup language; LAO raises no concerns
Summary
CDSS described several budget change proposals including federal funding authority for CDSS childcare administration, 33 permanent positions for program administration and a request to codify cleanup language; LAO said it had no concerns with the proposals.
Officials from the Department of Social Services presented several childcare-related budget change proposals and cleanup items to Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 3.
CDSS said it requested a permanent increase in federal fund authority of $34.4 million for Child Care and Development fund administration to streamline ongoing reimbursements following the program's transfer from the California Department of Education. CDSS also presented a BCP (budget change proposal) to add 33 permanent positions and roughly $6.4 million federal funds in FY 2025'26 to support program administration, increased workload from slot expansion, contract processing, payments and federal-mandated compliance and regulation updates.
CDSS described cleanup language proposals: removing inadvertent references to programs still listing the California Department of Education in the Welfare and Institutions Code after program transfer to CDSS, and technical changes to part-time/full-time hour definitions (correcting an inadvertent statutory definition that left full time defined as six hours instead of five after SB 140 changed the definition to 25 hours). CDSS said it had issued guidance but proposed statutory cleanup for clarity.
CDSS also proposed limited technical changes to 12-month eligibility when a new child is added to a family to align with federal requirements and ensure infants added to families receive a full 12-month eligibility period. CDSS said no policy concern was identified with the proposed language.
The Legislative Analyst's Office told the panel it had no concerns with the CDSS proposals presented in this item. Several legislators and public commenters urged clarity and emphasized that one-time funds cannot be used to change ongoing salary scales and asked that the administration consider making temporary cost-of-care-plus payments permanent so contractors can adapt pay scales.
Why this matters: The BCPs and cleanup language are largely technical but will affect the department's administrative capacity to manage expanded childcare funding, contract processing and federal compliance. The staffing BCP was framed as necessary to support automation, payments and monitoring tied to upcoming federal requirements.
Next steps: CDSS said it would continue to coordinate with LAO and the Department of Finance as the May Revision and budget process proceed.
