Legislation on Arnie's desk

There are several child development bills awaiting the governor's signature or veto. He doesn't have a good record of choosing which ones to sign, but there's nothing really important on his desk right now.

AB 595 requires more background checks and greater restrictions on foster parents. They will become about the same as for child care providers. Sure, why not.

AB 627  This bill used to impose nutrition requirements on all licensed child care facilities in California. Now it creates a pilot program. It passed because they took the guts out of it.

AB 769 Gives a CPS-level priority for State Preschool to kids "who have a biological custodial parent who is, or who has been within the previous six months, a dependent or ward of the juvenile court." I agree that these kids need help, but I hate to give it to them at the expense of other worthy recipients. Still, if  you had to pick a program where this kind of priority would be appropriate, it would be State Preschool.

SB 702 Requires employees of "ancillary child care centers" to be Trustlined. An ancillary child care center is license-exempt drop-in care at a health center or other business, but excluding malls. One wonders why malls were excluded. No, one wonders what malls had to offer or threaten to whom to be excluded.

Introduction

Allow me to introduce myself. I study child care and development issues for a living. I am posting anonymously because the people I work for stand a good chance of disagreeing with everything I believe. They would not at all like my intent to be candid, nor would they be shy about firing me if they found out about it.

I intend to discuss child care and development policy, research, and related subjects, with the occasional side trip into other interesting science, politics, food, gardening, and cats. Comments are open and unmoderated.