Establishes a child care availability taskforce to evaluate the need for and availability of child care throughout the state and requires such taskforce to report on its findings and recommendations annually.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A7726A
SPONSOR: Jaffee
 
TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the social services law, in relation
to establishing a child care availability taskforce to evaluate the need
for and availability of child care throughout the state
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The purpose of this bill is to establish a child care taskforce to eval-
uate issues related to child care access.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
This bill would establish a child care taskforce. The taskforce members
would be appointed by the Governor and would include individuals recom-
mended by the Speaker of the Assembly and the Temporary President of the
Senate, as well as representatives of child care resource and referral
agencies, child care providers and the business community and would be
from across the state.
The taskforce would examine issues including access to subsidized child
care, the cost of child care, availability of non-traditional hours,
impact of child care access on the workforce, the impact on economic
development and child care quality. The taskforce would report its find-
ings and recommendations to the Speaker of the Assembly and Temporary
President of the Senate no later than December 31.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Access to quality child care is critical for healthy child development,
as well as for working families to maintain employment and self-suffici-
ency. Yet many families struggle to obtain safe and reliable child care
for reasons that may include the high cost, the lack of subsidies and
the lack of an available child care slot for the hours needed. The
inability to access child care can results in parents relying on unsafe
child care arrangements or dropping out of the workforce, which also
negatively impacts the local economy. Studies have also suggested that
children who do not participate in quality early learning programs may
do worse academically and have lower future earning potential.
The availability of child care, including child care assistance, varies
throughout the State. In order to better inform child care policies, it
is necessary to understand more about the issues related to child care
access. Therefore, this bill would establish a child care taskforce to
examine the need for child care, barriers to accessing child care and
the impacts on economic development and the workforce. This information
will help guide decisions to better meet the needs of working families
across the State.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
This is a new bill.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
Undetermined
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7726--A
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
May 11, 2017
___________
Introduced by M. of A. JAFFEE, LUPARDO, MAYER, JENNE, HUNTER, WEINSTEIN,
PHEFFER AMATO, JEAN-PIERRE, WALLACE, SEAWRIGHT, ZEBROWSKI, LIFTON,
DE LA ROSA, SIMON, GJONAJ, WILLIAMS, ABINANTI, SIMOTAS, ORTIZ, D'URSO,
PEOPLES-STOKES -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. BRAUNSTEIN, COOK,
ENGLEBRIGHT, HYNDMAN -- read once and referred to the Committee on
Children and Families -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to establishing a
child care availability taskforce to evaluate the need for and avail-
ability of child care throughout the state
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The social services law is amended by adding a new section
2 390-k to read as follows:
3 § 390-k. Child care availability taskforce. 1. There shall be estab-
4 lished within the office of children and family services a child care
5 taskforce for the purpose of evaluating the need for and availability of
6 child care throughout the state.
7 2. The taskforce shall be chaired by the commissioners of the office
8 of children and family services and the office of temporary and disabil-
9 ity assistance, or their designees. Members of the taskforce shall serve
10 without compensation for three year terms, but may be reimbursed for
11 actual costs incurred for participation on such taskforce. Ensuring
12 adequate geographic representation, members of the taskforce shall be
13 appointed by the governor and comprised as follows:
14 (a) two individuals shall be appointed upon the recommendation of the
15 speaker of the assembly, at least one of whom shall be a parent who has
16 utilized subsidized child care;
17 (b) two individuals shall be appointed upon the recommendation of the
18 temporary president of the senate, at least one of whom shall be a
19 parent who has utilized subsidized child care;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11372-03-7
A. 7726--A 2
1 (c) two representatives of a child care resource and referral agency;
2 (d) two representatives of home-based child care providers;
3 (e) two representatives of center-based child care providers; and
4 (f) two representatives from the business community.
5 3. The taskforce shall examine the following:
6 (a) access to subsidized child care, including the percentage of the
7 eligible population receiving a child care subsidy;
8 (b) cost of care for families eligible for but not receiving a child
9 care subsidy;
10 (c) availability of child care for non-traditional work hours;
11 (d) whether parents are voluntarily leaving the workforce due to lack
12 of affordable or accessible child care, and the demographic information
13 of such parents;
14 (e) whether employers have identified lack of child care as a reason
15 for a shortage of a qualified workforce;
16 (f) the impact of child care, or lack thereof, on economic development
17 throughout the state;
18 (g) varying levels of quality of care throughout the state;
19 (h) ways to address concerns identified in paragraphs (a) through (g)
20 of this subdivision; and
21 (i) anything else the taskforce deems necessary.
22 4. The taskforce shall report its findings and recommendations in
23 accordance with subdivision three of this section to the speaker of the
24 assembly and the temporary president of the senate no later than Decem-
25 ber thirty-first, two thousand seventeen, and annually thereafter.
26 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.