HBA-SEP H.B. 3486 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3486
By: Tillery
Economic Development
4/10/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Child care management services vendors often place children in larger
facilities that can bear the lower reimbursement rates even though these
facilities may not necessarily be convenient for the parents or best for
children.  Studies show that smaller, home-like environments are both more
conducive to learning and provide better continuity of care.  House Bill
3486 creates a pilot program under which child care is provided by
operators of eligible family homes to children under four years of age.   

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 3486 amends the Government Code to provide that the minimum
reimbursement rate for a designated child care vendor who is a registered
family home and who provides child care for children under four years of
age must be at least 95 percent of the vendor's actual documented cost in
providing child care.   

The bill requires the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) to select one or
more vendors to operate pilot programs in five different areas of the state
under which child care is provided by operators of eligible family homes to
children under four years of age.  Each pilot program must include at least
25 operators of eligible family homes.  After selection of the vendors,
each local workforce development board (board) in an affected area of the
state is required to administer and fund the pilot program operating within
that area, subject to guidelines established by TWC.  TWC is required to
select vendors based on a competitive procurement process.  A vendor must
have at least seven years of relevant experience to be eligible to
participate in a pilot program.  The bill requires a vendor selected to
participate in a pilot program to recruit eligible operators of family
homes to participate in the program and provide those eligible operators
with training, mentoring, and other support.  The bill sets forth
eligibility requirements for a participating family home.  Not later than
December 1 of each even-numbered year, TWC is required to submit to the
governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of the house of representatives
a report on the pilot programs. The bill sets forth provisions regarding
the report's content.  The pilot program provisions expire September 1,
2005.     

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.