HBA-MPA C.S.H.B. 2609 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 2609 By: Greenberg Economic Development 4/12/1999 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, many children attend child care facilities with untrained child care workers. A statewide survey by the Texas Workforce Commission (commission) indicated that from 1993 to 1995, 31 percent of child care workers left their jobs in one year. A trained worker who has made the investment of time and energy to pursue training in the child care profession may be less likely to take another job simply for higher pay. C.S.H.B. 2609 provides scholarships for individuals working on their Child Development Associate credentials, the cost of which is often prohibitive for a child care worker, who may earn wages as low as $6 an hour. To qualify, individuals must be employed full-time in a listed or registered child care center and agree to work in a child care facility for an additional three years. This bill allows the commission to supplement the wages of qualified scholarship recipients for up to 18 months after receiving the scholarship. In order to qualify for the wage supplementation, the recipient must provide care for children under six years old and continue to work in the same child care facility. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking authority is expressly delegated to Texas Workforce Commission in SECTION 1 (Section 302.006, Labor Code) of this bill. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter A, Chapter 302, Labor Code, by adding Section 302.006, as follows: Sec. 302.006. New Title: PROFESSIONAL CHILD-CARE TRAINING SCHOLARSHIPS, BONUSES, AND WAGE SUPPLEMENTATION. (a) Requires the Texas Workforce Commission (commission) to develop and administer a program under which it awards scholarships in the amount of $1,000 each for professional child-care training to eligible recipients. (b) Authorizes a recipient awarded a scholarship to pay expenses associated with obtaining Child Development Associate (CDA) national credentials, Certified Child-Care Professional (CCP) credentials, or a level one certificate or associate's degree in the area of child development or early childhood education from a public or private institution of higher education. (c) Provides that a person, to be eligible to receive a scholarship, must be employed in a child-care facility, as defined in Section 42.002 (Definitions), Human Resource Code, intend to obtain a credential, certificate or degree, agree to work in a child-care facility for at least 18 additional months, and satisfy any other requirements adopted by the commission. (d) Prohibits a person from receiving more than one scholarship. (e) Authorizes the commission to provide for payment of a bonus or wage supplementation for 18 months to a recipient who provides care for children younger than six years old. Requires any bonus or wage supplementation provided under this section to be paid in equal shares by the scholarship recipient's employer and the commission. Requires the commission to determine the amount and duration of any wage supplementation. (f) Requires the commission to fund the scholarship and any wage supplementation through federal Child Care Development funds or other funding sources available to the commission. Prohibits state funding from exceeding $2,000,000 per state biennium. (g) Requires the commission to adopt rules as necessary to implement this section. Provides that the rules must include provisions that address the computation of the 18 month service requirement prescribed by this section, and ensure that the commission recovers scholarship money from recipients who fail to comply with the service or other requirements imposed by the commission. SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 3. Emergency clause. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 2609 differs from the original bill in SECTION 1 (proposed Section 302.006, Labor Code), as follows: _New title: "Bonuses, and Wage Supplementation" to the proposed title to Section 302.006, Labor Code, Professional Child-Care Training Scholarships." _in proposed Subsection (a) the substitute sets out the amount of a scholarship ($1,000 as provided in Subsection (b) of the original bill), and moves the provision calling for the recipient to seek a Child Development Associate (CDA) national credential to a new Subsection (b). _in proposed Subsection (b) the substitute deletes the requirement that the recipient apply $700 of the scholarship toward training expenses and the remaining $300 toward obtaining CDA national credentials, and moves the limitation of one scholarship per recipient to a new Subsection (d). The substitute adds a new Subsection (b), as follows: (b) Authorizes a recipient awarded a scholarship to pay expenses associated with obtaining Child Development Associate (CDA) national credentials, Certified Child-Care Professional (CCP) credentials, or a level one certificate or associate's degree in the area of child development or early childhood education from a public or private institution of higher education. _in proposed Subsection (c) the substitute reduces the requirement that a recipient work in a child care facility for three additional years, to 18 months, and adds "certificate, or degree specified in Subsection (b)" to the credential a recipient must intend to obtain to qualify for a scholarship award. _in proposed Subsection (d) the substitute provides the limitation of one scholarship per recipient as set out in Subsection (b) in the original bill. _in proposed Subsection (e), which is redesignated from Subsection (d) of the original bill, the substitute specifies that a recipient must work for 18 months in the same child care facility that employed the recipient when the scholarship was awarded, and replaces the requirement that the child care facility provide care to children under four years of age, with six years of age. The substitute adds the provision that any bonus or wage supplementation be paid in equal shares by the recipient's employer and the commission. This subsection rearranged for purposes of clarification. _in proposed Subsection (f), which is redesignated from Subsection (e) of the original bill, the substitute adds the words "bonuses or" before the term "wage supplementation." _in the proposed Subsection (g), which is redesignated from Subsection (f) of the original bill, the substitute makes conforming changes.