2022–23 Budget: Children with Exceptional Needs

Early Education Division Email

Date: July 28, 2022

Expires: Superseded by Management Bulletin 23-02: California State Preschool Program and Children With Disabilities (Exceptional Needs)

Attention: Executive Directors and Program Directors of all California State Preschool Programs

The California Department of Education (CDE), Early Education Division (EED) has received a lot of questions about the new changes for children with exceptional needs. The intent of this email is to answer some of those questions before the Management Bulletins (MBs) are posted for these changes. The authority references from California Education Code (EC) and California Code of Regulations, Title 5 (5 CCR) for this email are included for each part.

The CDE, EED understands that this email will not answer all questions contractors will have about implementing these changes in law. The CDE, EED will be releasing a Management Bulletin focused on guidance for serving children with exceptional needs and a Management Bulletin focused on guidance for eligibility and priority that will provide additional guidance and clarity.

Effective July 1, 2022, the following rules apply to the California State Preschool Program (CSPP) in regards to children with exceptional needs:

• Definitions (from EC Section 8205[h] and [s]):
  • Children with exceptional needs are:
    • Children under three years of age who have been determined to be eligible for early intervention services pursuant to the California Early Intervention Services Act (Title 14 [commencing with Section 95000] of the Government Code) and its implementing regulations. These children include an infant or toddler with a developmental delay or established risk condition, or who is at high risk of having a substantial developmental disability, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 95014 of the Government Code. These children shall have active individualized family service plans and shall be receiving early intervention services;
    • Children 3 to 21 years of age, inclusive, who have been determined to be eligible for special education and related services by an individualized education program team according to the special education requirements contained in Part 30 (commencing with Section 56000) of Division 4 of Title 2, and who meet eligibility criteria described in Section 56026 and, Article 2.5 (commencing with Section 56333) of Chapter 4 of Part 30 of Division 4 of Title 2, and Sections 3030 and 3031 of Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations. These children shall have an active individualized education program and shall be receiving early intervention services or appropriate special education.
  • Please note that the requirement for special attention from adults has been stricken from statute; therefore, additional documentation previously required to demonstrate that a child requires special attention from adults pursuant to 5 CCR 17770(b) is not necessary to receive the adjustment factor for children with exceptional needs.
  • Children with severe disabilities are children with exceptional needs from birth to 21 years of age, inclusive, who require intensive instruction and training in programs serving pupils with the following profound disabilities: autism, blindness, deafness, severe orthopedic impairments, serious emotional disturbances, or severe intellectual disabilities.
• Children with exceptional needs attending California State Preschool Programs shall be educated in the least restrictive environment in accordance with Section 1412(a)(5)(A) of Title 20 of the United States Code (from EC Section 8208[c][3] and [d][2][E]).
• Children with exceptional needs as an eligibility category (from EC Section 8208[a][1][E], [d][1][A][v], [d][1][B] and [d][3] and 5 CCR Section 17734[j]):
  • Children with exceptional needs (as defined above) has been added as an eligibility category. This new addition means that children with exceptional needs do not have to qualify with income eligibility or another eligibility category. However, these families must self-certify their income to determine priorities for enrollment and for assessment of a family fee.
  • To qualify for full-day, families must still establish a need for services. After all eligible families meeting the need criteria have been enrolled, a contractor may enroll families not meeting this criteria pursuant to EC 8208(d)(3).
  • Only the children in the family who are children with exceptional needs may be enrolled under the eligibility criteria of child with exceptional needs. Any other child in the family without exceptional needs may be enrolled based on any of the other eligibility categories that the family qualifies for, which include: Current aid recipient; Income eligible; Experiencing homelessness; Receiving child protective services, or at-risk thereof.
• Contractors must reserve a percentage of their funded enrollment for children with exceptional needs (EC sections 8205[ae], 8208[c][1][A] and [d][2][A]):
  • From July 1, 2022 until June 30, 2023, at least five percent of a CSPP contracting agency’s funded enrollment for both part-day and full-day programs must be reserved for children with exceptional needs. The slots must be held and only filled by children with exceptional needs. Within this set-aside of funded enrollment, contractors are not required to follow priority order as it applies to the rest of their contract, but are required to enroll children with exceptional needs from families with the lowest income, according to the income ranking table, first. If two families with children with exceptional needs have the same income ranking, the child who has been on the waiting list the longest shall be enrolled first.
  • Funded enrollment is defined as the number of subsidized children funded to be enrolled, based on the maximum reimbursable amount, contract rate, inclusive of any adjustment factors, and approved program calendar, by a CSPP contractor.
• Changes to Enrollment Priority (EC sections 8210[a][2][A] and 8211[a][2]):
  • The second priority for services (for the remaining 95 percent of funded enrollment for 2022–23) for both part-day and full-day CSPP must be given to all three- and four-year-old children with exceptional needs from families with incomes below the income eligibility threshold. Within this priority category, children with exceptional needs from families with the lowest income according to the income ranking table, as published by the Superintendent at the time of enrollment, must be enrolled first.
    

The CDE, EED is in the process of updating the Child Development Management Information System (CDMIS) with additional “Reason for Receiving Child Care” options, where applicable, for the above provisions; these options will be available for use by the July 2022 CDD-801A reporting period.

If you have programmatic questions regarding the information in this email, please contact your assigned EED, Program Quality Implementation (PQI) office regional consultant. The CDE, EED Consultant Regional Assignments directory can be accessed at the following link: https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/ci/assignments.asp.

If you have fiscal questions about the information in this email, please contact your assigned CDE Early Education Nutrition and Fiscal Services (EENFS) fiscal analyst. The fiscal analyst directory can be accessed at the following link: https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/cd/faad.asp.