AB 190: Early care and education.

Official summary

Legislative Counsel’s Digest (official, as of the latest version). Written by nonpartisan legislative staff; reproduced verbatim.

(1)Existing law, the Early Education Act, among other things, requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer all California state preschool programs. The act establishes a standard reimbursement rate for both the part-day and full-day preschool programs, as provided. The act defines the term “attendance” for purposes of this reimbursement to include excused absences for days a child is not in attendance during an appeal process regarding expulsion or suspension.

This bill would revise the definition of the term “attendance” for purposes of reimbursement to additionally include excused absences for expulsion or suspension, as provided.

(2)The Early Education Act establishes eligibility requirements, including income eligibility requirements, and a specified priority sequence for enrollment, for the part-day and full-day preschool programs. The act requires the State Department of Education to, on or before January 1, 2027, implement these eligibility requirements through management bulletins or similar letters of instruction. The act specifies, for purposes of establishing ongoing income eligibility, that ongoing income eligibility means that a family’s initial income eligibility for services at the time of enrollment will be in effect, regardless of income. The act authorizes a provider operating a California state preschool program within the attendance boundary of a school district or certain public schools where at least 80% of the enrolled pupils are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, foster youth, or English learners, to enroll 3-year-old and 4-year-old children in accordance with the above-described enrollment priorities, and any remaining spots to families not meeting the enrollment priorities, as specified.

This bill would require the department, notwithstanding the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, to implement, interpret, or make specific these above-described eligibility requirements, ongoing income eligibility establishment, and enrollment authorization prior to regulatory action and would require these management bulletins or similar letters of instruction to have the same force and effect as regulations until the adoption of regulations, as provided. The bill would revise the priority sequence for eligibility by including, as the final priority, enrolling any eligible child in income ranking order, as specified.

(3)Existing law authorizes a California state preschool program to schedule up to 5 days of staff training, per contract period, using state reimbursement funding on specified topics.

This bill would authorize those training days to be used to cover additional topics, including, among others, meeting certain staff professional development requirements, and to be used as full days or partial days, as specified. The bill would require a training day scheduled during a contractor’s regular hours of operation without children in attendance to be considered a day of operation for purposes of meeting the minimum days of operation for part-day and full-day California state preschool programs, as provided. The bill would also require family childcare home providers, as specified, who use the staff training days to be paid based on the maximum certified hours of care for that training time, as provided. The bill would authorize these family childcare home providers to use the training days or partial training days to access training offered by the family childcare home education network or training offered by the Joint Child Care Providers United - State of California Training Partnership Fund.

Sponsors

“Support” is shown only as formal sponsorship recorded by the legislature. Roll-call votes are available on the official bill page.

Recent official actions

1. September 18, 2026Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 257, Statutes of 2026.
2. September 18, 2026Approved by the Governor.
3. September 8, 2026Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
4. August 31, 2026Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 62. Noes 1. Page 7023.).
5. August 31, 2026Assembly Rule 63 suspended. (Page 7016.)
6. August 31, 2026In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
7. August 31, 2026Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 32. Noes 0.).
8. August 31, 2026Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
9. August 31, 2026From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (August 31).
10. August 28, 2026From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on B. & F. R.
11. April 2, 2025Referred to Com. on B. & F. R.
12. March 20, 2025In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment.