The California Department of Education (CDE) has issued an emergency waiver for operation of temporary employer sponsored child care. An employer that needs to immediately provide temporary employer sponsored child care may do so under the waiver if all terms of the waiver are met including that the employer contact their child care regional office for approval, that care be available only for children of the employer and officers, managers and employees of the employer, and the child care setting have age appropriate equipment.
CDSS has also waived child care facility and TrustLine provider requirements. A family child care home, day care center, school-age center or infant care center may waive staff to children ratios as long as health and safety of children is not compromised. The ratio of child to staff in a family child care home shall be no more than 10:1.
A child care facility, not including a large family child care home, may waive capacity requirements if there is an immediate need for child care in the facility’s area because of school closures as a result of COVID-19, as long as staffing remains sufficient to meet the health and safety needs of children in care. Capacity for small child care homes shall not exceed 14 children.
A TrustLine provider may care for children of more than one family at a time as long as the provider is able to meet the needs of children in care and capacity does not exceed a ratio of children to provider of 10:1.
New staff at a licensed facility, or a new TrustLine provider, may start caring for children immediately upon submission of a request to transfer a current CDSS criminal record clearance or exemption, and child abuse clearance.
New staff at a licensed facility can begin caring for children upon submission of a criminal record clearance and child abuse clearance from a school district, state or local government agency. Within 5 days of starting work, the new staff must LiveScan.
New staff may start working immediately if they submit proof of TB clearance within the last year. New staff must arrange to obtain current TB clearance.
New staff may start work as soon as they provide proof of completion of first aid training. New staff shall be trained on specific tasks they will be performing and may not be unsupervised while children are present. Initial training requirements must be met within 30 days of starting employment.
Application fees for TrustLine registration are waived.
These waivers shall remain in effect until the end of the Governor’s Proclamation of State of Emergency. (PIN 20-004-CCP, March 16, 2020.)