Bill > A5733

Introduced Session

This bill requires the Commissioner of Human Services to establish a tiered, quality-based reimbursement system for registered family day care providers that participate in the State's subsidized child care assistance program and are rated under the Grow NJ Kids initiative. Grow NJ Kids is the State's quality rating and improvement initiative for child care and early learning programs, which reimburses child care providers based on objective quality measures. State-licensed child care centers, school- or center-based preschool programs, Head Start programs, and registered family day care providers may request to be evaluated and rated by Grow NJ Kids, based on the quality of child care services provided for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Based upon the outcome of this quality review, the Grow NJ Kids program may award the provider a three-, four- or five-star rating. New Jersey's subsidized child care assistance program currently pays a higher rate to child care centers, Head Start programs, and school- or center-based preschool programs that have a Grow NJ Kids three-, four-, or five star rating. In calendar year 2021, tiered incentive payments under the program range from five percent to twenty percent above the base rate, depending upon the age of the child receiving care and the facility's star rating. Although family day care providers can request a Grow NJ Kids evaluation, these providers are currently ineligible for the program's enhanced payments to providers earning a three-, four-, or five-star rating. It is the intent of the bill's sponsor to ensure that registered family day care providers that offer high-quality care are reimbursed on an equal basis as child care centers under the Grow NJ Kids program.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Gordon Johnson (D)*,  Yvonne Lopez (D)*,  Gabriela Mosquera (D)*,  Britnee Timberlake (D), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Women and Children Committee (on 05/17/2021)