The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Child Care and State Preschool

Nov 14, 2025 - The budget modifies this requirement so that when families already receiving child care services add a child to the family size and request services for the child, eligibility is not recertified until the new chil d has received at least 12 months of services.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5088

The 2023-24 Budget: Child Care Proposals

Feb 9, 2023 - These questions include: How Does the Governor ’s Budget Allocate Over $5   Billion in Federal Relief Funds? Based on our analysis of DSS budget documents, we do not know how the administration plans to use $232  million of the over $5  billion in federal relief funds.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4672

The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2025 - School and Community College Spending Higher by $5   Billion. Reflecting these higher revenue estimates, the administration ’s estimates of constitutionally required General Fund spending on K ‑14 education is $4.7  billion higher than our November estimates.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4951

The 2023-24 California Spending Plan: Child Care and State Preschool

Nov 17, 2023 - The 2022 ‑23 budget package required at least 5  percent of children enrolled in State Preschool programs be children with disabilities in 2022 ‑23. This requirement was set to increase to 7.5  percent in 2023 ‑24 and 10  percent in 2024 ‑25 and future years.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4817

The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: Child Care and Preschool

Oct 27, 2022 - The budget package requires at least 5  percent of children enrolled in State Preschool programs be children with disabilities in 2022-23. This increases to 7.5  percent in 2023-24 and 10  percent in 2024-25 and future years.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4643

Overview of Federal Relief for K-12 Education and Child Care

Apr 29, 2021 - Of this funding, 60  percent was allocated to states based on their population aged 5 through 24 and 40  percent was allocated based on the number of low-income and disadvantaged students counted under Title I, Part A of ESSA.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4419

The 2024-25 Budget: State Preschool

Apr 16, 2024 - In 2022 ‑23, the state began requiring that 5  percent of State Preschool enrollment be set aside for children with disabilities. This increased the costs of the program, since providers receive higher funding rates for serving children with disabilities.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4894

The 2023-24 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2023 - The Legislature can choose to set the SFEU balance at any level above zero and so our Fiscal Outlook did not assume a specific balance. (Recent budgets have enacted SFEU balances around $2  billion to $4  billion.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4662

The 2021-22 Budget: Child Care Proposals

Feb 11, 2021 - We further recommend amending the proposed budget bill so that funds are appropriated to child care in a similar structure as the 2020 ‑ 21 b udget act. Specifically, we recommend that funding for each child care program be scheduled out in separate budget items instead of being consolidated together as proposed.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4363

A Review of Child Care and Preschool Program Flexibilities in Certain Counties

May 13, 2021 - Providing flexibilities so certain providers can fully earn their contracts removes the state ’s ability to reallocate funds to areas with the greatest unmet need. While CDE in recent years has attempted to redistribute slots from areas with lower demand to areas with the highest level of unmet need, funding within pilot counties has largely been excluded from these efforts.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4431