SUMMARY--Makes appropriation to Department of Employment, Rehabilitation and Training for programs relating to child care. (BDR S-1323)
FISCAL NOTE: Effect on Local Government: No.
Effect on the State or on Industrial Insurance: Contains Appropriation not included in Executive Budget.
EXPLANATION - Matter in italics is new; matter in brackets [ ] is material to be omitted.
AN ACT making an appropriation to the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation for the support of programs relating to child care; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.
Whereas, Impending changes to the laws governing welfare programs will require participating families to enter the work force when their children are only 1 year of age, and a shortage of high-quality, affordable child care for these children is imminent; and
Whereas, The availability of quality care during early childhood is the recognized antidote for many social ills that plague children living in poverty, whether they are the children of undereducated parents or the children of the working poor; and
Whereas, Intervention during early childhood is more cost-effective than welfare programs or other types of intervention later in life; and
Whereas, The Turnabout AmeriCorps Child Care Program in Fallon, Nevada, has successfully met the need for high-quality, affordable child care for nearly 100 infants and toddlers over the past 2 years; and
Whereas, The program has seen 6 parents graduate from high school, 7 parents receive a GED, 16 families remain enrolled in a basic education program, and 17 families reduce or avoid welfare support and stay in the workplace; and
Whereas, By investing $40,000 per year in the Fallon program, the State of Nevada will receive approximately $125,000 per year from the federal AmeriCorps Program, 90 percent of which is in the form of taxable wages or living allowances; and
Whereas, The provision of child care to families with low incomes through programs such as the Turnabout AmeriCorps Child Care Program in Fallon results in tremendous savings for the State of Nevada by providing a source of high-quality, affordable child care at rates far below the current market rates; and
Whereas, Longitudinal studies show a savings of $7 for every $1 spent on quality programs during early childhood, indicating a total savings of approximately $750,000 for the taxpayers of the State of Nevada during the past 2-year operation of the Fallon program; and
Whereas, The Turnabout AmeriCorps Child Care Program has been the subject of professional evaluation for the past 2 years, and the result of this objective evaluation by experts is a recommendation that the program be replicated in other communities; now, therefore,
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1 1. There is hereby appropriated from the state general fund to the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation the sum of $500,000 for the establishment and support of programs relating to the provision of child care throughout this state.
2. The Department shall grant the money appropriated by subsection 1 to persons and governmental entities in this state for such purposes as the Department determines will expand the availability of child care throughout this state, including, but not limited to, expenses relating to the training of persons to become child care providers, the refurbishment or expansion of existing child care facilities and the establishment of new child care facilities.
3. Of the money appropriated in subsection 1, the Department shall grant not less than $40,000 for each of the fiscal years 1997-98 and 1998-99 to the Turnabout AmeriCorps Child Care Program in Fallon, Nevada, if matching money or services, or a combination of both, is provided by the federal AmeriCorps program. In addition, the Department may contract with the Turnabout AmeriCorps Child Care Program to assist in the establishment of similar child care programs in other areas of the state.
4. Any remaining balance of the appropriation made by subsection 1 must not be committed for expenditure after June 30, 1999, and reverts to the state general fund as soon as all payments of money committed have been made.
Sec. 2. This act becomes effective upon passage and approval or on June 30, 1997, whichever occurs earlier.