GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1989

H	1 

HOUSE BILL 1976

Short Title:  Child Care Resource/Referral Funds.	(Public)
─────────────────────────────────────── 
Sponsors: Representative Easterling.
─────────────────────────────────────── 
Referred to:  Appropriations.
─────────────────────────────────────── 

May 11, 1989

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS FOR NONPROFIT, COMMUNITY-BASED CHILD CARE RESOURCE AND REFERRAL SERVICES.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  (a)	There is appropriated from the Department of Human Resources, Division of Facility Services, $250,000 for the Child Day Care Section, for continuation of existing nonprofit community-based child care resource and referral agencies and for development of new community-based child care resource and referral agencies in unserved counties.
These funds shall be allocated as follows:
(1)	At least $225,000 or ninety percent (90%), directly to continue and develop nonprofit, community-based child care resource and referral agencies; and 
(2)	A maximum of $25,000, or ten percent (10%), to administer the program.
Funds allocated pursuant to subdivision (1) of this section shall be in the form of continuation grants to existing nonprofit community-based child care resource and referral agencies and start-up grants to develop nonprofit community-based child care resource and referral agencies in unserved counties.  No continuation grant shall exceed $15,000.  No start-up grant shall exceed $25,000.
(b)	For purposes of this section, an eligible agency is a nonprofit community-based child care resource and referral agency that has as a main purpose the direct provision or coordination of child care resource and referral services to the general public.  Child care resource and referral services are services that include at a minimum:
(1)	Identification of all existing child care services and maintenance of a regularly updated resource file of all these services;
(2)	Active maintenance of a referral process that responds to personal needs for information, that promotes maximal parental choices, that documents and tabulates data pertaining to parental requests, and that respects the confidentiality of families and provides this process shall include the establishment of a referral policy and procedures for handling complaints;
(3)	Provision of information and assistance to existing and prospective providers to increase the variety, quantity, and quality of child care in the local community; and 
(4)	Education of the public about the availability, affordability, and quality of child care services in the local area.
For purposes of continuation funding, existing nonprofit community-based child care resource and referral agencies are defined as those that have maintained for a minimum of one year a referral phone line, have developed a data base that includes all regulated child care services, have promoted maximal parental choices, have provided information to existing and prospective providers on steps to take in developing and improving child care services, and have provided for at least a year the rest of the services required by subdivisions (1) through (4) of this subsection.
(c)	An agency's eligibility to reserve funds allocated by this act shall depend on that agency's matching these funds with thirty percent (30%) local match.  Of this local match, twenty percent (20%) may be supplied by in-kind donations.
Sec. 2.  This act shall become effective July 1, 1989.