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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 06161987 - IO.5 gyp h TO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS + FROM: INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE Contra June 8, 1987 Costa DATE'. County Dependent Care As Plan SUBJECT: and Sick Child Care Program SPECIFIC REOUEST(S) OR RECOMMENDATION(S) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1 . Request the Director of Personnel to prepare a detailed dependent care program based on the status report presented to our Committee on June 8, 1987 . Meet and Confer as necessary with employee organizations on the proposed program and return the completed outline of the program to our Committee for review. 2 . Endorse in concept the need for a sick child care program for County employees and refer the program outline to the Budget Committee to consider in conjunction with the 1987-88 County Budget. BACKGROUND: On April 28, 1987, the Board authorized the Director of Personnel to develop a dependent care assistance program under which County employees can reduce their gross taxable income by the amount of their child care expenses. The Director of Personnel was also authorized to develop a sick child care program and was asked to forward both reports to our Committee for review. We received the attached status report on these two programs on June 8, 1987 . It is clear that the dependent care asssistance program, as outlined, has substantial financial advantages for employees with little or no cost to the County other than some as yet unidentified administrative costs for reprogramming the personnel and payroll systems. We believe the Personnel Department should work out a detailed program and discuss it with employee organizations before returning it to our Committee for further consideration. The sick child care program is a somewhat different problem. While our Committee agrees wholeheartedly with the need to provide child care for the children of County employees when the child is mildly ill, there may be a substantial cost to such a program. We believe such a program is both needed and valuable. However, such a program must be balanced against all of the CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT; X YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR X RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE X APPROVE _ OTHER SIGNATURE s ; Nancy Fanden Tom Torlakson ACTION OF BOARD ON June 16, 1987 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER X REQUESTED Director of Personnel to prepare a detailed dependent care program; ENDORSED '.the concept of a sick child care program for County employees; and REFERRED the matter to the County Administrator to report to the Budget Committee on Meet and Confer aspects of the proposed program. VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE X UNANIMOUS (ABSENT AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. cc: County Administrator ATTESTED Personnel Director PH BATCHELOR. CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR M382/7-83 BYou— 0 �_,DEPUTY \ Page 2 other competing priorities for funding during the upcoming fiscal year and we, therefore, believe the Budget Committee should review this matter before further action is taken by the Personnel Department to develop a program. Contra Personnel Department Costa Administration Bldg. I 651 Pine Street County Martine.• California 94553-1292 DATE: June 4, 1987 TO: Internal Operations Committee ontra COMM(" RECEIVE! FROM: Kim Franklin, Administrative Ai*V ,JUN 3 SUBJECT: Child Care Program Options office County!Admir115irator The Internal Operations Committee directed Personnel staff at its meeting on April 27, 1987 to collect information on dependent care assistance plans and sick child care programs. The information on these two child care program options follows. DEPENDENT CARE ASSISTANCE PLAN A Dependent Care Assistance Plan (DCAP) is designed to be a mechanism by which an employer can offer child care as a tax-free benefit to employees. The DCAP requires that employers establish a written plan, not discriminate in favor of highly compensated individuals, officers or owners and provide a written statement of benefits received under the plan to each employee who receives those benefits. The maximum amount that employees may place in. the reimbursement account may not exceed $5000 per year. Married employees who file seperately may only set aside a maximum of $2500 per year per employee. The amount deposited into the reimbursement account is not included as part of the employees' taxable wages: therefore, no income taxes are withheld on the amounts deposited. The employee is _taxed only on that part of the salary remaining after contributions are made to the reimbursement account. As a result, the employees' taxable income is reduced by the amount contributed to the account. Withholdings for Federal and State income. taxes are redu- ced. The Dependent Care Assistance Program is a cost efficient step in providing a child care service for County employees because it also reduces the the County's payroll taxes. SICK CHILD CARE One of the biggest problems facing parent employees is trying to make arrangements for care when their children become ill . This problem affects work productivity because without proper care for their children County employees miss work, leave work early, come in late or deal with child care issues. during work hours. The losses sustained by the County in misused sick leave is substantiated by data collected from the County work force as follows: - Employees missed an average of 7.7 days per year. - A total of $ 4,123,240 per year in wages were paid for lost work days. The scope of the problem is as follows: (1) Licensing regulations in child care centers do not allow care for children who are ill . (2) Many parents find their jobs and/or schooling in jeopardy if they stay home to care for their sick child. (3) Last minute, temporary child care arrangements are expensive and difficult to make. Recently, the State has established guidelines for licensure of day care centers for ill children. The following information represents the condi- tions under which licensing for day care centers for ill children is issued. - "Day Care Center for Ill Children" means any facility other than a family day care home which provides less that 24 hour care and supervision for children who are mildly ill with non-contagious illnesses. - There must be a ratio of one teacher/aide for every three infants. - There must be a ratio of one teacher and one aide for every twelve preschool-age children. - A teacher may supervise no more than six preschool-age children or with an aide a maximum of twelve children. - There must be a ratio of one teacher and one aide for every sixteen school-age children. - A teacher may supervise no more than eight school-age children or with an aide a maximum of sixteen children. - Staffing requirements for mixed age groups will be determined on the basis of the age of the youngest child in the group. - Children must be provided 'a daily inspection and health screening assessment by a qualified licensed health professional prior to acceptance into the center. RECOMMENDATION If funding sources are available it is recommended that the County develop and administer a Dependent Care Assistance Plan for County employees. It is also recommended that the County develop child care centers for mildly ill children. The establishment of on or near-site centers will provide County employees with reliable care at convenient, central locations and at hours which accommodate the employee's work demands. The program can be developed independently by the County or may be developed with other companies in a consortium arrangement or can be designed and operated by a non-profit agency hired by the County which has experience running other centers in the community.