30:5B-22.1 Findings, declarations relative to family child care providers.

1. The Legislature finds and declares that:

a. Family child care providers in the State of New Jersey provide an invaluable and essential service to working parents and guardians by providing a healthy, safe and productive environment for their children while they are engaged in work or training;

b. The State recognizes the importance of these services and recognizes the need to continue and improve both the quality of care and the living and working conditions of the providers;

c. The Department of Children and Families is vested with the authority to regulate and set standards for the registration of family child care homes, and the Department of Human Services provides funding for the administration and enforcement of the operation of family child care homes, establishes reimbursement rates, and administers child care subsidy services for the Child Care Development Fund;

d. To ensure quality standards of care, it is in the public interest for New Jersey to maintain a child care delivery system that encourages the recruitment and retention of quality family child care providers to deliver these vital services;

e. In 2006, a majority of family child care providers selected a union to be their representative by individually signed authorization cards, and the State Board of Mediation certified the Child Care Workers Union (CCWU), a union formed by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO (AFSCME) and the Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO (CWA) to be the providers' exclusive majority representative; and

f. The State subsequently entered into an agreement with the CCWU in its capacity as exclusive majority representative for the family child care providers.

L.2009, c.299, s.1.