republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20152016/ab-271.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Child care: alternative payment programs and contractors: electronic records: digital signatures."
description: "The Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State Department of Education, provides that children from infancy to 13 years of age are eligible, with certain requirements, for child care and development services. The act requires the department to contract with local contracting agencies to provide for alternative payment programs, and authorizes alternative payment programs for services provided in licensed centers and family day care homes and for other types of programs that conform to applicable law. Existing law authorizes alternative payment programs and providers and other contractors providing child care development services to maintain records in electronic format if the original documents were created in electronic format, including, but not limited to, child immunization records."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 271"
citation: "California AB 271 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Child care: alternative payment programs and contractors: electronic records: digital signatures."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Obernolte"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 23
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2015-02-10"
last_action: "2015-10-04"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/bddb0a0f-35fc-40c8-9f70-62a769d3741f"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB271"
source_hash: "1b7a69d50fe7e914220b87d3fd58085801fe1ebbaa8e69449685e2635bc6472b"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 271 (20152016) — Child care: alternative payment programs and contractors: electronic records: digital signatures.

The Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State Department of Education, provides that children from infancy to 13 years of age are eligible, with certain requirements, for child care and development services. The act requires the department to contract with local contracting agencies to provide for alternative payment programs, and authorizes alternative payment programs for services provided in licensed centers and family day care homes and for other types of programs that conform to applicable law. Existing law authorizes alternative payment programs and providers and other contractors providing child care development services to maintain records in electronic format if the original documents were created in electronic format, including, but not limited to, child immunization records.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/10/15 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB271&version=20150AB27199INT)
2. **04/07/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB271&version=20150AB27198AMD)
3. **05/28/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB271&version=20150AB27197AMD)
4. **10/04/15 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB271&version=20150AB27195CHP)
5. **AB271** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB271)
6. **09/03/15 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB271&version=20150AB27196ENR)

## Votes

- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 271 OBERNOLTE Assembly Third Reading — **80–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB271 Obernolte By McGuire — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Human Services] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Obernolte — primary (person)
- Morrell — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2015-02-10** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2015-02-11** From printer. May be heard in committee March 13.
- **2015-02-17** Referred to Com. on HUM. S. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-06** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (March 24). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-04-07** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-04-08** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-15** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2015-05-28** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (May 28). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-05-28** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-06-01** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-06-03** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 80. Noes 0. Page 1854.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-06-03** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2015-06-18** Referred to Coms. on ED. and HUMAN S. `referral-committee`
- **2015-07-08** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on HUMAN S. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (July 8). Re-referred to Com. on HUMAN S. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-07-15** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (July 14). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-08-17** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2015-08-27** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 27). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-08-31** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-09-01** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2344.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-09-01** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2015-09-10** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2015-10-04** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2015-10-04** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 476, Statutes of 2015.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/bddb0a0f-35fc-40c8-9f70-62a769d3741f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).