The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

1. (a) There is a severe shortage of child care for schoolage children throughout California, with many schoolage children going home to an empty, unsupervised setting after school.
2. (b) For nearly five years several counties have participated in a pilot program that allows for a family day care home to care for two additional children above the current number allowed pursuant to licensing regulations.

3. (c) As part of the pilot program, a study was conducted by the Assembly Office of Research. The results of the study demonstrated that the pilot program achieved all of the following results:

   1. (1) Increased access to care for schoolage children.
   2. (2) Participating providers encountered few problems and strongly support expansion of the program.
   3. (3) Parents of children in the pilot program family day care homes strongly support the program.
   4. (4) Participating providers with additional children were no more likely to receive substantiated complaints from licensing officials than nonparticipants.
   5. (5) Local governments and planning officials saw little or no impact on their licensing policies and procedures.
   6. (6) Overall quality of care was not adversely affected.