(a) This section shall apply only if a provider organization has been certified pursuant to Section 8434.

(b) If the state, or a department, political subdivision, contractor, or subcontractor that administers a state-funded early care and education program chooses to disseminate mass communications to family childcare providers or applicants for participation in state-funded early care and education programs concerning providers’ rights to join or support a provider organization or a certified provider organization, or to refrain from joining or supporting a provider organization or a certified provider organization, the Department of Human Resources or the Governor’s designee shall meet and confer with the certified provider organization concerning the content of the mass communication.

(c) If the state, or a department or political subdivision of the state that administers a state-funded early care or education program, is the entity sending a mass communication, and the Department of Human Resources and the certified provider organization do not agree on the content of the mass communication covered by this section, and if the state, or a department or political subdivision of the state, still chooses to disseminate the mass communication, the state, or a department or political subdivision of the state, shall distribute to the family childcare providers, in addition to, and at the same time as, its own mass communication, a communication of reasonable length provided to the state, or a department or political subdivision of the state, by the certified provider organization. The certified provider organization shall provide the state, or a department or political subdivision of the state, with adequate copies of its own mass communication before distribution.

(d) This section does not apply to the distribution of a communication concerning provider rights that has been adopted for purposes of this section by the Public Employment Relations Board or the Department of Human Resources.

(e) For purposes of this section, a “mass communication” means a written document, or script for an oral or recorded presentation or message, that is intended for delivery to multiple providers.

(Added by Stats. 2019, Ch. 385, Sec. 26. (AB 378) Effective January 1, 2020.)