Child Care

Local Child Care and Development Planning Councils

Last Updated Oct 6, 2008 07:41 AM

The Budget Act of 2003 appropriated $2.2 billion for the California Department of Education's (CDE), Child Development Programs in a mix of 53 percent state funds and 47 percent federal funds. This amount represents a 3.7 percent decrease from the previous year. Over 2,000 contracts are dispersed through approximately 850 public and private agencies statewide to support and provide services to more than 584,000 children.

General Child Care and Development

General child care and development programs are state and federally funded programs that use centers and family child care home networks operated or administered by either public or private agencies and local educational agencies. These agencies provide child development services for children from birth through 12 years of age and older children with exceptional needs. These programs provide an educational component that is developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate for the children served. The programs also provide meals and snacks to children, parent education, referrals to health and social services for families, and staff development opportunities to employees.

Migrant Child Care and Development

Migrant child care and development programs serve the children of agricultural workers while their parents are at work. The centers are open for varying lengths of time during the year, depending largely on the harvest activities in the area. In addition to these center-based programs, the budget for fiscal year 2003-04 continues to provide for the Migrant Alternative Payment Network Program that allows eligibility and funding for services that follow migrant families as they move from place to place to find work in the Central Valley.

Campus Child Care and Development

Campus child care and development programs are intended primarily to care for the children of parents enrolled in college. The centers are typically operated by either student associations or the college administration and provide the same comprehensive services as general child care and development programs.

State Preschool

State preschool programs are part-day comprehensive developmental programs for three- to five-year-old children from low-income families. The programs emphasize parent education and encourage parent involvement. In addition to preschool education activities that are developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate for the children served, the state preschool programs provide meals or snacks to children, referrals to health and social services for families, and staff development opportunities to employees. These programs are administered through local educational agencies, colleges, community-action agencies, and private nonprofit agencies.

State Preschool Full-Day Program

The Budget Act of 1997-98 allowed state preschool program contractors the opportunity to extend their half-day programs to full-day programs with certain restrictions. Some current state preschool providers chose this wrap-around of their existing half-day programs to provide families with the extended services parents needed to maintain employment, meet work participation requirements, or to participate in education or job training. Agencies providing full-day services continue to operate in a half-day mode as a state preschool program but must follow general child care rules and regulations for the remainder of the program day.

Severely Handicapped Program

The severely handicapped programs located in the San Francisco Bay Area provide care and supervision, age and developmentally appropriate activities, therapy, youth guidance, and parental counseling to eligible children and young adults from birth to 21 years of age. Recipients of these services must have an individualized education plan (IEP) or an individualized family service plan (IFSP) issued through special education programs.

School Age Community Child Care Services (Latchkey)

School-age community child care programs provide a safe environment with age- and developmentally appropriate activities for school-age children during the hours immediately before and after the normal school day and during school vacations. These programs must have a minimum of 50 percent enrollment from families that can pay the full cost of care, although this requirement may be waived when the agency can demonstrate the impracticality of such a requirement.

Alternative Payment Program

Alternative payment programs (APPs), funded with state and federal funds, offer an array of child care arrangements for parents, such as in-home care, family child care, and center-based care. The APP helps families arrange child care services and makes payment for those services directly to the child care provider selected by the family. The APP is intended to increase parental choice and accommodate the individual needs of the family.

CalWORKs Child Care

Recipients of the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) grant program are required to engage in work or work preparation activities. CalWORKs programs provide an array of welfare-to-work services. Child care is provided with state and federal funds in three stages.

Stage 1 is administered by the California Department of Social Services through county welfare departments (CWDs). Stage 1 begins when a participant enters the CalWORKs grant program and engages in activities pursuant to a welfare-to-work plan developed by the CWD for each family. The CWDs refer families to resource and referral agencies to assist them in finding child care providers. Some CWDs pay those providers directly for the services performed. Many CWDs have a sub-contract with APPs to pay for the child development services.

Stage 2 is administered by CDE through its APPs. CalWORKs families are transferred into Stage 2 when the CWD deems the family to be stable. Participation in Stage 1 and/or Stage 2 is limited to two years after the family stops receiving a CalWORKs grant. In addition to the services that CDE provides, small portions of the services in Stage 2 are administered by the California community colleges through its centers or an AP delivery system for the benefit of students.

Stage 3 is also administered by CDE through its APPs. A family can move to this stage when it has exhausted its two-year limit in Stage 1 and/or Stage 2 (referred to as timing out), and for as long as the family remains otherwise eligible for child care programs.

Resource and Referral

Resource and referral programs provide information to all parents and the community about the availability of child care in their area. The programs assist potential providers in the licensing process; provide direct services, including training; and they coordinate community resources for the benefit of parents and local child care providers. These services are available in all 58 California counties.

Quality Improvement Plan Activities

California's commitment to early childhood education and child development spans five decades. California continues to promote a positive child- and family-focused philosophy. Service to low-income families remains a priority, and state program goals demand that high-quality child development programs and services be made available. The quality improvement plan for federal fiscal year 2004 includes the federal mandates for infant/toddler capacity building, resource and referral programs, and school-age capacity building. The quality improvement plan projects are described in detail in Part 5 of the Child Care and Development Fund State Plan (PDF; 402KB; 81 pp.).

Local child care and development planning councils (LPCs) support the overall coordination of child care services in each of the 58 counties. The LPCs are mandated to conduct assessments of county child care needs and to prepare plans to address identified needs. These assessments must contain information on the supply and demand for child care, including the need for both subsidized and nonsubsidized care.

See also Child Care 414 1 - 12