Children Receiving a Subsidy Enrolled in Licensed Care

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HUMAN SERVICES AGENCY

FY 2017-18
Target: 60% of children
Target Status: 
MEETING TARGET

FY 2016-17
Result: 87% of children


This measure represents the proportion of children whose families are receiving a child care subsidy that are enrolled in licensed care. Child care providers are licensed through the California Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing (CDSS-CCL) and must meet certain requirement (e.g. health, safety, and program standards). Almost all licensed providers serving subsidized families in San Francisco must participate in continuous quality improvement plans and performance and outcome measures that substantially exceed state licensing and Title 5 requirements. A growing body of research confirms that high-quality early learning programs help improve child readiness for school, leading to higher test scores, better school attendance, higher rates of school completion, and greater likelihood of attending college.

PERCENT OF CHILDREN RECEIVING A CALWORKS SUBSIDY THAT ARE ENROLLED IN LICENSED CARE

How the Office of Early Care and Education is Performing

Child care subsidies in California generally take one of two forms: 1) “portable” vouchers, and 2) direct contract programs. Voucher-based subsidies allow subsidized families to choose among available eligible child care providers, both home-based and center-based, and payment is usually made directly to the provider on behalf of the family. Voucher-based subsidies are primarily funded by the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) for current CalWORKs recipients (CalWORKs Stage 1) or the California Department of Education (CDE) through “Alternative Payment Programs” (APP) via CalWORKs stages 2/3 and non-CalWORKs vouchers.

Directly contracted programs, often called “Title 5” programs, are generally licensed center-based care. However, licensed family child care providers are included through Family Child Care Home Education Networks (FCCHENs) to provide child care “slots” in a particular program. These contracted Title 5 programs meet specific regulatory requirements governing program structure, quality, and health and safety.

Children Receiving a Subsidy Enrolled in Licensed Care is a new performance measure that has not been tracked previously due to a lack of access to data from Title 5 centers. This data is now available and the Office of Early Care and Education (OECE) will begin to monitor subsidy enrollment data to increase participation in licensed child care among children receiving a subsidy. It is anticipated that increased funding to preserve, improve, and expand the supply and quality of licensed child care facilities through technical assistance, worker compensation, grants, loans and leveraged financing will contribute to system-wide improvements.

How Performance is Measured

This measure is calculated by determining the number of children in subsidized child care (both voucher-based programs and Title 5 providers) and then determining the portion of these children that are enrolled in licensed child care.

The number displayed on the scorecard page represents the most recent data from April 2018.

Additional Information

View detailed information and resources on the Children’s Council of San Francisco website.

Data

Please visit DataSF for the scorecard data.