Advocacy
Every Child California's ECE Voices Coachella Valley Event
Thank you La Red Network of Family Child Care Providers, Child Care Resource Center, and ECE Voices for hosting our Coachella Valley ECE Voices Dine N’ Learn last month in Palm Desert!
We appreciate all the Riverside County child care providers who share their current successes and challenges at this event!
We would also like to thank Senator Alex Padilla, and Assemblyman Jeff Gonzalez, and Assemblyman Greg Wallis. This event could not have been possible without you all!
Thank for inviting us as the guest speaker. So much was accomplished, but there is still much more work to do. Together, let’s continue to work to be a strong voice for all of California’s children and families!
If you would like to join ECE Voices and become a member, please reach Jennifer Portillo at jeportillo@ccrcca.org or James Moses at jmoses@ccrcca.org. We look forward to seeing you all in future Every Child California’s ECE Voices Riverside County events!
Photo Gallery
CELS: Leading the Way for Early Childhood Success
Our goal is to:
- Support Funding and Infrastructure
- Promote Diversity and understanding of cultures
- Promote Land Use Regulations that favor the child care sector, especially the family child care home providers
- Increase child care slots to meet the fast-growing population in Riverside County
- Support the upward economy
- Improve the workforce
- Educate the public through legislative events
An interactive, online report, the 2023 California County Scorecard of Children’s Well-Being delivers a current and comprehensive picture of children’s health, education, and welfare in every one of California’s 58 counties. This report provides county-level data mapping, tracking key indicators of child well-being across counties, over time, and by race and ethnicity. Click the button below for the Riverside County Scorecard.
Data that has been suppressed due to small sample size or large margin of error, or data that is unavailable is in gray.
For any questions, please email researchmail@childrennow.org.
Child Care Availability map
Click here to access the Interactive map.
Other Resources
Child Care Provider and Family Needs
- Rate Reform – Establish Alternate Cost of Care Rates by Deadlines
- Contract Earnings – Reimbursement Based on Enrollment Instead of Attendance
- Slot Release – Follow-Through With the Promised 200,000 SlotsRate
Rate Reform
ISSUE:
- Current rates are based on a percentage of the private market rates, and not the true cost of care
- Providers face economic and food insecurity, and the majority of these workers are women of color.
- Parents can’t afford to pay enough for providers to earn a fair wage, providers are expected to underwrite the cost.
REQUEST:
- Pay for the cost of care for ALL subsidized child care providers.
Contract Earnings
ISSUE:
- Programs will close, and families who are already struggling will beunable to work. Providers will be unemployed.
REQUEST:
- Extend hold harmless past July 2025, until the new rate system isup and running.
Slot Release
ISSUE:
- Low-income families struggle to work and attend school whileaffording childcare. Children are placed in non-educational andunsafe environments, having a devastating financial impact on CA.
REQUEST:
- Please, no more delays in releasing slots for families in need!
Hold Harmless was implemented during COVID-19 when reimbursements based on attendance would have devastated the industry. Being paid by enrollment vs attendance created a stable income for providers. Hold Harmless is set to expire in July 2025,forcing programs to return to being paid based on attendance. If we do not create a new reimbursement on time or based on the true cost of care and providers lose Hold Harmless, it will destabilize the industry, causing chaos in CA with childcare programs closing and families unable to work.
Riverside County - Family & Child Data
The 2021 California Child Care Portfolio, the 13th edition of a biennial report, presents a unique portrait of child care supply, demand, and cost statewide and county by county, as well as data regarding employment, poverty, and family budgets. The child care data in this report was gathered with the assistance of local child care resource and referral programs (R&Rs). R&Rs work daily to help parents find child care that best suits their family and economic needs. They also work to build and support the delivery of high-quality child care services in diverse settings throughout the state. To access the full report summary and county pages, go to our website at www.rrnetwork.org.
Child Care Data Tool
2024 STATE FACT SHEET
CHILD CARE & EARLY LEARNING IN CALIFORNIA
In California, federal and state early learning opportunities serve more than 464,577 children and families, or 17% of children ages 5 and under.
Unfortunately, the demand for quality care far outweighs the supply, so many families struggle to access and afford the care options they want or need. While there are several federally funded programs that provide working families with access to quality child care opportunities, limited funding leaves many eligible children unserved. The impacts of these challenges extend beyond families and carry over to the workplace. As a direct result, the national economy loses $122 billion annually in the form of lost earnings, productivity, and revenue.
STATE OF CHILD CARE IN CALIFORNIA
2,716,856
Children 5 & Under
62%
Children 5 & Under with All Available Parents in the Workforce
Data not available
Licensed Child Care Centers in 2023
Data not available
Licensed Family Child Care Homes in 2023
40%
Gap in the Supply of Child Care vs. the Potential Need
$17B
Estimated Economic Impact of Infant-Toddler Child Care Challenges Each Year
CHILD CARE & DEVELOPMENT
BLOCK GRANT (CCDBG)
639,963 CHILDREN 5 & UNDER ELIGIBLE
75,950 CHILDREN 5 & UNDER SERVED
ELIGIBLE CHILDREN 5 & UNDER SERVED
CHILD CARE & DEVELOPMENT
BLOCK GRANT (CCDBG)
639,963 CHILDREN 5 & UNDER ELIGIBLE
75,950 CHILDREN 5 & UNDER SERVED
ELIGIBLE CHILDREN 5 & UNDER SERVED
CHILD CARE & DEVELOPMENT
BLOCK GRANT (CCDBG)
639,963 CHILDREN 5 & UNDER ELIGIBLE
75,950 CHILDREN 5 & UNDER SERVED
ELIGIBLE CHILDREN 5 & UNDER SERVED
STATE-FUNDED PRE-K
204,733 CHILDREN ENROLLED
3-AND 4-YEAR
OLDS SERVED
California: Federal and State Child Care and Early Learning Funding
$1.15B CCDBG and Mandatory Funds
$1.36B Head Start and Early Head Start (includes AIAN HS/EHS when applicable)
$4M PDG B-5
$26.7M MIECHV
$58.8M IDEA Part C
$42.2M IDEA Part B, Sec. 619
$961.2M TANF Early Care and Education
$0 TANF Transferred to CCDBG
STATE INVESTMENT
$3.2B State-Funded Pre-K
$247.9M CCDBG State Match
$1.2M PDG B-5 State Match
ELEMENTS OF PROGRAM QUALITY
Program quality varies substantially within and across states.
Quality child care and early learning programs rely on a strong workforce, but low pay makes it difficult to recruit and retain educators. In California, child care workers earn $17.92 per hour ($37,270 annually).
Teacher-child ratios are crucial for ensuring safety, quality, and individual attention. Licensed center-based care providers participating in CCDBG are required to have the following ratios:
- Infant 1:4
- Toddler 1:6
- Preschool 1:12
The state’s pre-K program met 4.4/10 of NIEER’s Quality Standards Benchmarks, which represent minimum standards to support quality preschool programs.
Preschool Development Grant Birth Through Five (PDG B-5) is a competitive federal grant designed to improve states’ early childhood systems. California’s PDG B-5 accomplishments include:
- Developed the Master Plan for Early Learning and Care: Making California for All Kids, a roadmap that was created with extensive input from stakeholders across the state.
- Expanded equitable access to quality higher education opportunities for early childhood educators with the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
CHILD AND DEPENDENT CARE TAX CREDIT (CDCTC)
The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) directly helps working parents offset the cost of child care.
In its current form, the credit only reaches a small percentage of families and has been swiftly outpaced by the escalating cost of child care as it lacks any adjustment for inflation.
Last permanently updated in 2001, the current credit averages
$500-$600 a year.
CDCTC IN CALIFORNIA BY TAX YEAR
2020
- 530,170: Number of taxpayers claiming the CDCTC
- $575: Average credit
2021
The CDCTC was temporarily expanded and made refundable for one year in response to the pandemic.
- 594,680: Number of taxpayers claiming the CDCTC (an additional 64,510 from 2020)
- $2,105: Average Credit (an additional $1,530 from 2020, on average)
TODAY
The temporary expansion expired; the CDCTC reverted back to 2001 levels.
- $500-600: Average credit
NOTE: Major provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) expire at the end of 2025, giving Congress the opportunity to modernize the CDCTC and other tax provisions to better help working families offset the cost of quality child care.
