Advocacy
CELS: Leading the Way for Early Childhood Success
CELS is the leading agency in Riverside County to support Early Care and Education field to educate and advocate for the improvement of the lives of children and families in Riverside County. We have held legislative meetings with our local government, legislative breakfast, supported bills and educated the local community and government to ensure the representation of our voice is heard at the capital as well. Our goal is to:
- Support Funding and Infrastructure
- Promote Diversity
- Promote Land Use Regulations that favor the child care sector, especially the family child care providers.
- Increase child care slots to meet the fast-growing population in Riverside County to support the upward economy.
- Increasing professional recognition
- Improving the workforce
- Educating the public
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.
