Council combined four items brought forth by the Child Care Advisory Board (CCAB) at the 1997 December Study Issues Workshop. As the indicated at the December meeting, the items are interrelated, and as such, an initial review must be conducted in order to choose the most effective method of carrying out the items. The following is a workplan for all four items:

• A review of the City’s child care program, its projects and overall effectiveness.

• A feasibility study of how unlicensed providers might be more effectively encouraged to seek and obtain licensing through the coordinated effort of the City and other agencies.

• A feasibility study of how new child care providers and those interested in the field of child care, might be attracted and retained to the work in the child care field through a coordinated effort of the City and other agencies. This would also look at how to assist providers with the steps of reaching accreditation and how to help providers improve the business aspects of running a child care program.

• A study to examine how the City might assist in obtaining financial resources for child care programs committed to improving and/or developing child care programs.

The following report is organized as follows:

• Background information on City’s Involvement in Child Care

• Regional Perspective on Child Care

• Workplans for Each of the Study Issues

In 1989, the City completed a comprehensive study on its role in childcare, and from it a child care policy and work plan were adopted. The Child Care Advisory Board (CCAB) was also established to provide Council with technical assistance on the work plan. The work plan was scheduled for completion in a two-year time frame, however, the workplan proved to be more complex than originally anticipated. As such, the work plan and the life of the CCAB were extended. New items were added to the work plan. By 1995, most of the work plan items were completed, however, Council chose to maintain the CCAB with some modifications in size (reduce from 17 to 12) and meeting frequency (reduce from monthly to quarterly).

In that time, Sunnyvale has received over $220,000 in both in-kind support and funding for various child care projects. These include a "Child Care Options Guide" for employers, a consumer video on selecting quality child care, and various programs to assist child care providers with improving the quality of their programs. A Mervyn’s North Valley Family to Family Grant was awarded to the City to focus on recruitment and quality improvement of family child care. Additionally, small quality improvement grants and partial financial assistance with the costs of accreditation were offered to providers.

The City’s role on the issues of child care has been primarily of two functions: policy work and study on issues that provide direction on City services, and coordination of City services to providers and to the public. This has created various services coordinated for providers and consumers, as well as partnerships with other agencies. With the majority of the policy work completed in the program’s formative years, the bulk of the attention in recent years has focused on improving quality in existing child care programs.

Today, over 40 projects have been completed since the original workplan was established. The projects range from the establishment of the CCAB, programs for providers promoting ways to improve programs, to the collaborations with business and schools to increase child care.

Quality has been and continues to be a critical issue for both providers as well as consumers, however, the issues of affordability and availability have also increased in importance. Balancing this tripod of child care needs is the key to meeting the needs of our community.

According to Community Coordinated Child Development Council (4C’s) June 1998 report, in Sunnyvale, there are:

cumulatively providing 5,267 spaces, showing an overall increase in the number of spaces since 1990.

According to the 4C’s, a vacancy rate of 10% is considered a healthy rate for a community trying to meet its needs.

It is important to note that the diversity of child care needs has increased; more and more parents are seeking flexible schedule child care, mildly ill child care, temporary or emergency care, drop in care, care for children with special needs, bi-lingual, etc.

Achieving accreditation is an industry standard in program quality excellence, and is evaluated by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC). The number of Sunnyvale programs accredited have gone from 8 in 1995 to 14 in 1998. This is not easily achievable and held status as there are many reviews, the cost of materials and application is expensive to many programs ($425 - $1000), and it must be renewed.

As discussed later in this report, the cost of child care is one of the top monthly expenses for many families. A chart of average weekly child care rate is included in Attachment B.

Of the 9,526 children under 6 in Sunnyvale, 7% (724) are receiving TANF (now known as CalWorks) subsidies.

In Santa Clara County, there are a number of alternative payment programs which are primarily voucher based programs which make direct payment to the providers by a contracting agency. Each payment program operates under specific eligibility requirements and are typically funded by the California Department of Education, Child Development division. 4Cs is one of the programs able to distribute these vouchers. Unfortunately, there are only 1,453 spaces in this program. Of the 7,677 families county-wide on the 4C’s waiting list for these subsidies, 14% (1,110) are from Sunnyvale, representing 2,147 children.

The Child Care program is staffed by a part-time coordinator who provides a variety of services. These include assisting new and potential child care providers set up business, monitoring legislation, and coordinating programs and services designed to increase the number of affordable and quality child care programs. Additionally there are annual events, such as the Month of the Young Child, and other consumer awareness programs that this program participates in. Attachment C lists services. Staff also supports the CCAB.

Child Care has long been an issue of concern for policy makers, however, the attention paid to it has been cyclical and somewhat reflective of economic health. In the early 80’s , many companies were interested in the child care needs of their employees and as such, resource and referral services were offered as benefits, and in a few cases, companies got involved in establishing child care centers. A recession followed and employer interest in child care stagnated and/or diminished.

Child care enjoyed a renewed interest in the late 80’s. The economy had improved, and this time a substantial amount of legislation was introduced both at the state and federal levels. The federal government made Child Care Block Grants available. The State Department of Education encouraged cities to become greater involved by offering grants. As a result, many cities established child care programs and/or commissioned studies to review the issue in their communities.

In Santa Clara County, in addition to Sunnyvale, Palo Alto and San Jose hired child care coordinators and established advisory boards. Businesses renewed their interest and business organizations took policy positions on child care. Silicon Valley Manufacturers Group (formerly known as the Santa Clara Valley Manufacturers Group) and the National Association of Industrial Park were among them.

Again, interest waned consistent with a recession and state fiscal crisis in the mid-90’s. In the past two years, child care has become a much higher profile issue again. This is in part due to the federal government’s welfare reform legislation, but also in response to the economic rebound.

To respond to the thriving economy, and the number of adult family members in the work force, the demand for child care has increased. For those in transition from welfare as well as low income families, the need for affordable child care has never been so critical to their ability to remain independent of welfare assistance. Even with subsidy assistance, many families are having problems finding child care as many providers are not accepting alternative payment vouchers. It is important to note that even for those families who are not on welfare assistance nor considered low-income, Santa Clara County has one of the nation’s highest cost of living indexes and as such, the challenge of finding quality child care that is affordable is difficult. In the past four years, the cost of child care has increased as much as 23% for infant care.

County-wide, issues such as classroom size reduction and the option to add two school age children have made impacts in child care as well. Where classrooms that had been converted to on-site child care, these were being reclaimed by the schools, displacing school age child care spaces. SB 265 allowed providers to increase the number of school age spaces by two in exchange for one infant care space, which helped increase the number of school age spaces for family child care providers.

Next month, the Santa Clara County Local Planning Council will release a county wide needs assessment report on child care conducted this spring. An addendum RTC will be presented to Council when it is received. An article about the status of child care nationally is found in Attachment D.

Given the history and the current climate of child care, both here in Sunnyvale throughout the County, it is strongly recommended that the City examine its role in child care and what it can effectively accomplish, then develop a comprehensive approach. The critical components of quality, availability and affordability needs to be balanced consistently in order to meet the needs of the community, and it must be done in partnership with the resources that are available as well as take steps to identify other sources.

With these considerations, it is recommended that a review of the Child Care Program be conducted first, then a strategy and timeline for the following items will be determined. This review should be completed by December of this year. Based on the review, strategies will be developed for the other study items. Each of the study items deals with an issue of either quality improvement (training, licensing, staff retention, financial resource) or availability (increase number of providers, financial resources). Completion of all projects is anticipated by September, 1999.

• Review of the Child Care program

This item calls for a review of the program and an assessment for effectiveness to determine whether they should be continued, augmented, or dropped. Since the update of the initial workplan developed in 1989, the City has not taken a broad look at child care. As times and issues have changed, a review would guide the City in developing a complete and integrated approach for addressing current critical issues, and indicate the most strategic and/or tactical approach to completing the items listed below. It is also strongly recommended that a needs assessment be conducted prior to the initiation of any of the following work plans.

• Coordination of Training and Development for New Providers and Those Interested in Careers in Child Care

This issue is a feasibility study of how the City might coordinate and develop a program for new child care providers and those expressing interest in a career in the child care field.

The demand for child care workers has never been greater as the turnover rate has steadily been 50%. The most critical indicator of quality child care is a well trained child care provider and a program with consistent staffing. The need to attract and retain quality child care workers is essential to serve the child care needs of the community.

This study will examine how through a collaborative effort with such partners such as the NOVA Private Industry Council, the Community Child Care Development Council, Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce, Choices for Children, local educational institutions, and established child care providers, a program might bring and retain providers to Sunnyvale and assist with the steps of reaching accreditation (an industry standard in program quality excellence). It will also examine ways in which providers can improve the business aspects of a child care program.

Additionally, it will provide a cost estimate of such a program with the understanding that the City would be spearheading and coordinating efforts through the establishment of a collaborative and that partner agencies would be executing program components.

• Program to encourage child care providers to become licensed

This issue calls for a feasibility study to be done on how the City might coordinate a program through a collaborative effort of agencies to encourage child care providers to become licensed providers.

It is recognized that many child care providers are operating child care programs without a license. Licenses are the minimum basic health and safety standards set by the state of California Community Care, Licensing division. CCAB believes that the City has the positive and friendly influence in the community to encourage these providers to obtain licensing. Although the City cannot enforce licensing, CCAB believes it has the presence in the community to positively encourage providers to at least attend presentations and learn about the rewards and responsibilities of becoming licensed.

Initial research will look at the process of getting licensed and the reasons why providers aren’t seeking, obtaining, and/or retaining licenses. It will also examine what methods have shown to be effective in other communities and whether this is an issue that the City can, in fact, effectively influence. If so, who would be the partners in a collaborative effort and what are their roles, what are the necessary steps and a cost estimate of coordinating such a program.

• Financial resources for Child Care Providers

This feasibility study would examine ways in which the City and/or other funding resources might be able to assist providers in obtaining funds to develop and/or enhance the quality of their programs. Low interest loans, grant funding and other resources would be examined.

CCAB believes availability and quality are two critical aspects of child care which would be more effectively addressed by the City’s support in developing sources of financial assistance. The City has supported projects that have assisted with the development of child care programs (loans to the Sunnyvale School District for modular facilities to be used for child care and infant care, grants to homes and centers to increase the number of infant spaces) as well as programs to help improve quality (grants for accreditation training and fees).

Studies may require some outside assistance, however, this cost can be absorbed by the program. Costs for implementing any projects recommended by the study, however, are not currently budgeted.

Publication of Agenda. A special meeting of the CCAB was called on August 13, 1998, however, it was unable to reach quorum. The six members present did discuss the item and spoke in favor of doing a comprehensive review before beginning the other three items.

1. Adopt workplan as submitted.
2. Modify workplan.
3. Reject workplan and direct staff with specific changes.

Staff recommends alternative #1.

Approved by:

Robert S. LaSala
City Manager

A. Council Study Issues
B. Average Weekly Cost of Child Care in Sunnyvale
C. Child Care Program Services
D. "Confronting the Child Care Challenge", from GOVERNING magazine, June, 1998