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California: Child Care Initiative Program—Building the Supply of Quality FCC Homes
Oct 15, 2009 | Child Care and Early Education
The California Child Care Initiative Project (CCIP) aims to increase the supply of quality child care options by recruiting, training, and retaining licensed family child care (FCC) home providers. CCIP has a five-step approach to improving the availability of quality care options in communities:
- Assess child care supply and demand
- Recruit individuals to become providers
- Provide training to improve the quality of care, knowledge of child development, health and safety, and business practices
- Provide technical assistance
- Offer on-going support to providers
CCIP began in 1985 in response to a shortage of quality licensed child care, including infant/toddler care, and was launched as a public-private partnership in a select number of California communities. The program was funded with state General Funds and required a local 2:1 match. Welfare reform policy changes and the availability of federal Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) quality dollars later allowed the program to be expanded. In 1992, CCIP was expanded to recruit more Spanish-speaking providers, and in 1997, some Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (R&Rs) used CCDBG funding to implement CCIP with an infant/toddler focus. Positive evaluation reports of the training in 1999 and 2000 helped to support the program’s growth. Since 2002, CCIP has been implemented on a statewide level and funded continuously using CCDBG quality dollars.
Although CCIP is open to all licensed family child care providers, regardless of the age range of children served, the program has the potential to support a significant share of infant/toddler care. As of April 2008, family child care homes served nearly 24,000 children ages 0–3 years old, in the state. This translates to about a quarter of all children cared for in family child care homes.
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