Child Care and Development Quality Initiatives

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About


The Learning Innovation and Improvement Office (LII) provides system infrastructure and professional development supports to the childcare workforce. LII supports continuous quality improvement through advocacy, professional development, and workforce incentives. The office provides statewide technical assistance to local program administrators that oversee quality infrastructure grants and contracts that are primarily funded with federal Child Care and Development Funds (CCDF).

Early Learning Resources:

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) and the California Department of Education (CDE) develop early learning resources to support the child care and early education workforce to improve their knowledge and skills in serving young children. Visit CDSS-CCDD Publications to explore a multitude of publications and videos, including the California Learning Foundations, Frameworks, and Program Guidelines. 

Current Quality Initiatives, Projects, and Programs



California Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Network:
The Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) Network delivers consultation services, resources, and training activities for early learning and care center-based program staff, family child care providers, and family, friend, and neighbor caregivers. IECMHC Network services are offered at no cost for early learning and care center-based programs and home-based care providers in California. The IECMHC Network’s services are designed to build the capacity of program staff and care providers to foster the developmental, social, and emotional health and well-being of young children in their care. . Visit IECMHC Network .
Family Child Care at Its Best:
Training and quality improvement services are provided to family childcare providers throughout the state. Child development content is presented to support serving children in mixed age groups. Courses are offered in English, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic and Farsi. Visit Family Child Care at its Best
California Early Childhood Mentor Program (CECMP):
Mentor activities are provided at 104 community college campuses to support practicum students with access to experienced mentor teachers and mentor directors. For more information, Visit California Early Childhood Mentor Program.
Child Development Training Consortium (CDTC):
Yosemite Community College District/Child Development Training Consortium (YCCD/CDTC) offers tuition assistance, tutoring, textbook loaning services, Spanish language translation and technical assistance for student support services, including Child Development permit stipends through two programs: the Child Development Permit Stipend Program; the Early Learning and Care Student Support Program. For college faculty, the Curriculum Alignment Project and the Professional Development Project serve to offer specialized professional development activities and common course guidelines for faculty in 104 community colleges. In addition, the CDTC offers a search option of the California Community Colleges and State Universities online early childhood education and child development courses. Visit Child Development Training Consortium.
Dual Language Learning Project
Fresno Unified School District offers the Language Learning Project developed to increase knowledge and skills for Family Child Care (FCC) and Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) providers in the area of dual language learners (DLL). Utilizing best instructional practices for DLLs through Personalized Oral Language (s) Learning (POLL) strategies, the project aims to support providers serving infant/toddler and preschool age children. Offering a Training of Trainers model, the project collaborates with local Resource and Referral agencies to ensure professional development activities are in place. Visit www.pollstrategies.org
California Preschool Instructional Network (CPIN)/Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE):
CPIN/SCOE Leads provide statewide professional development activities, on-site (virtual) technical assistance to preschool program administrators and teachers to improve the quality of preschool programs for children, including children with special needs and dual language learners. Visit CPIN.
California Teaching Pyramid:
The California Collaborative on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning Teaching Pyramid approach provides a systematic framework that promotes social and emotional development, provides support for children’s appropriate behavior and promotes positive interactions. This program provides Train-the-Trainer and Train-the-Coach Institutes and support for trainers and coaches through a community of practice. Visit Teaching Pyramid.
Beginning Together:
Existing Early Learning and Care (ELC) trainers are provided training, certification, and technical assistance to ensure that children, birth to age five, with disabilities are successfully included in ELC settings and appropriate inclusive practices are promoted. Visit Beginning Together
Program for Infant Toddler Care (PITC):
The PITC provides Training-of-Trainer Institutes for local or regional trainers and coaches, and higher education faculty. The PITC also provides Academies for Program Directors and Family Child Care Providers, webinars, and resources for infant and toddler care providers. The PITC Regional Support Network provides regional training, training and on-site technical assistance and coaching activities at the local level to improve the quality of ELC services for infants and toddlers. The PITC also provides an online infant and toddler course eligible for academic units that count towards a provider’s infant and toddler unit requirement. Visit Program for Infant Toddler Care
Desired Results (DR) Field Training:
The DR Field Training provides training and technical assistance in all areas of the DR System to assist programs in using assessment for program quality improvement around the use of CA’s child observation tool, the Desired Results Developmental Profile. Visit Desired Results
California Early Childhood Online (CECO):
This free online learning system offers overview modules covering key early learning and care publications and resources and other state-approved content. Each module, between one and four hours, provides basic information on approved early learning content, including California’s foundations, frameworks, Desired Results, program guidelines, Healthy and Active Preschoolers, Strengthening Families, Health and Safety course for Family, Friend and Neighbor providers, and many more. Registered participants receive certificates upon successful completion of each module. Most modules are available in Spanish. Visit California Early Childhood Online
Streaming Video Subscription Service:
Developed under the CDE and now transitioned to the CDSS, is an online streaming video service for California’s educational resources on one simple platform. Videos include Infant Toddler Foundations; Preschool Foundations; Preschool Program Guidelines; New Perspectives on Infant and Toddler Learning, Development, and Care; Guidelines for Early Learning in Child Care Home Settings; and A World Full of Language/Un mundo lleno de lenguaje, and many more. Single users or organizations can access videos for free and on demand for individual use or in college courses and professional learning events. Visit California Early Learning Videos
Child Care and Local Planning Councils (LPCs):
The primary mission of the LPCs is to plan for childcare and development services based on the needs of families in the local community. LPCs are intended to serve as a forum to address the childcare needs of all families in the community for all types of childcare, both subsidized and non-subsidized. For more information, email us at LPC@dss.ca.gov. Visit the LPC webpage.
R&R programs:
R&Rs, located in every county in the state, help families find child care that best meets their needs, recruit and train child care providers, and collect data from parents and child care providers. R&Rs provide a variety of services to parents seeking care, to providers seeking professional development and incentives for remaining in the profession, and to communities seeking support for their youngest residents. Certain counties have multiple R&Rs that cover specific regions by zip code. R&Rs also administer the TrustLine background check application process and many participate in the Foster Care Bridge Program which serves to leverage Trauma Informed Care training into local community provider CCIP training. For more information, email us at CRRP@dss.ca.gov. Visit the Resource and Referral webpage.
Child Care Initiative Project (CCIP):
The CCIP is a statewide project funded to build supply and improve the quality of care. Efforts include recruiting license exempt providers to become licensed, as well as providing supports to assist small homes with a goal of increased capacity and inclusion of infants and toddlers. Activities to support retention of child care providers are also included. The California Child Care Resource and Referral (R&R) Network team supports local R&R agencies by providing a training of trainer model that utilizes culturally sensitive multilingual training based in the California Foundations and Frameworks and other research based best practices such as Caring for our Children as well as supporting and articulating Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Title 22 requirements. Visit California Child Care R&R Network or email at CCIP@dss.ca.gov

https://rrnetwork.org/ccip

https://rrnetwork.org/login

Subsidized Trustline Applicant Reimbursement:
R&Rs cover and are reimbursed for the fees associated with the TrustLine registration process for license-exempt child care providers serving families receiving subsidized child care or participating in CalWORKs Stages two and three. TrustLine, created by the California Legislature to give parents an important tool to use when selecting a caregiver for their children, is the registry of California in-home and license-exempt child care providers who have passed a background screening.
Strengthening Families Network and Trainer Coordination:
A network of R&R trainers have been certified and serve as core trainers on the national Strengthening Families ™ model to provide training to local providers on the five protective factors and participate in communities of practice. This is the family engagement model adopted by QCC.
Quality Counts California (QCC):
The goal of QCC is to ensure that children in California have access to high quality programs so that they thrive in their early learning settings and succeed in kindergarten and beyond. The QCC Consortium strives to improve the quality of early learning and care with a focus in three areas of program quality: child development and readiness for school; teachers and teaching; and program and environment quality. QCC is supported by funding from CDE, CDSS, and First 5 California. This tri-agency effort at the state-level includes communication tools, such as a weekly email as well as the Quality Counts California website. Specific CDSS supports include the following:
QCC Block Grant:
The QCC Block Grant allows the local and Tribal consortia the opportunity to provide training, technical assistance, and resources to help all ELC providers improve their quality and meet a higher level of quality. Visit QCC Block Grant
QCC Workforce Pathways Grant:
The QCC Workforce Pathways Grant supports increased learning and healthy development of California’s young children by increasing the number of qualified ELC professionals and increasing the educational credentials, knowledge, and competencies of existing ELC professionals across the state via workforce incentives. For more information please send your email to QCCworkforce@dss.ca.gov

California Early Learning Career Lattice
Infrastructure Grant Program:
On July 23, 2021, the Legislature enacted the Child Care and Development Infrastructure Grant Program, detailed in Welfare and Institutions Code section 10310., a $250 million investment in the child care infrastructure across the State of California that is to be administered in the form of grants by the California Department of Social Services (CDSS). The CDSS will administer $100 million in grants for minor construction, renovations, and repairs to address health and safety concerns. Additionally, the CDSS will administer $150 million in grants for major construction of shovel-ready childcare facilities. The CDSS will put out two (2) separate Request for Applications (RFAs) on a competitive basis for each funding source. Visit our website at Child Care and Development Infrastructure Grant or email us at CCDDFacilities@dss.ca.gov.

Additional Resources


800-Kids-793 Phone Line for Parents:
A toll-free phone system, accessible to the public throughout the state of California, that provides general child care information to and connects all parents, child care providers, and other interested individuals to their local child care resource and referral programs in California.
All About Young Children:
A website in eight different languages where families can find out about what skills help children learn, how they learn language, how they learn about feelings and relationships, how they learn about numbers, and how they become skillful at moving their bodies. Information for families on children's early development is available in five different age range. Visit https://allaboutyoungchildren.org/
California Making Access Possible (MAP) to Inclusion and Belonging:
MAP is a website committed to providing the most current research and information on improving access to services and care for children with disabilities and other special needs and their families, and includes support, education, and access to training for providers and the families they serve. Visit California MAP to Inclusion and Belonging
CompSAT:
CompSAT is a competency-based, self-assessment tool kit for the early childhood education field. It is the companion to the California Early Childhood Educator (ECE) Competencies and guides early educators through a process of self-reflection and authentic assessment in the 12 competency areas detailed in the ECE Competencies. Visit ECE CompSAT.

A series of videos based on the ECE Competencies are accessible on the ECE CompSAT YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/ececompsat. Available in English and Spanish.

Early Learning Resources:
The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) and the California Department of Education (CDE) develop early learning resources to support the child care and early education workforce to improve their knowledge and skills in serving young children. Visit CDSS-CCDD Publications to explore a multitude of publications and videos, including the California Learning Foundations, Frameworks, and Program Guidelines.  

MyChildCarePlan.org:
MyChildCarePlan.org is a search and support website that offers a customizable child care search tool and live support from local child care counselors to help families make the best child care choices for their children. With MyChildCarePlan.org, parents can access the information they need to find child care they can trust, and providers can easily promote their services to families who need them. Learn more here: www.mychildcareplan.org

Contact Us: For more information, you can contact our office at 916-651-5382.

Contact Us

Child Care and Development Division 

744 P Street M.S. 9-8-360

Sacramento, CA 95814

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