This Early Learning Master Plan for Santa Clara County presents both a snapshot of the state of early childhood education in Santa Clara County as of 2017 and a roadmap for the future, with goals, milestones, and actions aimed to address the needs of children ages birth to eight, their families, and the providers who teach and care for them. It also provides an overview of progress made since 2010, current needs, and specific goals and steps to address those needs between now and 2024.
Planning, Budgeting, and Finance │ Center for Early Learning Systems
Developing a rationale and approach for expanding access to preschool or other early care and education programs is an important part of the planning process. AIR offers tools for planning and budgeting for quality initiatives on a “system-wide” basis, such as within a state, county, city, or one or more school districts. AIR also offers information on finance options.
There are both short-term and long-term approaches to financing quality preschool. A long-term strategy might be to secure a stable state or federal revenue source and investment equivalent to that in kindergarten. But even in the event that such a source became available, localities may still want to consider supplemental finance strategies. As is the case with K-12 education in the United States, even preschool initiatives with a dedicated state revenue source are unlikely to get all the support they need.
AIR offers technical assistance related to finance options from a local perspective. Some of the options are sufficient to sustain access to preschool, at least within targeted neighborhoods, even without a statewide dedicated funding source.
Related Resources and Tools
21 Nov 2016
Presentation
This presentation was given by AIR staff to stakeholders in Oakland in 2016. It describes a strategy for city leaders and stakeholders to expand access to quality programs to 3- and 4-year-olds in the city, identifying the areas of highest need.
16 Jun 2010
Policy Brief
There are several challenges to assessing the quality and adequacy of early learning services for children in California. The purpose of this policy brief is to improve the knowledge base on the utilization, quality, and access to early learning and care services for infants and toddlers in California.
10 May 2009
Policy Brief
Unlike the K-12 school system, the preschool system does not maintain unique child identifiers, making it difficult to impossible to track children’s enrollment in child care. This needs assessment of preschool supply and demand in the state of California uses existing public data sources to estimate, by county and zip code, the population of preschool children and the number enrolled in publicly contracted and privately operated programs.
10 Apr 2009
Policy Brief
In California, the demand for full-day, full-year early care and education programs has grown over time due to changing family needs. The purpose of this policy brief is specifically to address the financing issues involved in providing full-day, full-year preschool programs.
10 Apr 2009
Policy Brief
In 2003, First 5 California approved $100 million to establish the Power of Preschool (PoP) Demonstration Program to expand access but also to provide financial incentives to improve the quality of preschool. This brief addresses what lessons can be learned from the PoP demonstration projects to help inform the development of reimbursement rates, not only for the potential continuation of the First 5-funded programs, but also for other publicly financed efforts designed to serve preschool children.
15 Nov 2007
Policy Brief
States have traditionally limited public expenditures for preschool programs to children from low-income families or those with disabilities. The Packard Foundation awarded collaborative grants to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and AIR to estimate the cost of a preschool program that would be accessible to all four-year-olds in California. This policy brief summarizes the findings from that project.
California Preschool Phase-In Example (PDF) is an example from the California Preschool Planning Toolkit, 2006, of how a county can upgrade existing slots and create new slots to reach the total desired population of four-year-olds over an eight-year timeframe.
The Preschool for All - Step by Step Toolkit (PDF, 222 pages) was developed by AIR in January 2004 to assist counties in planning for Preschool for All programs.
Maximizing Existing Funding Sources to Sustain and Enhance Progress on Preschool (PDF) is a presentation by AIR staff from 2007 that estimates the impact that maximizing revenue sources, such as Title 1, California Pre-K/Family Literacy (AB 172) funds, and parent fees can have on the financing of preschool statewide.
Riverside County Preschool Plan Advisory Group (PDF) is a presentation by AIR staff from 2007 that presents prioritization criteria for phasing in preschool and how Title I, state AB172, and parent fees can be used to fund different phase-in scenarios in Riverside County, California.
Funding Preschool in San Diego County (PDF) is a presentation by AIR staff from 2007 that estimates the cost of different targeting scenarios in San Diego County, California and how federal Title I and some (then new) state funds can be used to fund different phase-in scenarios in San Diego County.
Possible Existing Funding Sources (Word) contains a list and description of possible existing funding sources for preschool, made available at the October 2006 First 5 Association Preschool Learning Exchange Preschool Finance Symposium.
Potential Capacity of Title I Merced County (Excel) is an example of one county's use of Title I dollars to fund preschool.