Proposed plan to make quality affordable
child care available to all San Jose families

Gonzales called the child care situation in San Jose a crisis that can only be addressed if the entire community comes together to look for solutions.

“Working families of San Jose need our help.  Child care is too important to them and to the future of our community not to be addressed” said the mayor. “Our goal is that every child in San Jose will have access to quality and affordable child care.  Our children deserve no less.”

Gonzales noted that the child care challenge in San Jose will require the entire community to be part of the solution. 

“I look forward to working with my council colleagues and legislators, child care providers and parents, and leaders in education, business and labor to find practical solutions to ensure that our families have access to quality care for their children.”

The mayor’s plan builds on existing San Jose programs that support early education for young children.  The San Jose Smart Start Program provides a quality childhood development program for pre-school children so that they can enter kindergarten ready to learn.  In 1999, Mayor Gonzales called for the opening of ten Smart Start Centers in San Jose by 2005 in partnership with school districts and community-based organizations such as the Packard Foundation.

This goal was doubled in 2001 to open 20 centers and 124 family child care homes that can serve more than 1,200 young children by 2005.  San Jose has now opened five Smart Start Centers, and three more are scheduled to be open by June 2002.

Mayor’s Child Care Initiative:

The plan proposed by Mayor Gonzales includes the following strategies:

Strategy 1: Affordable Child Care and Preschool Development Fund

·        Propose to the City Council that in the Redevelopment Agency budget include $10 million to be set aside to create a new Child Care Development Fund. 

·        Licensed child care providers and school districts could draw from this fund to help cover the cost of building new or expanding existing facilities so more children can have access to quality child care/preschool. 

·        Priority would be given to licensed providers or schools located in San Jose neighborhoods where the shortage of child care seats is the greatest.

·        All providers that receive City funding would be required to utilize a curriculum that is consistent with the San Jose Smart Start guidelines.

·        Preference would be given to proposals that both expand capacity as well as offer services during non-traditional hours.

·        Target ages are 0-5 years.

·        Funds would be required to be repaid to the Redevelopment Agency if the provider discontinues the Smart Start curriculum or ceased to provide quality care at an affordable price.

·        Direct City staff (working with the Child Care Commission) to determine the target areas as well as determine the loan agreement guidelines and set performance targets.

·        Proposed cost is $10 million over four years.

Strategy 2: Train 1000 people over the next five years in how to start, operate or work in high quality child care facilities.

·        1000 trained child care providers could serve up to 8,000 more children per year.

·        The training program should utilize the expertise and knowledge of current providers in San Jose. 

·        Partner with San Jose’s community colleges, Workforce Investment Network and others to ensure that this training is provided in a flexible manner so that the maximum number of individuals can participate.

• Costs generally expected to be covered existing training programs
  

• Source of Funds include Workforce Investment Network, Healthy Neighborhoods Venture Fund (Tobacco Settlement money), and grants

Strategy 3: Create a public education campaign about all the federal, state and county programs that exist to help parents pay for quality child care.

• Educate low income parents about the child care options that are available in their neighborhoods that are subsidized through the CalWorks system.

• Educate parents about state and federal child care tax credit programs that can help them cover the high cost of child care.

• Utilize existing city programs to initiate these public awareness efforts and coordinate this campaign with other similar efforts going at the county (Children and Families First Commission) as well as the Children’s Health Care Initiative.

• Estimated cost is $50,000 per year for 3 years.

• General Fund/Healthy Neighborhood Ventures Fund

Strategy 4: Create and lead a political coalition to work with our county, state and federal partners to make “Universal Preschool” a reality in San Jose and increase state support for child care funding.

·        Quality preschool, such as Smart Start Centers, has proven to be one of the most successful techniques in raising student achievement. 

·        Only the state or federal government can guarantee access to a quality preschool program for all children.

·        Not enough state funding is flowing to Santa Clara County to support our city’s child care needs.  The number of state-contracted child care center seats must be increased in the county.

·        Mayor Gonzales is committed to both of these causes and is ready to help lead the political effort to make them a reality.