California will expand the number of state-funded child care facilities by 22,770 following months of uncertainty and threatened cuts to a vital program for working parents.
Leaders and advocates in the child care industry have been fretting and lobbying lawmakers for months in hopes that Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has supported early childhood education, will follow through on earlier promises to support his budget increase.
The increase, included in the final budget appropriation Newsom signed Monday, means that about half of the 44,000 places promised for the next fiscal year will be funded, bringing the total increase to about three-quarters of the total of 206,800 places he promised by 2021. Even with the expansion, the state funds enough places to support about 18% of children.
“Considering that we didn't have those gaps and we had the proposed cuts in the May Revise, I'm really happy to see that, and I'm very grateful to the EC attorneys and our legislative champions who made that possible,” said Laura Pryor, director of research at the California Budget & Policy Center.
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Additional funding for child care came largely from Senate negotiators, who assembled a plan that partially hinged on moving nonprofit charter schools to Proposition 98, which imposes a minimum funding guarantee for public schools and colleges.
The move received pushback from groups including the California School Boards Assn. that raises concerns that pre-kindergarten funding will take money away from school districts and community colleges.
The budget also removes some barriers to family care. All families, regardless of income, who live or work within the boundaries of a school district where at least 80% of the children qualify for free or reduced meals will automatically be eligible to enroll in a public elementary school. Children of school district employees will also be eligible for enrollment regardless of income if vacancies are available.
“That greatly reduces the barriers that parents face to getting into the public preschool program,” said UC Berkeley senior professor Bruce Fuller. “Now it's more like automatic entry into TK. It's a really good move to make access easier rather than making it really difficult to qualify.”
The extra spaces will translate to years-long waiting lists, said Stacy Lee, chief education officer and senior executive director of early childhood at Children Now.
“The more we make care accessible, the more it gives families the opportunity to make the choices that are best for them,” Lee said.
Access to and affordability of childcare remains a major stressor for parents.
The average cost of full-time care for an infant in Los Angeles County was $1,209 per month in a nursing home and $1,818 per month in a facility in 2024, according to data from the California Budget & Policy Center. For a preschool child, the cost was $1,121 at home and $1,271 at a center. And for school-age children, care costs $884 at home and $959 at an institution.
I'm looking forward
In his last term, Newsom has expanded early childhood education and built a new grade — free preschool for all 4-year-olds — at a cost of $2.7 billion. He passed legislation establishing Child Care Providers United, which united child care workers across the country, raised wages for providers and established health care and retirement funds. Family contributions for subsidized care reached 1% of family income rather than about 10%.
Advocates said they will continue to seek more support for child care providers, which has been suspended. Funding was not included to support rate changes that would better reflect the true costs of running a home or daycare center.
The final budget does not include a 2.01 percent cost-of-living increase for state preschool workers and child care providers who run programs with subsidized spaces, which child care advocates are also pushing.
“When you're expanding, you need to make sure we have a stable and growing workforce, and our budget doesn't account for that second part of the equation,” Pryor said.
Current state funding in Los Angeles County is based on the 2018 market rate for care: up to $1,122 for full-time child care, $1,006 for toddler care and $753 for school-age child care in foster homes. The rate is below average cost and is not an accurate reflection of what they use to operate today. Child care advocates are supporting new legislation, Assembly Bill 1981, to cap a timeline that would allow providers to be reimbursed for their services at increased rates.
Still, the increase in child support has been a reminder of the state of California's children, said Fuller, who hopes the state takes time to evaluate the efforts.
“I think the new governor will come with an early childhood education program that is more stable and more generous than the one we had eight years ago,” he said. “I think I hope the new governor will focus more on improving quality.”
This article is part of the Times' early childhood education program, which focuses on the learning and development of California children, from birth to age 5. For more information about the program and its philanthropic sponsors, visit latimes.com/earlyed.
