Links and Resources
The California Child Care Coordinators Association was formed to promote, support, and improve the coordination of local efforts to provide child care services for children in California.
Local Resources:
- Centralized Eligibility List (CEL)
Traditionally a child care provider will keep a list of children waiting to enroll. Waiting lists are common to subsidized child care and development programs, to Head Start Programs, and to Alternative Payment Programs. The CEL is a system that combines all of these separate lists, eliminates duplicates, and allows subsidized child development providers in the system to access children that are eligible for their programs. The term "eligibility" is used because families are ranked by eligibility factors for subsidized care (income, size, and need), not just time on the list. Santa Cruz County's CEL is operated by the Santa Cruz County Parents Association Voucher Project. Click here to visit the Santa Cruz County CEL web portal.
- ChildCare Ventures is a project of the Community Ventures program of the Santa Cruz Community Credit Union. ChildCare Ventures is the lead agency in the effort to develop a Business Alliance for Child Care Providers. There is also a statewide effort to develop a trade organization for child care providers underway. For more information, click here.
- Family Resource Centers
Family Resource Centers offer a broad range of services and programs including parent education, counseling, home visits, literacy classes, support groups, health insurance and health care referrals. If the Family Resource Center cannot assist you directly, they will refer you to the appropriate agency.
Davenport Resource Center
Familia Center
La Manzana Community Resources
Mountain Community Resources
Live Oak Family Resource Center
View Live Oak Family Resource Center's "Resources for Parents for SC County"
- Special Parent's Information Network (SPIN) Watsonville 722-2800, Santa Cruz:423-7713
Spin is a parent directed organization for parents of children with special needs. Helps parents become more informed about available resources for services, treatments, interventions, and other supports in the county and beyond.
- For information and referrals on any of the following: food, housing, health, children & youth, seniors and income, visit Santa Cruz County's information and referral databse, HelpSCC
- For information on child care subsidies, visit the Voucher Project and/or the website for the Human Resources Agency of Santa Cruz County
- Need expert advice on issues about children with special needs? Would you like answers to your inclusion questions? Simply call the Special Needs Technical Assistance "Warm Line" at 831/477-5554.
Statewide Resources:
- Children Now is a national organization for people who care about children and want to ensure that they are the top public policy priority.
- Preschool California is a nonprofit, non-partisan advocacy organization formed in 2003 that brings together a diverse group of supporters, from kindergarten teachers to CEOs to county sheriffs to advocate for every child in California to have the opportunity to go to quality, voluntary preschool. Proposition 82 (The Preschool For All Act) (link to PFA Taskforce, Special Projects section of Committee page) sponsored by children's advocate Rob Reiner and a growing coalition of business, education, labor and early childhood leaders will be on the June 2006 ballot. If passed, Prop. 82 will provide every four-year-old in California with the opportunity to attend a quality preschool program.
- For more information on State-funded programs for children and families, visit the Child Development Division website. The Child Development Division is a division of the California Department of Education.
- For up-to-date information on current child care legislation, state budget concerns and advocacy opportunities, visit the following websites:
The Child Development Policy Institute
The Child Care Law Center
The California Child Care Resource and Referral Network
The Official California Legislative Information web page - California Association for the Education of Young Children
The purpose of CAEYC is to serve and act on behalf of the needs and rights of young children with primary focus on the provision of educational services and resources to adults who work with and for children birth through age eight.
- California Child Development Administrators Association
CCDAA is an independent professional organization for administrators of publicly funded Child Development Programs. Our long standing record of advocating quality early education dates back to 1943. We are recognized as one of California's leading professional organizations.
- First 5 California
The California Children and Families Act of 1998 is designed to provide, on a community-by-community basis, all children prenatal to five years of age with a comprehensive, integrated system of early childhood development services.
- Zero to three
ZERO TO THREE is the nation's leading resource on the first three years of life. We are a national non-profit charitable organization whose aim is to strengthen and support families, practitioners and communities to promote the healthy development of babies and toddlers.
- For information regarding the Child Development and School Age Permits, visit the Child Development Training Consortium
View the Child Development Permit Matrix
View the School Age Permit Matrix