Reports & Research

A major responsibility of the Santa Barbara County Child Care Planning Council is to identify priorities for state funding for early care and education in the county.

In establishing the priorities, the Council considers, for each of the county zip code areas, the numbers of children eligible for state-funded programs, the number of spaces in state and federally funded early care and education programs, and the number and percentage of eligible children not served by current programs.

The Priorities currently established for state funded early care and education programs, are as follows:

CCTR, Full-Day Child Care, children birth - 3 years:

Priority 1: Zip Codes: 93101, 93103, 93105, 93106, 93110, 93111, 93117, 93436, 93454, 93455, 93458.

Priority 2: Zip Codes: 93013, 93108, 93109, 93427, 93434, 93460, 93463.

Priority 3: Zip Codes: 93067, 93254, 93429, 93437, 93440.

CCTR, After School Care

Priority 1: Zip Codes: 93101, 93105, 93106, 93108, 93110, 93111, 93117, 93436, 93454, 93455, 93458, 93463.

Priority 2: Zip Codes: 93103, 93109, 93427, 93437, 93460.

Priority 3: Zip Codes: 93013, 93067, 93254, 93429, 93434, 93440, 93441.

CSPP, Part-Day, children 3-4 years:

Priority 1: Zip Codes 93101, 93105, 93106, 93110, 93111, 93117, 93436, 93454, 93455, 93458.

Priority 2: Zip Codes 93013, 93108, 93463.

Priority 3: Zip Codes 93067, 93103, 93109, 93254, 93427, 93429, 93434, 93437, 93440, 93441, 93460.

These Priorities were approved by the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors and the Santa Barbara County Superintendent of Schools. Every year the County Child Care Planning Council reviews the list to determine if any changes are necessary. These meetings are open to the public and provide opportunities for public input.

"Early Care and Education Needed Now" is the most recent report of early care and education needs and services in Santa Barbara County.
One of the mandated responsibilities of County Child Care Planning Councils is to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the needs and services for early care and education throughout the county. This report was prepared in 2016 based on data gathered from 2012 - 2015.

Direct links to specific information within the document are available in the Table of Contents below.

Download: Needs Assessment Executive Summary

• Needs Assessment 2020
• A Call-To-Action Brochure 2021

 

Vision 2020: The Santa Barbara County Strategic Plan for Early Care and Education fulfills the requirement of the California Education Code, Section 8231 (K) (4), for each child care and development planning council to: "Prepare a comprehensive countywide child care plan designed to mobilize public and private resources to address identified needs." This plan serves as a blueprint for improving early care and education services, as well as other services critical to the wellbeing of the children and families of Santa Barbara County.

Download: Vision 2020: The Santa Barbara County Strategic Plan for Early Care and Education

Download: A Call-to-Action Brochure 2020

The ultimate goal for creating and implementing this Strategic Plan is to engage stakeholders in our County to work together to meet the varied needs of our community. Even though the plan was developed by the members of the Santa Barbara County Child Care Planning Council - itself a broad-based group - we cannot do this without the commitment of all sectors of our community: education, health & welfare, local government, philanthropy, business and families. 

This Strategic Plan, our vision for children and families by the year 2020, was informed by findings from the recent Child Care Needs Assessment: Early Care and Education Needed Now!  This report can be found here.

Desired Outcome I: Caring communities will support high quality early care and education throughout Santa Barbara County.

• Goal 1: The public will be informed about the importance of early care and education.
  • We will continue to inform the community about the importance of high quality early care and education.
  • We will integrate public awareness of current issues affecting early care and education with other state and local campaigns.
     
• Goal 2: The community will support access to high quality, affordable early care and education for all families.
  • By 2020, there will be increased access to high quality, licensed early care and education services for children ages birth to 12 years of age who need care.

Desired Outcome II: A high quality early care and education system is available throughout Santa Barbara County.

• Goal 1: A system of high quality early care and education for all children in Santa Barbara County will be sustained and expanded.
  • By 2020, 25% of family child care providers and 80% of child care centers will use research-based practices in their programs
  • By 2020, participation of 120 sites will be sustained, there will be an increase in access to and enrollment in the Quality Rating and Improvement System of 25%.
  • By 2020, there will be 30 family child care providers accredited by NAFCC and 80 centers accredited by NAEYC.
     
• Goal 2: High quality early care and education programs will be staffed by a stable, well-qualified and well-compensated workforce.
  • By 2020, there will be a 5% increase in professional development participation by the early care and education workforce. 
  • By 2020, we will have retained 80% of our early care and education workforce.
  • We will continue to advocate for increased compensation for the early care and education workforce.

Desired Outcome III: Santa Barbara County supports the healthy development of the whole child, and promotes strong, nurturing families.

• Goal 1: All entities serving children will be part of a coordinated, integrated, countywide system.
  • We will continue to support an ongoing countywide communication system to promote coordination among organizations, agencies and individuals serving young children and their families. 
     
• Goal 2: All children and their families will have access to integrated and culturally relevant services.
  • We will refine and sustain a system for referring children and families to comprehensive support services. 

Since the Santa Barbara County Strategic Plan for Early Care and Education was completed, the Strategic Plan Committee of the Santa Barbara County Child Care Planning Council has endeavored to track efforts made to achieve its goals and objectives.

National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (NSCDC)
Provides information based on current research to “close the gap between what we know and what we do to promote successful learning, adaptive behavior, and sound physical and mental health for all young children.” www.developingchild.net

National Institute of Early Education Research (NIEER)
The goal of NIEER is to produce and communicate the knowledge base required to ensure that every American child can receive a good education at ages three and four. NIEER provides objective, nonpartisan information based on research. www.nieer.org

Eager To Learn: Educating our Preschoolers
Eager to Learn synthesizes the newest research findings on how children between the ages of two and five begin the learning process. Conclusions and recommendations are presented in the areas of the teacher-child relationship, the organization and content of curriculum, meeting the needs of those children most at risk of school failure, teacher preparation, assessment of teaching and learning, and more. This can be downloaded or read on-line. https://www.nap.edu/catalog/9745/eager-to-learn-educating-our-preschoolers#toc

National Association for the Education of Young Children
Provides information on evaluating research and determining if the research is useful for specific users and provides links to research resources. https://www.naeyc.org/

Child Care and Early Childhood Research Connections
Research Connections offers a comprehensive, up-to-date, and easy-to-use collection of more than 14,000 resources from the many disciplines related to child care and early education. https://www.researchconnections.org/childcare/welcome

Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)
Bibliographic records of education literature, plus a growing collection of full text. https://eric.ed.gov/

Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research
In 2002, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) began the Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research (PCER) initiative to conduct rigorous efficacy evaluations of available preschool curricula. The PCER initiative focused on the impact of the intervention curricula on students reading and pre-reading, phonological awareness, early language, early mathematics knowledge, and behavior (including social skills and problem behaviors) at the end of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. This study focused on 14 preschool curricula. https://ies.ed.gov/ncer/pubs/20082009/pdf/20082009_1.pdf