Contra Costa County Child Care Needs Assessment

First 5 Contra Costa Children and Families Commission, the Contra Costa County Office of Education, and the Contra Costa Child Care Council have been working collaboratively for the past two years to create a plan for universal preschool in Contra Costa County, called Preschool Makes a Difference. In order to create an effective plan, data was needed to help identify current and projected demographics and child care supply and demand. In addition, the Local Planning Council for Child Care and Development (through the County Office of Education) also needed data collected for the development of their child care needs assessment update and strategic plan. The California Department of Education requires that every Local Planning Council conduct a comprehensive child care needs assessment at least every five years, and this report fulfills that requirement.

The three people leading the preschool planning effort in the County include:

• Sean Casey, First 5 Contra Costa Children and Families Commission
• Kate Ertz-Berger, Contra Costa Child Care Council
• Joseph A. Ovick, Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools

As a result, a data committee with various agency child care staff in the County was formed to oversee and coordinate the data collection needs for this project. The data will be used by and is of benefit to the entire child care community in Contra Costa County. We would like to acknowledge the committee’s assistance and support in preparing this document. This executive summary provides a snapshot of the data collected; the entire report containing child care information at the city and county levels is available on the Web sites of the sponsoring agencies.

The full report is viewable online at the First 5 Contra Costa County website.

For further information, visit http://www.firstfivecc.org/index.php?page=full-data-report.