Preparing Facilities for Child Care: A Guide for Evaluating Existing Facilities [CPPT, Section 4d]

The Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) is an experienced community development financial institution with technical proficiency in the child care, education, housing and financial sectors. With its various partners, LIIF is working towards the creation of a sustainable system for financing and developing quality child care facilities throughout California. In support of this goal LIIF creates tools to support the financing and development of quality child care facilities. To this end, LIIF and its partners including Asian Neighborhood Design and Leland Saylor Associates have developed this document, Preparing Facilities for Child Care: a Guide for Evaluating Existing Facilities to help facilitate the conversion of certain types of existing buildings to quality child care facilities.

Preparing Facilities for Child Care is a comprehensive guide designed to help evaluate the readiness and to prepare existing facilities to house quality child care programs for children age birth through age four. Many child care programs inhabit buildings (e.g. commercial space, religious facilities, elementary school classrooms, used modular buildings, and personal residences) that when initially leased or purchased are inappropriately designed for quality child care. In some cases properties may also display effects of deferred or neglected maintenance. These facilities must be adapted in order to be occupied by a child care program. These adaptations must meet local and state regulatory requirements, as well as industry standards for quality. This guide is intended to lead the user through the process of evaluating and modifying a property with an existing facility in order to prepare it for occupancy by a child care program. Elements of the guide are intended to be basic enough for the facility development novice to follow, while others, especially the supplemental information and cost studies, should be used in conjunction with or exclusively by technical experts.

Because facilities for young children require unique design and space features to meet minimum regulatory requirements and industry standards for quality, this document addresses two different age groups of children separately: infants/toddlers age 0 2, and preschoolers age 3 4. Because the kinds of buildings that house child care programs vary, the guide addresses the four most common types of facilities: 1) Public Schools, 2) Modular Buildings, 3) Commercial Buildings1, and 4) Family Child Care Homes (residential buildings). The guide offers advice for modifying a facility and site to ensure compliance with minimum regulatory requirements, as well as guidance for making enhancements to promote quality environments for young children. Cost estimates are also provided that correspond with the recommended facility and site modifications. To further support the design and development of child care facilities, a comprehensive list of resources is provided at the end of the guide.

This document is part of the California Preschool Planning Toolkit.