February 9, 2023 - This brief provides an overview and initial analysis of the Governor’s key child care budget proposals for 2023-24, estimates of child care program costs, and the effects of allowing some temporary policies to expire.
May 24, 2024 - This post provides initial high-level takeaways and comments regarding May Revision proposals for child welfare programs. Includes comments on the overall child welfare budget—focusing on new proposals at the time of the administration’s May Revision—as well as comments and questions related to the updated proposal for statutorily required permanent foster care rates.
November 17, 2023 - This post summarizes the state’s 2023-24 spending package for child care and preschool. It is part of our Spending Plan series, which contains posts focused on each major sector of the state budget.
Update (12/20/23): Corrected total child care program costs in Figure 1.
April 16, 2024 - This post analyzes 2024-25 Governor’s budget proposal related to State Preschool.
October 26, 2020 - This post summarizes the state’s 2020-21 spending package for early education. It is part of our Spending Plan series, which contains posts focused on each major sector of the state budget.
February 21, 2020 - In this report, we provide an overview of the Governor’s early education proposals, then analyze his three major early education proposals. Specifically, we analyze his proposals to (1) expand the number of full‑day preschool slots, (2) create a new department to administer child care programs, and (3) fund facilities for more preschool programs.
May 30, 2019 - Presented to: Budget Conference Committee
April 25, 2002 - We review options and recommendations for the Legislature to consider in funding and reforming the state’s subsidized child care system.
September 26, 2024 - This post summarizes the state’s 2024-25 spending package for child care and state preschool.
February 11, 2021 - This post analyzes the Governor’s proposal to transition state administration of child care programs. We further provide options the Legislature could consider to support child care programs during the pandemic.
Correction (2/18/2021): A previous version of this post stated DSS released a draft of the transition plan. This version is corrected to state DSS released a transition plan guide.
February 26, 2024 - In this post, we analyze the Governor’s budget proposals relating to child welfare and foster care programs, which include a number of budget solutions. In addition, the post provides comments and questions to help the Legislature weigh in regarding the administration’s proposal for the statutorily required new foster care rates structure.
February 9, 2022 - This brief provides an update on some major recent state budget actions related to homelessness, describes the Governor’s homelessness budget proposals, and raises issues for the Legislature’s consideration.
February 22, 2012 - The Governor proposes to reduce funding for the CalWORKs program and state-subsidized child care programs. Under his budget plan, these programs would be reduced a total of $1.4 billion or about 20 percent in 2012-13 compared to what current law otherwise would require. These savings would be achieved by imposing stricter limits on which families are eligible to receive which types of services, as well as lowering state payments for CalWORKs recipients and child care providers. Additionally, the Governor’s proposal would make major changes to the way the state administers both welfare-to-work and child care services. In this report, we describe and analyze the Governor’s proposals related to the CalWORKs program and then turn to a similar discussion of the proposed changes to child care programs. We conclude by providing the Legislature with illustrative packages of ways to achieve savings in these two areas using different approaches than the Governor's.