The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Child Care and State Preschool

Nov 14, 2025 - The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Child Care and State Preschool ‑$114 $2,043 a Includes prior year one ‑time costs associated with quality carryover, SB 140 carryover, child care infrastructure program, court cases, and the whole child community equity program.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5088

The 2022-23 Budget: State Preschool

Feb 22, 2022 - Background The state has several publicly subsidized preschool programs for three ‑ and four ‑year olds. In  this section, we describe these programs, as well as the services provided to children with disabilities in these programs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4555

The 2025-26 Budget: Child Care and State Preschool

Mar 28, 2025 - LAO Comments COLA Approach for Voucher ‑Based Programs Not Well ‑Targeted to Program Cost Pressures. In our view, providing a statutory COLA to AP agencies ’ operational costs is reasonable, as these agencies face inflationary cost pressures in administering voucher ‑based child care programs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5024

The 2024-25 Budget: State Preschool

Apr 16, 2024 - Prior to the pandemic, reimbursement for direct contract programs was based on the lesser of reimbursable program costs, the contract amount, and the reimbursement rate multiplied by attendance. With this approach, providers had to serve a specified number of children to fully earn the contract.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4894

The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2025 - Some of the largest budget solutions in the June budget package involved the MCO tax, a tax on health plans that supports the Medi ‑Cal program. Last year ’s budget notably increased the size of the MCO tax, generating more revenue for Medi ‑Cal.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4951

The 2023-24 California Spending Plan: Child Care and State Preschool

Nov 17, 2023 - The spending plan provides an additional $140  million total funds for expected net cost increases in CalWORKs child care programs. The net cost increase is due to increases in caseload and cost per case.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4817

The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: Child Care and Preschool

Oct 27, 2022 - The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: Child Care and Preschool The 2022-23 California Spending Plan Child Care and Preschool Budget Provides $12  Billion for Child Care and Preschool Programs. Of this amount, $4.6  billion is for preschool and transitional kindergarten (TK) programs, $5.2  billion is for other child development programs, and $2.2  billion is for support programs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4643

The 2023-24 Budget: Child Care Proposals

Feb 9, 2023 - We believe this is likely due to actual costs for certain child care program changes, such as slot increases, coming in lower than expected. We are working with DSS to identify what program costs came in lower and how DSS redirected the freed ‑up federal funds.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4672

The 2021-22 Budget: Child Care Proposals

Feb 11, 2021 - The state subsidizes child care and preschool through several programs, serving an estimated 415, 000 c hildren. The vast majority of children participate in programs currently administered by CDE, while DSS administers two programs. 2020 ‑21 Budget Authorized the Transition of Child Care Programs and One Nutrition Program From CDE to DSS.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4363

The 2023-24 Budget: Transitional Kindergarten and State Preschool Proposals

Feb 14, 2023 - Starting in the 2028 ‑29 school year, adults assigned to TK classrooms must either (1)  be a credentialed teacher, (2)  be  working  towards a teaching credential through any program that requires a clinical practicum experience, (3)  hold a child development permit or be a candidate for supervised practicum experience for a child development permit, or (4)  participate in
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4682