If California childcare providers had the full attention of a room of policymakers for an hour, here’s what we’d say — without sales pitches, without acronyms, without softening.
Reimbursement timing is a business risk, not a paperwork issue. Late subsidy payments quietly fund themselves on provider personal credit cards every month. We need predictable, on-time payments more than we need most other interventions.
Reimbursement rates don’t reflect real cost. The published rates often don’t cover what care actually costs to deliver, especially in high-cost-of-living California. The gap is silently absorbed by providers and ultimately by underpaid teachers. A rate study that matches reality, regionally, would be transformative.
Workforce policy is the policy. You cannot fix childcare without fixing the wages and conditions of childcare workers. Stipends and one-time bonuses help. Sustainable wage structures help more.
Bilingual workforce investment is urgent. California is multilingual in practice. The bilingual childcare workforce is undersupported and underpaid. Targeted pipelines, paid practicum, and credit-bearing certification pathways would change the field.
Family childcare matters. The policy conversation often defaults to center-based care. Family childcare homes serve enormous numbers of California children, especially infants and toddlers. They need policy attention, funding parity, and operational support that recognizes their structure.
Documentation requirements should be proportional. Every new reporting requirement, when added, lands on small operators with no administrative capacity. Streamline. Combine. Eliminate redundancy. Build the systems policymakers ask for to actually be usable by a director with no admin staff.
Quality is not the same as paperwork. QRIS-style ratings, while well-intentioned, often measure structures rather than experiences. Parents experience quality through teacher continuity, calm environments, and responsive communication. Measure what matters and underwrite it.
Infant-toddler is the gap. Most policy attention has gone to TK and preschool. Infant-toddler care is the most expensive to deliver, the hardest to staff, and the most undersupplied. It needs targeted funding and operational support.
TK rollout has consequences for private programs. Some are absorbing them. Some are closing. A transition support program for private centers adapting to TK would prevent loss of capacity that families will need.
After-school is underrecognized. Working families depend on after-school care. The funding, staffing, and policy framework around it is fragmented. Treat it as part of the system.
Provider mental health matters. Burnout is structural. Resources for provider mental health, peer networks, and sabbatical-style respite would slow the loss of experienced operators from the field.
Listen to providers, plural, and listen often. Convene us. Pay our time. Hear from family childcare and centers, from rural and urban, from bilingual and monolingual, from new and veteran. The field’s wisdom is in the room. Use it.
We’d say more, but the meeting is only an hour. Thank you for listening. Now please go fund the work.