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"content": "\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s Chinatown, toddlers and preschoolers often learn their first English words at Lok Yuen Early Learning Center.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The center serves low-income families who qualify for Head Start, and the children come from households that speak Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, Arabic or Nepali. To connect with the kids and get them accustomed to the classroom, teachers greet them in their home languages and hang pictures and signs on the walls in multiple languages.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Even if we don’t know their language, being able to learn one or two words like, ‘Hola, como estas?’ can make them feel welcome,” said Jennifer Lee Yuen, a teacher at the center run by Wu Yee Children’s Services, the largest Head Start provider in the city.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But these practices could end under a proposal to reform the 61-year-old program led by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy. Earlier this month, he unveiled a plan that would remove federal requirements for class sizes, staff qualifications and other standards with the goal of cutting administrative costs and increasing access to Head Start. Within that plan to eliminate “unnecessary bureaucracy,” however, is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/07/2026-16134/reducing-federal-burden-for-head-start-programs\">new requirement\u003c/a> that programs teach only in English.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-26-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12096897\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-26-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-26-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-26-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A child opens a bottle of glue at Wu Yee Children’s Services in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Aug. 24, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>If finalized, the requirement for English-only instruction would reverse longstanding regulations that Head Start programs support bilingualism. Administration officials say those regulations are “at odds” with President Donald Trump’s executive order designating English as the official language of the United States. But advocates for Head Start say this mandate would not only conflict with the administration’s messaging around decreasing federal oversight of the program, but it could also potentially cost jobs and millions of dollars to implement — a scenario the administration also acknowledges. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the proposed rule, officials with the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), which oversees and funds Head Start, estimated that implementing the English-only mandate would cost about $47 million to replace learning materials at nearly 19,000 classrooms. Some teachers might need retraining, they wrote, “while others may need to be replaced.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The proposal noted that having fewer bilingual staff might weaken non-English-speaking families’ engagement and suggested the educators use translation apps to communicate. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“To me that shows a disrespect of these families,” said Shantel Meek, executive director of the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University. “It’s common sense to have someone on staff who speaks the language of the families being served.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://cep.asu.edu/sites/g/files/litvpz916/files/2026-08/Preserving%20Access%20and%20Opportunity%20in%20Head%20Start%20for%20Children%20Dual%20Language%20Learners%20%20A%20Review%20of%20the%20Science%2C%20Legislative%20Mandates%2C%20and%20Regulatory%20Requirements%20%2811%29.pdf\">Meek co-authored a policy brief\u003c/a> that raises the possibility that the changes may conflict with the Head Start Act, a law passed by Congress which specifies that revisions to the program’s standards will not result in “any reduction in quality, scope, or types” of services already in place.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Education experts say the policy also runs counter to evidence that children learn a second language faster when they \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0002831214545110\">maintain the first language\u003c/a> they learned at home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This really creates a false choice between learning English and maintaining a child’s home language,” said Martha Hernandez, executive director of Californians Together, an organization based in Long Beach that advocates for English learners and multilingual education in California. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We absolutely want children to develop strong English,” she said. “The question is whether we have to ask a 3- or 4-year-old to give up the language they already know in order to do that. And the research-based approach has always been to build English while continuing to develop the home language\u003cem>.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Head Start programs for American Indian children would be exempt from the English-only requirement, but advocates in California worry the policy would affect Early Head Start, which serves expectant moms and children under the age of 3, as well as Migrant Head Start, which serves the children of farm workers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-20-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12096895\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-20-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-20-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-20-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Children and teachers prepare to work on a craft project at Wu Yee Children’s Services in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Aug. 24, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12096894\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-4-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12096894\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-4-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-4-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-4-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Signage is in multiple languages at Wu Yee Children’s Services in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Aug. 24, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12096900\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-60-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12096900\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-60-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-60-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-60-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A pedestrian walks past Wu Yee Children’s Services in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Aug. 24, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“For Early Head Start, we have classrooms where all of the teachers are monolingual in just, say, Spanish, because that’s what all of the kids in that classroom speak,” said Melanee Cottrill, executive director of Head Start California, an association of Head Start programs serving over 70,000 children in the Golden State. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“If you switch to English only, all of those classrooms would be completely devastated, and we would lose all those teachers,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Luis Bautista, who oversees Head Start programs for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, said the proposal has a “chilling effect.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s concerning to think that this is the message we would be sending to children and families across the country, especially when we’re charged to serve children that are in foster care, families that are experiencing homelessness, families that are already dealing with quite a number of challenges,” Bautista said. “We should not be adding more barriers to their participation.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-47-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12096898\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-47-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-47-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-47-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Children play the red light, green light game with preschool lead teacher Tracey O’Brien on the playground at Wu Yee Children’s Services in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Aug. 24, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>The ACF said cutting regulations would save money and give local providers and their parent-led governing bodies more flexibility to run programs that meet their communities’ needs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“While the proposed rule requires programs to be conducted in English … it allows programs to seek a waiver from any specific requirement in the regulation as long as it does not relate to nutrition, physical activity, or eligibility,” an ACF representative told KQED. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://headstart.gov/program-data/article/head-start-program-facts-fiscal-year-2024\">The most recent data show\u003c/a> more than 30% of Head Start staffers nationwide were bilingual, and 35% of children enrolled in the program were dual-language learners. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The numbers show that families seek out educators who speak the same language as them, said Savitha Moorthy, director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-54-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12096899\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-54-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-54-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-54-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Preschool associate teacher Fanny Liang blows bubbles on the playground at Wu Yee Children’s Services in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Aug. 24, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“Their value is in their ability to provide instruction that’s in the family’s home languages, so [the proposal] is actually stripping away the diversity of the workforce,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yuen, the teacher, said an English-only mandate would make it harder for her to do her job.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“In order for children to learn how to speak a language, they need to trust a teacher first,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When children feel safe and can trust the adults in their care, Yuen said, they’re open to learning. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The proposed changes on the Federal Register are open to public comment until Oct. 6, and could still be amended before being finalized in the coming months. On Sept. 14, Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment and EDvance College will \u003ca href=\"https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WBqylHS1SQm1bbvGt0xw1g#/registration\">host a webinar\u003c/a> to explain the public comment process.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The center serves low-income families who qualify for Head Start, and the children come from households that speak Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, Arabic or Nepali. To connect with the kids and get them accustomed to the classroom, teachers greet them in their home languages and hang pictures and signs on the walls in multiple languages.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Even if we don’t know their language, being able to learn one or two words like, ‘Hola, como estas?’ can make them feel welcome,” said Jennifer Lee Yuen, a teacher at the center run by Wu Yee Children’s Services, the largest Head Start provider in the city.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But these practices could end under a proposal to reform the 61-year-old program led by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy. Earlier this month, he unveiled a plan that would remove federal requirements for class sizes, staff qualifications and other standards with the goal of cutting administrative costs and increasing access to Head Start. Within that plan to eliminate “unnecessary bureaucracy,” however, is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/07/2026-16134/reducing-federal-burden-for-head-start-programs\">new requirement\u003c/a> that programs teach only in English.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>If finalized, the requirement for English-only instruction would reverse longstanding regulations that Head Start programs support bilingualism. Administration officials say those regulations are “at odds” with President Donald Trump’s executive order designating English as the official language of the United States. But advocates for Head Start say this mandate would not only conflict with the administration’s messaging around decreasing federal oversight of the program, but it could also potentially cost jobs and millions of dollars to implement — a scenario the administration also acknowledges. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“To me that shows a disrespect of these families,” said Shantel Meek, executive director of the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University. “It’s common sense to have someone on staff who speaks the language of the families being served.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://cep.asu.edu/sites/g/files/litvpz916/files/2026-08/Preserving%20Access%20and%20Opportunity%20in%20Head%20Start%20for%20Children%20Dual%20Language%20Learners%20%20A%20Review%20of%20the%20Science%2C%20Legislative%20Mandates%2C%20and%20Regulatory%20Requirements%20%2811%29.pdf\">Meek co-authored a policy brief\u003c/a> that raises the possibility that the changes may conflict with the Head Start Act, a law passed by Congress which specifies that revisions to the program’s standards will not result in “any reduction in quality, scope, or types” of services already in place.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Education experts say the policy also runs counter to evidence that children learn a second language faster when they \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0002831214545110\">maintain the first language\u003c/a> they learned at home.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Education experts say the policy also runs counter to evidence that children learn a second language faster when they \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0002831214545110\">maintain the first language\u003c/a> they learned at home.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“This really creates a false choice between learning English and maintaining a child’s home language,” said Martha Hernandez, executive director of Californians Together, an organization based in Long Beach that advocates for English learners and multilingual education in California. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We absolutely want children to develop strong English,” she said. “The question is whether we have to ask a 3- or 4-year-old to give up the language they already know in order to do that. And the research-based approach has always been to build English while continuing to develop the home language\u003cem>.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Head Start programs for American Indian children would be exempt from the English-only requirement, but advocates in California worry the policy would affect Early Head Start, which serves expectant moms and children under the age of 3, as well as Migrant Head Start, which serves the children of farm workers. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“For Early Head Start, we have classrooms where all of the teachers are monolingual in just, say, Spanish, because that’s what all of the kids in that classroom speak,” said Melanee Cottrill, executive director of Head Start California, an association of Head Start programs serving over 70,000 children in the Golden State. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Luis Bautista, who oversees Head Start programs for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, said the proposal has a “chilling effect.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It’s concerning to think that this is the message we would be sending to children and families across the country, especially when we’re charged to serve children that are in foster care, families that are experiencing homelessness, families that are already dealing with quite a number of challenges,” Bautista said. “We should not be adding more barriers to their participation.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The ACF said cutting regulations would save money and give local providers and their parent-led governing bodies more flexibility to run programs that meet their communities’ needs.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“While the proposed rule requires programs to be conducted in English … it allows programs to seek a waiver from any specific requirement in the regulation as long as it does not relate to nutrition, physical activity, or eligibility,” an ACF representative told KQED. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“While the proposed rule requires programs to be conducted in English … it allows programs to seek a waiver from any specific requirement in the regulation as long as it does not relate to nutrition, physical activity, or eligibility,” an ACF representative told KQED. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://headstart.gov/program-data/article/head-start-program-facts-fiscal-year-2024\">The most recent data show\u003c/a> more than 30% of Head Start staffers nationwide were bilingual, and 35% of children enrolled in the program were dual-language learners. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The numbers show that families seek out educators who speak the same language as them, said Savitha Moorthy, director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Their value is in their ability to provide instruction that’s in the family’s home languages, so [the proposal] is actually stripping away the diversity of the workforce,” she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Yuen, the teacher, said an English-only mandate would make it harder for her to do her job.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“In order for children to learn how to speak a language, they need to trust a teacher first,” she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When children feel safe and can trust the adults in their care, Yuen said, they’re open to learning. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The proposed changes on the Federal Register are open to public comment until Oct. 6, and could still be amended before being finalized in the coming months. On Sept. 14, Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment and EDvance College will \u003ca href=\"https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WBqylHS1SQm1bbvGt0xw1g#/registration\">host a webinar\u003c/a> to explain the public comment process.\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Advocates for the early childhood program say the proposal would undermine learning for California children who are dual-language learners and contradict federal law meant to preserve Head Start quality standards. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s Chinatown, toddlers and preschoolers often learn their first English words at Lok Yuen Early Learning Center.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The center serves low-income families who qualify for Head Start, and the children come from households that speak Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, Arabic or Nepali. To connect with the kids and get them accustomed to the classroom, teachers greet them in their home languages and hang pictures and signs on the walls in multiple languages.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Even if we don’t know their language, being able to learn one or two words like, ‘Hola, como estas?’ can make them feel welcome,” said Jennifer Lee Yuen, a teacher at the center run by Wu Yee Children’s Services, the largest Head Start provider in the city.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But these practices could end under a proposal to reform the 61-year-old program led by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy. Earlier this month, he unveiled a plan that would remove federal requirements for class sizes, staff qualifications and other standards with the goal of cutting administrative costs and increasing access to Head Start. Within that plan to eliminate “unnecessary bureaucracy,” however, is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/07/2026-16134/reducing-federal-burden-for-head-start-programs\">new requirement\u003c/a> that programs teach only in English.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-26-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12096897\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-26-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-26-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-26-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A child opens a bottle of glue at Wu Yee Children’s Services in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Aug. 24, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>If finalized, the requirement for English-only instruction would reverse longstanding regulations that Head Start programs support bilingualism. Administration officials say those regulations are “at odds” with President Donald Trump’s executive order designating English as the official language of the United States. But advocates for Head Start say this mandate would not only conflict with the administration’s messaging around decreasing federal oversight of the program, but it could also potentially cost jobs and millions of dollars to implement — a scenario the administration also acknowledges. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the proposed rule, officials with the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), which oversees and funds Head Start, estimated that implementing the English-only mandate would cost about $47 million to replace learning materials at nearly 19,000 classrooms. Some teachers might need retraining, they wrote, “while others may need to be replaced.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The proposal noted that having fewer bilingual staff might weaken non-English-speaking families’ engagement and suggested the educators use translation apps to communicate. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“To me that shows a disrespect of these families,” said Shantel Meek, executive director of the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University. “It’s common sense to have someone on staff who speaks the language of the families being served.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://cep.asu.edu/sites/g/files/litvpz916/files/2026-08/Preserving%20Access%20and%20Opportunity%20in%20Head%20Start%20for%20Children%20Dual%20Language%20Learners%20%20A%20Review%20of%20the%20Science%2C%20Legislative%20Mandates%2C%20and%20Regulatory%20Requirements%20%2811%29.pdf\">Meek co-authored a policy brief\u003c/a> that raises the possibility that the changes may conflict with the Head Start Act, a law passed by Congress which specifies that revisions to the program’s standards will not result in “any reduction in quality, scope, or types” of services already in place.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Education experts say the policy also runs counter to evidence that children learn a second language faster when they \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0002831214545110\">maintain the first language\u003c/a> they learned at home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This really creates a false choice between learning English and maintaining a child’s home language,” said Martha Hernandez, executive director of Californians Together, an organization based in Long Beach that advocates for English learners and multilingual education in California. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We absolutely want children to develop strong English,” she said. “The question is whether we have to ask a 3- or 4-year-old to give up the language they already know in order to do that. And the research-based approach has always been to build English while continuing to develop the home language\u003cem>.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Head Start programs for American Indian children would be exempt from the English-only requirement, but advocates in California worry the policy would affect Early Head Start, which serves expectant moms and children under the age of 3, as well as Migrant Head Start, which serves the children of farm workers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-20-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12096895\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-20-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-20-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-20-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Children and teachers prepare to work on a craft project at Wu Yee Children’s Services in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Aug. 24, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12096894\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-4-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12096894\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-4-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-4-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-4-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Signage is in multiple languages at Wu Yee Children’s Services in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Aug. 24, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12096900\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-60-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12096900\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-60-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-60-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-60-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A pedestrian walks past Wu Yee Children’s Services in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Aug. 24, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“For Early Head Start, we have classrooms where all of the teachers are monolingual in just, say, Spanish, because that’s what all of the kids in that classroom speak,” said Melanee Cottrill, executive director of Head Start California, an association of Head Start programs serving over 70,000 children in the Golden State. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“If you switch to English only, all of those classrooms would be completely devastated, and we would lose all those teachers,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Luis Bautista, who oversees Head Start programs for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, said the proposal has a “chilling effect.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s concerning to think that this is the message we would be sending to children and families across the country, especially when we’re charged to serve children that are in foster care, families that are experiencing homelessness, families that are already dealing with quite a number of challenges,” Bautista said. “We should not be adding more barriers to their participation.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-47-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12096898\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-47-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-47-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-47-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Children play the red light, green light game with preschool lead teacher Tracey O’Brien on the playground at Wu Yee Children’s Services in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Aug. 24, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>The ACF said cutting regulations would save money and give local providers and their parent-led governing bodies more flexibility to run programs that meet their communities’ needs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“While the proposed rule requires programs to be conducted in English … it allows programs to seek a waiver from any specific requirement in the regulation as long as it does not relate to nutrition, physical activity, or eligibility,” an ACF representative told KQED. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://headstart.gov/program-data/article/head-start-program-facts-fiscal-year-2024\">The most recent data show\u003c/a> more than 30% of Head Start staffers nationwide were bilingual, and 35% of children enrolled in the program were dual-language learners. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The numbers show that families seek out educators who speak the same language as them, said Savitha Moorthy, director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-54-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12096899\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-54-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-54-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260824-HEADSTARTDEREGULATION-NG-54-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Preschool associate teacher Fanny Liang blows bubbles on the playground at Wu Yee Children’s Services in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Aug. 24, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“Their value is in their ability to provide instruction that’s in the family’s home languages, so [the proposal] is actually stripping away the diversity of the workforce,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yuen, the teacher, said an English-only mandate would make it harder for her to do her job.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“In order for children to learn how to speak a language, they need to trust a teacher first,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When children feel safe and can trust the adults in their care, Yuen said, they’re open to learning. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The proposed changes on the Federal Register are open to public comment until Oct. 6, and could still be amended before being finalized in the coming months. On Sept. 14, Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment and EDvance College will \u003ca href=\"https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WBqylHS1SQm1bbvGt0xw1g#/registration\">host a webinar\u003c/a> to explain the public comment process.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "detained-at-green-card-interview-how-a-bay-area-family-is-healing-from-sudden-separation",
"title": "Detained at Green Card Interview: How a Bay Area Family Is Healing From Sudden Separation",
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"headTitle": "Detained at Green Card Interview: How a Bay Area Family Is Healing From Sudden Separation | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>For the first year of his life, a baby boy went with his mom on 7-hour-long drives from their home in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> to the Mojave Desert to see his dad, Peter, at an immigration detention center.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A glass partition separated the baby and the dad, who used to hold him til he fell asleep. They made the best of the situation by playing peek-a-boo and giving each other high-fives, with hands touching the glass. But during one particular visit, the baby grew agitated and began banging on it. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter told the baby’s mom, Alexandra, they probably should cut the visit short “because it’s making the baby more upset to be here than to not be here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We ended up leaving a little bit early,” Alexandra said. “And in the car ride home, the baby looked really, really angry. And not just frustrated because kids look frustrated, he looked angry.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter was the main caregiver to his son when he was taken into custody in November 2025, and the sudden separation took a toll not only on him and his wife, but also on their developing baby. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-18-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093139\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-18-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-18-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-18-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Peter sits in Dolores Park in San Francisco on July 22, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Since Trump’s deportation campaign began last year, more than 100,000 children who are American citizens have had a parent detained, according to an \u003ca href=\"https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-many-children-are-affected-by-parental-immigrant-detention/\">analysis by the Brookings Institution\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trauma of family separation could lead to profound consequences on kids’ brains and bodies, even for those too young to understand.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It has implications biologically, it has implications developmentally, it has implications for learning,” said Rahil Briggs, a clinical professor of pediatrics, psychiatry and behavioral science at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and national director of HealthySteps, a program with the early childhood advocacy group Zero To Three. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For Peter, not being able to touch or hold his son was one of the most difficult parts of a five-month nightmare in detention. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter is his adopted American name. We’re not using his full name because he fears telling his story may harm his immigration case.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He came to California from Kenya on a student visa almost 25 years ago. In the early 2000s, his country was in political and economic turmoil, and there were few opportunities to pursue higher education.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Chances are you are not going to get anywhere there,” he said. “So let’s just take a chance and try to go somewhere else.”\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He went to a community college in Orange County. Then in 2018, he moved to the Bay Area to get a bachelor’s degree at San Francisco State University. As he pursued his education, he supported himself by working in cafes and bars and as a soccer and rugby referee. Then in 2024 he met his wife, Alexandra, an elementary school teacher.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They had their first date at the Ferry Building, on the San Francisco waterfront. Not long after that, Alexandra needed to undergo surgery. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“He came and stayed with me for I think a week or two and took care of me,” she said. “He’s just a really good person, a really thoughtful person. So we hit it off pretty quickly.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They got married a year later and had their son in the spring of 2025.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter became a full-time dad when Alexandra went back to work. She’s legally blind and cannot drive, and he said it made sense for him to stay home to take care of their baby. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“When you have a kid, in their first few years they have to go to a lot of checkups,” he said. “So it’s easier that way, and also she really, really loves teaching. I kind of felt guilty telling her, ‘Oh no, you stay.’ I was like, ‘No, I’ll stay with him.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After tying the knot, Alexandra petitioned to sponsor Peter’s green card because his student visa had expired.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In November 2025, the family went to a federal building in San Francisco for the green card interview. The appointment came several months after Pres. Donald Trump’s administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJNXsOqFSZs\">directed ICE to make 3,000 arrests per day\u003c/a> to meet his pledge of mass deportations. Peter was worried about getting swept up in the crackdown.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093138\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Peter and Alexandra spend time with their 1-year-old son at the playground in Dolores Park in San Francisco on July 22, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>About a week before the appointment, he said his baby might have felt his anxiety too. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I picked him up in the morning, and he held my hand, and he wouldn’t let go,” he said. “He looked at me, and he held me for a long time.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Green card interviews are usually the final step in the process for foreign spouses of American citizens to obtain permanent residency. Couples submit evidence that they have a legitimate marriage, and a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer verifies it at the in-person meeting. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Alexandra said the officer approved her petition to sponsor Peter and was going to issue him a green card. But in the middle of the interview, the baby needed a diaper change. Alexandra said the officer urged her to take her son to the bathroom.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She said she hesitated and said she’d rather wait to finish the interview and go with Peter to change the diaper.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She said the officer told her: “We’re almost done here. We’ll be waiting for you when the baby comes out.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But as soon as Alexandra left for the bathroom, ICE agents swooped in with a warrant, alleging that he overstayed his student visa, handcuffed him and took him into custody.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When Alexandra came back and learned that Peter was detained, she tried to stay calm as she held her baby.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I asked the ICE agent, ‘Well, how am I going to get home? How am I going to take care of my baby? You know, I don’t see well; how am I going to do that?” she said. “And they’re like, ’That’s not our problem.’”\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter was taken to a local holding cell for a night. The next day, he was driven seven hours away to a detention facility in California City, in the middle of the desert. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Once he got to the detention center, Peter said he was placed in a two-person cell within a unit of 80 people. The facility used to be a state prison, but federal immigration officials arranged to reopen it last August to hold up to 2,500 detainees and have it run by the private for-profit company CoreCivic. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter said it felt like prison. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They’re putting you in a unit, they’re locking the doors, they’re counting people all the time,” he said. “You cannot be out. You cannot do certain things by certain times.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, Alexandra and Peter’s friends, family and community sprang into action. A relative helped find legal aid and a friend helped Alexandra with childcare while she continued teaching. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Abby Sullivan Engen, an immigration attorney at Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland, said Peter’s arrest and detention were unlawful because he was following the proper procedures to adjust his status to permanent resident. She accused ICE and the USCIS of “colluding” to lure the couple to the interview and arrest Peter.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093137\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Peter and Alexandra hold the hand of their 1-year-old son at Dolores Park in San Francisco on July 22, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They’re engaging in different tactics to satisfy that totally arbitrary metric [of 3,000 arrests per day],” she said. “Arresting people at interviews was kind of an easy way for them to fulfill this number and just get people in ICE custody.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Andrew Nietor, an immigration attorney in San Diego, said between November and January, dozens of similar arrests occurred in his region during green card interviews.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He said while it’s not uncommon for foreign-born spouses of American citizens to have their visas lapse while their “adjustment of status” continues, they don’t usually get detained in the process. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Traditionally ICE detention was based on risk of flight, or danger to the community,” Nietor said. “So when you’re detaining people who are showing up for appointments and have already passed background checks, it doesn’t make sense.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As Peter’s lawyer worked to get him out of detention, he and Alexandra made daily video calls to maintain a sense of normalcy for their infant. After a while, Alexandra said the baby learned to recognize the automated announcement from the detention center when the phone rings.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s kind of depressing and also heartwarming at the same time, but we would hear, ‘This is a call from Peter, a detainee at California,’ and anytime [he] heard that, he would just start smiling and laughing,” she said. “So he knew whenever that recording came on that his dad was going to be on the phone.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"978\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/11/5446958381_9e90f58cab_o-e1416954725536.jpg\" alt=\"An SFPD squad car.\" class=\"wp-image-10356156\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco police car parked outside the Hall of Justice. (Todd Lappin/Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Volunteers drove Alexandra and the baby to the detention center, but he often got fussy seeing his dad behind a glass partition. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“He was trying to touch my face through the glass, and that was frustrating,” Peter said. “We asked the detention [center] why they don’t allow a family to have personal visits. And they say we’re not ready and we don’t do it.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Steven Owen, a spokesman for CoreCivic, said visitation policies are determined by ICE, “who have operational and security considerations that inform those decisions.” A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the California City detention center has a family visitation room, but no physical contact is allowed. They declined to explain the reason behind the policy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://developingchild.harvard.edu/key-concept/toxic-stress/\">Research shows\u003c/a> that when young kids experience adversity and they don’t have anyone to help them cope, their body’s stress response system goes into overdrive. This type of stress is called toxic stress, and Briggs said it can rewire the brain and disrupt the healthy development of their bodies, increasing the risk for heart disease, diabetes, and depression later on. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The early childhood brain, because it’s so plastic and it’s in this developing stage deciding which neural pathways to lay down, it’s especially sensitive to stress — more sensitive than your brain or my brain, and therefore more able to react positively to safety, to nurturing, to connection, but also likely to be worse off when the stress gets really toxic,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While Peter was in detention, the baby had difficulty falling asleep and became clingy, Alexandra said. If anyone sat in his dad’s favorite chair, he would throw a fit. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093136\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Alexandra and Peter hold their 1-year-old son at Dolores Park in San Francisco on July 22, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“He would not have anybody sitting in his dad’s chair. So clearly, he knew that dad was gone,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She said she has a hard time forgetting the look on her baby’s face the day they cut their visit to Peter short.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I was just heartbroken because you want to give your kids everything, but I couldn’t give him the ability to touch or be held by his own dad.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter lingered in detention for months waiting for a hearing. But the federal courts were flooded with lawsuits challenging detentions, and his case bounced from one court to another around the state, from Santa Ana to Sacramento. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Finally, in early April, five months after he was detained, a federal judge ruled his arrest was unlawful and ordered ICE to release him. A couple of days later, he got his green card. He was granted permanent resident status on a conditional basis — something given to couples married for less than two years. In a couple of years, he’ll be eligible to apply for naturalized citizenship. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It happened after not only him and his family suffered for that amount of time, but [at] the government expense, the amount of resources that go to arresting somebody, placing them in immigration proceedings, having a judge and other staff in the immigration court review their case, having whatever it costs to detain somebody per day,” Engen, the attorney, said. “And for what? For no other reason than to be cruel.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After Peter was released and taken to a processing center in Bakersfield, a friend picked him up. On the road back to the Bay Area, they stopped to savor something he had been missing while in detention: a good cup of coffee and a hamburger.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I was just excited to be out. And just to walk on your own,” he said. “Just not have somebody screaming at the top of their lungs at anything and everything\u003cem>. \u003c/em>One of the problems we had with the detention officers there were some who were just yelling at people for nothing.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When he got home, there was no dramatic reunion, no welcoming party. It was his baby’s bedtime, and he needed to jump back into his schedule.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That also helped me a lot because you don’t have time to sit and wallow in your pity,” he said. “You just get back into the swing of things.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While in detention, Peter missed his son’s first Christmas, and the couple missed their wedding anniversary. They also missed a marathon they had trained for, so in May, after Peter was released, they ran the Bay to Breakers race, pushing their baby in a stroller across San Francisco. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He also got to celebrate his son’s first birthday and see him take his first steps.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter said he’s thankful to the community who showed up for him, Alexandra and their baby, and helped him get through his ordeal. The family’s GoFundMe fundraiser doubled its goal, with more than 650 contributors. And he also made friends while in detention. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m mad that it happened to me, but at the same time I made friends, and I saw the goodness of people, and you see how people with nothing or with very limited resources can be kind to each other,” he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Alexandra said she’s staying in touch with parents she met while visiting Peter, and still sends hand-me-down baby clothes to some of them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Some of the detainees that are in there with my husband never even met their children,” she said. “We had a lot of luck in the process, despite how hard it was.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>During his detention, Peter and Alexandra also wrote letters to each other. He always enclosed a drawing of birds that his baby liked to admire whenever they strolled around Oakland’s Lake Merritt together. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Alexandra said she hopes when their son grows up, he’ll read the letters and know that his parents did the best they could to help him get through a traumatic experience. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“And hopefully, who’s to say where this country will be in five, 10, 15, 20 years, but hopefully, he’ll just say: ‘Wow, I can’t believe they did that. I’m so glad they don’t do that anymore,” she said. “Or he’ll be fighting it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include Prof. Rahil Briggs’ affiliation with the organization Zero To Three and its HealthySteps program.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Peter is his adopted American name. We’re not using his full name because he fears telling his story may harm his immigration case.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In November 2025, the family went to a federal building in San Francisco for the green card interview. The appointment came several months after Pres. Donald Trump’s administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJNXsOqFSZs\">directed ICE to make 3,000 arrests per day\u003c/a> to meet his pledge of mass deportations. Peter was worried about getting swept up in the crackdown.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093138\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Peter and Alexandra spend time with their 1-year-old son at the playground in Dolores Park in San Francisco on July 22, 2026. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>About a week before the appointment, he said his baby might have felt his anxiety too. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I picked him up in the morning, and he held my hand, and he wouldn’t let go,” he said. “He looked at me, and he held me for a long time.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Green card interviews are usually the final step in the process for foreign spouses of American citizens to obtain permanent residency. Couples submit evidence that they have a legitimate marriage, and a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer verifies it at the in-person meeting. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Alexandra said the officer approved her petition to sponsor Peter and was going to issue him a green card. But in the middle of the interview, the baby needed a diaper change. Alexandra said the officer urged her to take her son to the bathroom.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But as soon as Alexandra left for the bathroom, ICE agents swooped in with a warrant, alleging that he overstayed his student visa, handcuffed him and took him into custody.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When Alexandra came back and learned that Peter was detained, she tried to stay calm as she held her baby.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I asked the ICE agent, ‘Well, how am I going to get home? How am I going to take care of my baby? You know, I don’t see well; how am I going to do that?” she said. “And they’re like, ’That’s not our problem.’”\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I asked the ICE agent, ‘Well, how am I going to get home? How am I going to take care of my baby? You know, I don’t see well; how am I going to do that?” she said. “And they’re like, ’That’s not our problem.’”\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Peter was taken to a local holding cell for a night. The next day, he was driven seven hours away to a detention facility in California City, in the middle of the desert. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Once he got to the detention center, Peter said he was placed in a two-person cell within a unit of 80 people. The facility used to be a state prison, but federal immigration officials arranged to reopen it last August to hold up to 2,500 detainees and have it run by the private for-profit company CoreCivic. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Once he got to the detention center, Peter said he was placed in a two-person cell within a unit of 80 people. The facility used to be a state prison, but federal immigration officials arranged to reopen it last August to hold up to 2,500 detainees and have it run by the private for-profit company CoreCivic. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“They’re putting you in a unit, they’re locking the doors, they’re counting people all the time,” he said. “You cannot be out. You cannot do certain things by certain times.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, Alexandra and Peter’s friends, family and community sprang into action. A relative helped find legal aid and a friend helped Alexandra with childcare while she continued teaching. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, Alexandra and Peter’s friends, family and community sprang into action. A relative helped find legal aid and a friend helped Alexandra with childcare while she continued teaching. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Abby Sullivan Engen, an immigration attorney at Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland, said Peter’s arrest and detention were unlawful because he was following the proper procedures to adjust his status to permanent resident. She accused ICE and the USCIS of “colluding” to lure the couple to the interview and arrest Peter.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Abby Sullivan Engen, an immigration attorney at Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland, said Peter’s arrest and detention were unlawful because he was following the proper procedures to adjust his status to permanent resident. She accused ICE and the USCIS of “colluding” to lure the couple to the interview and arrest Peter.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093137\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Peter and Alexandra hold the hand of their 1-year-old son at Dolores Park in San Francisco on July 22, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“They’re engaging in different tactics to satisfy that totally arbitrary metric [of 3,000 arrests per day],” she said. “Arresting people at interviews was kind of an easy way for them to fulfill this number and just get people in ICE custody.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Andrew Nietor, an immigration attorney in San Diego, said between November and January, dozens of similar arrests occurred in his region during green card interviews.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He said while it’s not uncommon for foreign-born spouses of American citizens to have their visas lapse while their “adjustment of status” continues, they don’t usually get detained in the process. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He said while it’s not uncommon for foreign-born spouses of American citizens to have their visas lapse while their “adjustment of status” continues, they don’t usually get detained in the process. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Traditionally ICE detention was based on risk of flight, or danger to the community,” Nietor said. “So when you’re detaining people who are showing up for appointments and have already passed background checks, it doesn’t make sense.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As Peter’s lawyer worked to get him out of detention, he and Alexandra made daily video calls to maintain a sense of normalcy for their infant. After a while, Alexandra said the baby learned to recognize the automated announcement from the detention center when the phone rings.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>As Peter’s lawyer worked to get him out of detention, he and Alexandra made daily video calls to maintain a sense of normalcy for their infant. After a while, Alexandra said the baby learned to recognize the automated announcement from the detention center when the phone rings.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It’s kind of depressing and also heartwarming at the same time, but we would hear, ‘This is a call from Peter, a detainee at California,’ and anytime [he] heard that, he would just start smiling and laughing,” she said. “So he knew whenever that recording came on that his dad was going to be on the phone.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/11/5446958381_9e90f58cab_o-e1416954725536.jpg\" alt=\"An SFPD squad car.\" class=\"wp-image-10356156\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco police car parked outside the Hall of Justice. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Volunteers drove Alexandra and the baby to the detention center, but he often got fussy seeing his dad behind a glass partition. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“He was trying to touch my face through the glass, and that was frustrating,” Peter said. “We asked the detention [center] why they don’t allow a family to have personal visits. And they say we’re not ready and we don’t do it.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“He was trying to touch my face through the glass, and that was frustrating,” Peter said. “We asked the detention [center] why they don’t allow a family to have personal visits. And they say we’re not ready and we don’t do it.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Steven Owen, a spokesman for CoreCivic, said visitation policies are determined by ICE, “who have operational and security considerations that inform those decisions.” A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the California City detention center has a family visitation room, but no physical contact is allowed. They declined to explain the reason behind the policy.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Steven Owen, a spokesman for CoreCivic, said visitation policies are determined by ICE, “who have operational and security considerations that inform those decisions.” A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the California City detention center has a family visitation room, but no physical contact is allowed. They declined to explain the reason behind the policy.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://developingchild.harvard.edu/key-concept/toxic-stress/\">Research shows\u003c/a> that when young kids experience adversity and they don’t have anyone to help them cope, their body’s stress response system goes into overdrive. This type of stress is called toxic stress, and Briggs said it can rewire the brain and disrupt the healthy development of their bodies, increasing the risk for heart disease, diabetes, and depression later on. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://developingchild.harvard.edu/key-concept/toxic-stress/\">Research shows\u003c/a> that when young kids experience adversity and they don’t have anyone to help them cope, their body’s stress response system goes into overdrive. This type of stress is called toxic stress, and Briggs said it can rewire the brain and disrupt the healthy development of their bodies, increasing the risk for heart disease, diabetes, and depression later on. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The early childhood brain, because it’s so plastic and it’s in this developing stage deciding which neural pathways to lay down, it’s especially sensitive to stress — more sensitive than your brain or my brain, and therefore more able to react positively to safety, to nurturing, to connection, but also likely to be worse off when the stress gets really toxic,” she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The early childhood brain, because it’s so plastic and it’s in this developing stage deciding which neural pathways to lay down, it’s especially sensitive to stress — more sensitive than your brain or my brain, and therefore more able to react positively to safety, to nurturing, to connection, but also likely to be worse off when the stress gets really toxic,” she said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While Peter was in detention, the baby had difficulty falling asleep and became clingy, Alexandra said. If anyone sat in his dad’s favorite chair, he would throw a fit. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>While Peter was in detention, the baby had difficulty falling asleep and became clingy, Alexandra said. If anyone sat in his dad’s favorite chair, he would throw a fit. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093136\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Alexandra and Peter hold their 1-year-old son at Dolores Park in San Francisco on July 22, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“He would not have anybody sitting in his dad’s chair. So clearly, he knew that dad was gone,” she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Peter lingered in detention for months waiting for a hearing. But the federal courts were flooded with lawsuits challenging detentions, and his case bounced from one court to another around the state, from Santa Ana to Sacramento. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Finally, in early April, five months after he was detained, a federal judge ruled his arrest was unlawful and ordered ICE to release him. A couple of days later, he got his green card. He was granted permanent resident status on a conditional basis — something given to couples married for less than two years. In a couple of years, he’ll be eligible to apply for naturalized citizenship. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Finally, in early April, five months after he was detained, a federal judge ruled his arrest was unlawful and ordered ICE to release him. A couple of days later, he got his green card. He was granted permanent resident status on a conditional basis — something given to couples married for less than two years. In a couple of years, he’ll be eligible to apply for naturalized citizenship. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It happened after not only him and his family suffered for that amount of time, but [at] the government expense, the amount of resources that go to arresting somebody, placing them in immigration proceedings, having a judge and other staff in the immigration court review their case, having whatever it costs to detain somebody per day,” Engen, the attorney, said. “And for what? For no other reason than to be cruel.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>After Peter was released and taken to a processing center in Bakersfield, a friend picked him up. On the road back to the Bay Area, they stopped to savor something he had been missing while in detention: a good cup of coffee and a hamburger.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I was just excited to be out. And just to walk on your own,” he said. “Just not have somebody screaming at the top of their lungs at anything and everything\u003cem>. \u003c/em>One of the problems we had with the detention officers there were some who were just yelling at people for nothing.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When he got home, there was no dramatic reunion, no welcoming party. It was his baby’s bedtime, and he needed to jump back into his schedule.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“That also helped me a lot because you don’t have time to sit and wallow in your pity,” he said. “You just get back into the swing of things.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While in detention, Peter missed his son’s first Christmas, and the couple missed their wedding anniversary. They also missed a marathon they had trained for, so in May, after Peter was released, they ran the Bay to Breakers race, pushing their baby in a stroller across San Francisco. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Peter said he’s thankful to the community who showed up for him, Alexandra and their baby, and helped him get through his ordeal. The family’s GoFundMe fundraiser doubled its goal, with more than 650 contributors. And he also made friends while in detention. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I’m mad that it happened to me, but at the same time I made friends, and I saw the goodness of people, and you see how people with nothing or with very limited resources can be kind to each other,” he said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Alexandra said she’s staying in touch with parents she met while visiting Peter, and still sends hand-me-down baby clothes to some of them.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Some of the detainees that are in there with my husband never even met their children,” she said. “We had a lot of luck in the process, despite how hard it was.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>During his detention, Peter and Alexandra also wrote letters to each other. He always enclosed a drawing of birds that his baby liked to admire whenever they strolled around Oakland’s Lake Merritt together. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“And hopefully, who’s to say where this country will be in five, 10, 15, 20 years, but hopefully, he’ll just say: ‘Wow, I can’t believe they did that. I’m so glad they don’t do that anymore,” she said. “Or he’ll be fighting it.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include Prof. Rahil Briggs’ affiliation with the organization Zero To Three and its HealthySteps program.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For the first year of his life, a baby boy went with his mom on 7-hour-long drives from their home in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> to the Mojave Desert to see his dad, Peter, at an immigration detention center.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A glass partition separated the baby and the dad, who used to hold him til he fell asleep. They made the best of the situation by playing peek-a-boo and giving each other high-fives, with hands touching the glass. But during one particular visit, the baby grew agitated and began banging on it. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter told the baby’s mom, Alexandra, they probably should cut the visit short “because it’s making the baby more upset to be here than to not be here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We ended up leaving a little bit early,” Alexandra said. “And in the car ride home, the baby looked really, really angry. And not just frustrated because kids look frustrated, he looked angry.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter was the main caregiver to his son when he was taken into custody in November 2025, and the sudden separation took a toll not only on him and his wife, but also on their developing baby. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-18-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093139\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-18-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-18-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-18-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Peter sits in Dolores Park in San Francisco on July 22, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Since Trump’s deportation campaign began last year, more than 100,000 children who are American citizens have had a parent detained, according to an \u003ca href=\"https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-many-children-are-affected-by-parental-immigrant-detention/\">analysis by the Brookings Institution\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trauma of family separation could lead to profound consequences on kids’ brains and bodies, even for those too young to understand.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It has implications biologically, it has implications developmentally, it has implications for learning,” said Rahil Briggs, a clinical professor of pediatrics, psychiatry and behavioral science at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and national director of HealthySteps, a program with the early childhood advocacy group Zero To Three. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For Peter, not being able to touch or hold his son was one of the most difficult parts of a five-month nightmare in detention. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter is his adopted American name. We’re not using his full name because he fears telling his story may harm his immigration case.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He came to California from Kenya on a student visa almost 25 years ago. In the early 2000s, his country was in political and economic turmoil, and there were few opportunities to pursue higher education.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Chances are you are not going to get anywhere there,” he said. “So let’s just take a chance and try to go somewhere else.”\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He went to a community college in Orange County. Then in 2018, he moved to the Bay Area to get a bachelor’s degree at San Francisco State University. As he pursued his education, he supported himself by working in cafes and bars and as a soccer and rugby referee. Then in 2024 he met his wife, Alexandra, an elementary school teacher.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They had their first date at the Ferry Building, on the San Francisco waterfront. Not long after that, Alexandra needed to undergo surgery. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“He came and stayed with me for I think a week or two and took care of me,” she said. “He’s just a really good person, a really thoughtful person. So we hit it off pretty quickly.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They got married a year later and had their son in the spring of 2025.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter became a full-time dad when Alexandra went back to work. She’s legally blind and cannot drive, and he said it made sense for him to stay home to take care of their baby. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“When you have a kid, in their first few years they have to go to a lot of checkups,” he said. “So it’s easier that way, and also she really, really loves teaching. I kind of felt guilty telling her, ‘Oh no, you stay.’ I was like, ‘No, I’ll stay with him.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After tying the knot, Alexandra petitioned to sponsor Peter’s green card because his student visa had expired.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In November 2025, the family went to a federal building in San Francisco for the green card interview. The appointment came several months after Pres. Donald Trump’s administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJNXsOqFSZs\">directed ICE to make 3,000 arrests per day\u003c/a> to meet his pledge of mass deportations. Peter was worried about getting swept up in the crackdown.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093138\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Peter and Alexandra spend time with their 1-year-old son at the playground in Dolores Park in San Francisco on July 22, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>About a week before the appointment, he said his baby might have felt his anxiety too. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I picked him up in the morning, and he held my hand, and he wouldn’t let go,” he said. “He looked at me, and he held me for a long time.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Green card interviews are usually the final step in the process for foreign spouses of American citizens to obtain permanent residency. Couples submit evidence that they have a legitimate marriage, and a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer verifies it at the in-person meeting. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Alexandra said the officer approved her petition to sponsor Peter and was going to issue him a green card. But in the middle of the interview, the baby needed a diaper change. Alexandra said the officer urged her to take her son to the bathroom.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She said she hesitated and said she’d rather wait to finish the interview and go with Peter to change the diaper.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She said the officer told her: “We’re almost done here. We’ll be waiting for you when the baby comes out.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But as soon as Alexandra left for the bathroom, ICE agents swooped in with a warrant, alleging that he overstayed his student visa, handcuffed him and took him into custody.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When Alexandra came back and learned that Peter was detained, she tried to stay calm as she held her baby.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I asked the ICE agent, ‘Well, how am I going to get home? How am I going to take care of my baby? You know, I don’t see well; how am I going to do that?” she said. “And they’re like, ’That’s not our problem.’”\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter was taken to a local holding cell for a night. The next day, he was driven seven hours away to a detention facility in California City, in the middle of the desert. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Once he got to the detention center, Peter said he was placed in a two-person cell within a unit of 80 people. The facility used to be a state prison, but federal immigration officials arranged to reopen it last August to hold up to 2,500 detainees and have it run by the private for-profit company CoreCivic. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter said it felt like prison. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They’re putting you in a unit, they’re locking the doors, they’re counting people all the time,” he said. “You cannot be out. You cannot do certain things by certain times.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, Alexandra and Peter’s friends, family and community sprang into action. A relative helped find legal aid and a friend helped Alexandra with childcare while she continued teaching. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Abby Sullivan Engen, an immigration attorney at Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland, said Peter’s arrest and detention were unlawful because he was following the proper procedures to adjust his status to permanent resident. She accused ICE and the USCIS of “colluding” to lure the couple to the interview and arrest Peter.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093137\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Peter and Alexandra hold the hand of their 1-year-old son at Dolores Park in San Francisco on July 22, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They’re engaging in different tactics to satisfy that totally arbitrary metric [of 3,000 arrests per day],” she said. “Arresting people at interviews was kind of an easy way for them to fulfill this number and just get people in ICE custody.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Andrew Nietor, an immigration attorney in San Diego, said between November and January, dozens of similar arrests occurred in his region during green card interviews.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He said while it’s not uncommon for foreign-born spouses of American citizens to have their visas lapse while their “adjustment of status” continues, they don’t usually get detained in the process. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Traditionally ICE detention was based on risk of flight, or danger to the community,” Nietor said. “So when you’re detaining people who are showing up for appointments and have already passed background checks, it doesn’t make sense.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As Peter’s lawyer worked to get him out of detention, he and Alexandra made daily video calls to maintain a sense of normalcy for their infant. After a while, Alexandra said the baby learned to recognize the automated announcement from the detention center when the phone rings.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s kind of depressing and also heartwarming at the same time, but we would hear, ‘This is a call from Peter, a detainee at California,’ and anytime [he] heard that, he would just start smiling and laughing,” she said. “So he knew whenever that recording came on that his dad was going to be on the phone.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"978\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/11/5446958381_9e90f58cab_o-e1416954725536.jpg\" alt=\"An SFPD squad car.\" class=\"wp-image-10356156\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco police car parked outside the Hall of Justice. (Todd Lappin/Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Volunteers drove Alexandra and the baby to the detention center, but he often got fussy seeing his dad behind a glass partition. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“He was trying to touch my face through the glass, and that was frustrating,” Peter said. “We asked the detention [center] why they don’t allow a family to have personal visits. And they say we’re not ready and we don’t do it.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Steven Owen, a spokesman for CoreCivic, said visitation policies are determined by ICE, “who have operational and security considerations that inform those decisions.” A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the California City detention center has a family visitation room, but no physical contact is allowed. They declined to explain the reason behind the policy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://developingchild.harvard.edu/key-concept/toxic-stress/\">Research shows\u003c/a> that when young kids experience adversity and they don’t have anyone to help them cope, their body’s stress response system goes into overdrive. This type of stress is called toxic stress, and Briggs said it can rewire the brain and disrupt the healthy development of their bodies, increasing the risk for heart disease, diabetes, and depression later on. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The early childhood brain, because it’s so plastic and it’s in this developing stage deciding which neural pathways to lay down, it’s especially sensitive to stress — more sensitive than your brain or my brain, and therefore more able to react positively to safety, to nurturing, to connection, but also likely to be worse off when the stress gets really toxic,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While Peter was in detention, the baby had difficulty falling asleep and became clingy, Alexandra said. If anyone sat in his dad’s favorite chair, he would throw a fit. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093136\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260722-FAMILYSEPARATION-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Alexandra and Peter hold their 1-year-old son at Dolores Park in San Francisco on July 22, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“He would not have anybody sitting in his dad’s chair. So clearly, he knew that dad was gone,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She said she has a hard time forgetting the look on her baby’s face the day they cut their visit to Peter short.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I was just heartbroken because you want to give your kids everything, but I couldn’t give him the ability to touch or be held by his own dad.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter lingered in detention for months waiting for a hearing. But the federal courts were flooded with lawsuits challenging detentions, and his case bounced from one court to another around the state, from Santa Ana to Sacramento. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Finally, in early April, five months after he was detained, a federal judge ruled his arrest was unlawful and ordered ICE to release him. A couple of days later, he got his green card. He was granted permanent resident status on a conditional basis — something given to couples married for less than two years. In a couple of years, he’ll be eligible to apply for naturalized citizenship. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It happened after not only him and his family suffered for that amount of time, but [at] the government expense, the amount of resources that go to arresting somebody, placing them in immigration proceedings, having a judge and other staff in the immigration court review their case, having whatever it costs to detain somebody per day,” Engen, the attorney, said. “And for what? For no other reason than to be cruel.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After Peter was released and taken to a processing center in Bakersfield, a friend picked him up. On the road back to the Bay Area, they stopped to savor something he had been missing while in detention: a good cup of coffee and a hamburger.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I was just excited to be out. And just to walk on your own,” he said. “Just not have somebody screaming at the top of their lungs at anything and everything\u003cem>. \u003c/em>One of the problems we had with the detention officers there were some who were just yelling at people for nothing.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When he got home, there was no dramatic reunion, no welcoming party. It was his baby’s bedtime, and he needed to jump back into his schedule.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That also helped me a lot because you don’t have time to sit and wallow in your pity,” he said. “You just get back into the swing of things.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While in detention, Peter missed his son’s first Christmas, and the couple missed their wedding anniversary. They also missed a marathon they had trained for, so in May, after Peter was released, they ran the Bay to Breakers race, pushing their baby in a stroller across San Francisco. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He also got to celebrate his son’s first birthday and see him take his first steps.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Peter said he’s thankful to the community who showed up for him, Alexandra and their baby, and helped him get through his ordeal. The family’s GoFundMe fundraiser doubled its goal, with more than 650 contributors. And he also made friends while in detention. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m mad that it happened to me, but at the same time I made friends, and I saw the goodness of people, and you see how people with nothing or with very limited resources can be kind to each other,” he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Alexandra said she’s staying in touch with parents she met while visiting Peter, and still sends hand-me-down baby clothes to some of them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Some of the detainees that are in there with my husband never even met their children,” she said. “We had a lot of luck in the process, despite how hard it was.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>During his detention, Peter and Alexandra also wrote letters to each other. He always enclosed a drawing of birds that his baby liked to admire whenever they strolled around Oakland’s Lake Merritt together. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Alexandra said she hopes when their son grows up, he’ll read the letters and know that his parents did the best they could to help him get through a traumatic experience. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“And hopefully, who’s to say where this country will be in five, 10, 15, 20 years, but hopefully, he’ll just say: ‘Wow, I can’t believe they did that. I’m so glad they don’t do that anymore,” she said. “Or he’ll be fighting it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include Prof. Rahil Briggs’ affiliation with the organization Zero To Three and its HealthySteps program.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "san-francisco-child-care-free-elfa-discount-subsidies-how-to-apply-who-qualifies",
"title": "San Francisco Is Expanding Access to Free or Discounted Childcare. How Do Families Sign Up?",
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"headTitle": "San Francisco Is Expanding Access to Free or Discounted Childcare. How Do Families Sign Up? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of How We Get By, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>San Francisco is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069711/san-francisco-expands-child-care-subsidies-to-tackle-affordability-issues\">widening access to early childhood education\u003c/a> and care for children from birth to 5 years old — by offering families financial aid.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A few years ago, the city began \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11948690/business-tax-provides-crucial-funding-for-early-childhood-education-and-care-in-san-francisco\">using revenue from a local business tax\u003c/a>, plus state and federal dollars, to fund free childcare and preschool for families with low and moderate incomes. Starting this summer, higher-income families can apply for a 50% tuition discount.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The expansion is expected to take some financial pressure off young families in the city as they grapple with the \u003ca href=\"https://tootris.com/edu/blog/parents/cost-of-child-care-in-california-by-city-age-and-type-of-care-provider/\">highest childcare costs in California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But there’s a catch: financial aid is only available to families who enroll in any of the approximately 560 early learning programs participating in the city’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/early-learning-for-all\">Early Learning For All, also known as ELFA,\u003c/a> network. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what San Francisco families need to know about the system and how they can sign up. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who qualifies for San Francisco’s financial aid for childcare?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Free tuition\u003c/h3>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Free tuition is available for families who live in San Francisco and earn up to\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>110% of the Area Median Income, or AMI. That means a single parent with a child, who makes up to $142,650 per year — or a couple with one child earning $160,500 per year — would qualify for free tuition.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Full tuition credit\u003c/h3>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Families earning between 111% and 150% of the AMI (that’s up to $194,550 for a family of two, and up to $218,850 for a family of three) can get full tuition credit to pay for \u003cem>most \u003c/em>of the cost of childcare or preschool. The subsidy goes directly to the provider, but families might need to cover a co-pay and any extra hours of care.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12076653\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lyuba Shkolnik teaches children how to bake muffins at her in-home childcare business called Daycare Bumblebee in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Department of Early Childhood, a branch of the city’s government, sets the rates it will reimburse to providers in the ELFA network. \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/Early_Learning_For_All_Rates_FY_26-27_uwckwsW.pdf\">For the 2026-27 fiscal year\u003c/a>, which began July 1, families can save the following amounts in childcare per month for each child in these age categories:\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>Infants (0 to 24 months): $3,027 per month\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Toddlers (24 to 36 months): $2,306 per month\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Preschoolers (3 to 5 years): $2,115 per month\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">50% tuition discount\u003c/h3>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Families earning between 151% and 200% of the AMI (that’s up to $259,400 for a family of two, and up to $291,800 for a family of three) can apply for 50% off the reimbursement rates — but they must pay the rest of the tuition costs set by the provider and any extra hours of care or fees. Here’s how much families can save in childcare per month for children in these age categories:\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli> Infants (0 to 24 months): $1,514 per month\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Toddlers (24 to 36 months): $1,153 per month\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Preschoolers (3 to 5 years): $1,058 per month\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How is income eligibility determined?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The AMI is based on gross income, which is the amount you earn \u003cem>before \u003c/em>any taxes or other deductions are taken out of your paycheck. Families can submit tax documents from the previous year or their most recent pay stubs. Eligibility is determined based on the documentation provided and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/eligibility-for-free-or-low-cost-preschool-and-child-care\">the family’s household size\u003c/a>, said Jonathan Rubinsky, a spokesman for the Department of Early Childhood.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do I sign up for San Francisco childcare subsidies?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>You can sign up yourself on the \u003ca href=\"https://app.mycareconnect.io/carewait3/sfdec/service\">Department of Early Childhood’s online portal\u003c/a> — or you can contact these \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/early-learning-for-all\">three Childcare Resource and Referral agencies \u003c/a>who can help you apply. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>You can also contact a preschool or childcare program in the ELFA network and their staff will help you apply for the subsidy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do I choose among the hundreds of childcare programs and preschools in the ELFA network? \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Families can browse through a \u003ca href=\"https://app.mycareconnect.io/carewait3/sfdec/service/search/list?near=San%20Francisco,%20CA\">centralized list\u003c/a> of childcare and preschool programs in the ELFA network to learn about their locations, hours, prices, available spaces and educational approaches, such as immersing children in specific languages or in a Montessori or play-based curriculum. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>You can also click on the provider’s state license number to look up details of their health and safety records, state regulators’ inspections of their facilities, and any citations or complaints they received. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS64819_015_KQED_EachOneTeachOneChildCare_04262023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with long, black braids and a brown hoodie plays with a baby in a sunhat in the backyard on a sunny day.\" class=\"wp-image-11957186\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS64819_015_KQED_EachOneTeachOneChildCare_04262023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS64819_015_KQED_EachOneTeachOneChildCare_04262023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS64819_015_KQED_EachOneTeachOneChildCare_04262023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS64819_015_KQED_EachOneTeachOneChildCare_04262023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS64819_015_KQED_EachOneTeachOneChildCare_04262023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A little over 50% of family childcare providers in California are 50 years old or older, yet less than a quarter of them have any retirement savings, according to research from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Programs based in the provider’s home and licensed to serve up to 14 children are categorized as “Family Child Care.” Larger programs with multiple classrooms and staff are categorized as “centers.” Some families prefer a home environment for their children, while others prefer larger centers — and you can request a tour of the facility to inform your decision. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Parents of 4-year-olds can also opt for a school-based program called \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989955/what-to-expect-when-enrolling-your-child-in-transitional-kindergarten\">transitional kindergarten\u003c/a>. The pre-kindergarten program is taught at San Francisco Unified School District elementary schools or early education centers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">I really want to enroll my child in a certain program, but they don’t have any openings. What can I do?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Some childcare homes or centers have waitlists because the demand for a space in their program is driven by parental choice, according to Meenoo Yashar, deputy director of early learning at the city’s Department of Early Childhood. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She said parents can contact the provider to find out when they might have an opening and get on their waitlist. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What’s the quality of these programs?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>All of these programs meet the state’s minimum health and safety standards for licensed centers and family childcare homes. These include:\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>Passing staff background checks\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Receiving staff training in pediatric CPR and First Aid\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Maintaining specific staff-to-child ratios\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Ensuring safe indoor and outdoor physical space\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To join the Early Learning For All network, they also must meet the Department of Early Childhood’s \u003ca href=\"https://provider.sfdec.org/wp-content/uploads/Quality-Standard_Updated_6_8_26_ENG.pdf\">quality standards\u003c/a>, which are higher than state and federal requirements, according to an \u003ca href=\"https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/ca-upk-mixed-delivery-systems-report\">analysis by the Learning Policy Institute\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00146_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12076655\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00146_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00146_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00146_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Victoria Golobordko walks a child at Daycare Bumblebee in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2026. San Francisco is expanding access to childcare by offering 50% discounts to middle- and upper-middle-income earners in an effort to tackle affordability issues in one of the most expensive cities in the country. Daycare Bumblebee is trying to get approval to enter the city’s Early Learning For All system. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yashar said those expectations include providing a “welcoming, culturally responsive environment” to parents, where there are multiple communication channels to tell them what’s going on in the classroom and how their children are developing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yashar said members must also provide a “rich learning environment with lots of opportunities for children to do exploratory play.” That means early educators are providing a variety of hands-on learning materials, and they’re also interacting meaningfully with children. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To join ELFA, educators get assessed on the way they engage with children, Yashar said. “Are they asking open-ended questions? Are there opportunities where children are talking to each other, or are they just being talked to?” she said. “We’re looking to see, are the teachers also helping the children understand what’s going to happen in their day?”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Providers in the ELFA network must also provide data regularly to the Department of Early Childhood. In return, they receive wage supplements for the teaching staff and funding to improve their facilities, including outdoor play areas. Teachers also receive professional development, coaching and access to mental health consultants. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The department also covers tuition for educators who want to complete their degrees in early childhood education at local colleges. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This work has to do with optimizing brain development during a critical time, and so we want our educators to have access to higher education and understand the latest research and methodology for working with young kids,” Yashar said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Higher pay has helped stabilize staffing in a sector plagued by workplace burnout due to low wages and lack of support and benefits. Last year, a study by \u003ca href=\"https://cscce.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/state-of-ece-san-francisco-2025-updated-jan2026.pdf\">UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment\u003c/a> found that the turnover rate for teachers and assistant teachers in San Francisco was 17%, which is 23% to 35% lower than in other places in California.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re getting better paid, hopefully you’re going to stay in your job,” Yashar said. A stable staff is a marker of quality, she said, because it allows children to strengthen relationships with their educator. \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of How We Get By, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of How We Get By, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>San Francisco is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069711/san-francisco-expands-child-care-subsidies-to-tackle-affordability-issues\">widening access to early childhood education\u003c/a> and care for children from birth to 5 years old — by offering families financial aid.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>San Francisco is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069711/san-francisco-expands-child-care-subsidies-to-tackle-affordability-issues\">widening access to early childhood education\u003c/a> and care for children from birth to 5 years old — by offering families financial aid.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A few years ago, the city began \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11948690/business-tax-provides-crucial-funding-for-early-childhood-education-and-care-in-san-francisco\">using revenue from a local business tax\u003c/a>, plus state and federal dollars, to fund free childcare and preschool for families with low and moderate incomes. Starting this summer, higher-income families can apply for a 50% tuition discount.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A few years ago, the city began \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11948690/business-tax-provides-crucial-funding-for-early-childhood-education-and-care-in-san-francisco\">using revenue from a local business tax\u003c/a>, plus state and federal dollars, to fund free childcare and preschool for families with low and moderate incomes. Starting this summer, higher-income families can apply for a 50% tuition discount.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The expansion is expected to take some financial pressure off young families in the city as they grapple with the \u003ca href=\"https://tootris.com/edu/blog/parents/cost-of-child-care-in-california-by-city-age-and-type-of-care-provider/\">highest childcare costs in California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The expansion is expected to take some financial pressure off young families in the city as they grapple with the \u003ca href=\"https://tootris.com/edu/blog/parents/cost-of-child-care-in-california-by-city-age-and-type-of-care-provider/\">highest childcare costs in California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But there’s a catch: financial aid is only available to families who enroll in any of the approximately 560 early learning programs participating in the city’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/early-learning-for-all\">Early Learning For All, also known as ELFA,\u003c/a> network. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But there’s a catch: financial aid is only available to families who enroll in any of the approximately 560 early learning programs participating in the city’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/early-learning-for-all\">Early Learning For All, also known as ELFA,\u003c/a> network. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Here’s what San Francisco families need to know about the system and how they can sign up. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Here’s what San Francisco families need to know about the system and how they can sign up. \u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "Who qualifies for San Francisco’s financial aid for childcare?",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who qualifies for San Francisco’s financial aid for childcare?\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who qualifies for San Francisco’s financial aid for childcare?\u003c/h2>\n"
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"text": "Free tuition"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Free tuition\u003c/h3>\n",
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"\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Free tuition\u003c/h3>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Free tuition is available for families who live in San Francisco and earn up to\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>110% of the Area Median Income, or AMI. That means a single parent with a child, who makes up to $142,650 per year — or a couple with one child earning $160,500 per year — would qualify for free tuition.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Free tuition is available for families who live in San Francisco and earn up to\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>110% of the Area Median Income, or AMI. That means a single parent with a child, who makes up to $142,650 per year — or a couple with one child earning $160,500 per year — would qualify for free tuition.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
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"text": "Full tuition credit"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Full tuition credit\u003c/h3>\n",
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"\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Full tuition credit\u003c/h3>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Families earning between 111% and 150% of the AMI (that’s up to $194,550 for a family of two, and up to $218,850 for a family of three) can get full tuition credit to pay for \u003cem>most \u003c/em>of the cost of childcare or preschool. The subsidy goes directly to the provider, but families might need to cover a co-pay and any extra hours of care.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Families earning between 111% and 150% of the AMI (that’s up to $194,550 for a family of two, and up to $218,850 for a family of three) can get full tuition credit to pay for \u003cem>most \u003c/em>of the cost of childcare or preschool. The subsidy goes directly to the provider, but families might need to cover a co-pay and any extra hours of care.\u003c/p>\n"
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"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12076653\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lyuba Shkolnik teaches children how to bake muffins at her in-home childcare business called Daycare Bumblebee in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2026. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12076653\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lyuba Shkolnik teaches children how to bake muffins at her in-home childcare business called Daycare Bumblebee in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2026. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Department of Early Childhood, a branch of the city’s government, sets the rates it will reimburse to providers in the ELFA network. \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/Early_Learning_For_All_Rates_FY_26-27_uwckwsW.pdf\">For the 2026-27 fiscal year\u003c/a>, which began July 1, families can save the following amounts in childcare per month for each child in these age categories:\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Department of Early Childhood, a branch of the city’s government, sets the rates it will reimburse to providers in the ELFA network. \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/Early_Learning_For_All_Rates_FY_26-27_uwckwsW.pdf\">For the 2026-27 fiscal year\u003c/a>, which began July 1, families can save the following amounts in childcare per month for each child in these age categories:\u003c/p>\n"
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"Infants (0 to 24 months): $3,027 per month",
"Toddlers (24 to 36 months): $2,306 per month",
"Preschoolers (3 to 5 years): $2,115 per month"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\n\n\n\u003c/ul>\n",
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null,
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null,
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>Infants (0 to 24 months): $3,027 per month\u003c/li>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cli>Infants (0 to 24 months): $3,027 per month\u003c/li>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>Toddlers (24 to 36 months): $2,306 per month\u003c/li>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cli>Toddlers (24 to 36 months): $2,306 per month\u003c/li>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>Preschoolers (3 to 5 years): $2,115 per month\u003c/li>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cli>Preschoolers (3 to 5 years): $2,115 per month\u003c/li>\n"
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"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
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"text": "50% tuition discount"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">50% tuition discount\u003c/h3>\n",
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"\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">50% tuition discount\u003c/h3>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Families earning between 151% and 200% of the AMI (that’s up to $259,400 for a family of two, and up to $291,800 for a family of three) can apply for 50% off the reimbursement rates — but they must pay the rest of the tuition costs set by the provider and any extra hours of care or fees. Here’s how much families can save in childcare per month for children in these age categories:\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Families earning between 151% and 200% of the AMI (that’s up to $259,400 for a family of two, and up to $291,800 for a family of three) can apply for 50% off the reimbursement rates — but they must pay the rest of the tuition costs set by the provider and any extra hours of care or fees. Here’s how much families can save in childcare per month for children in these age categories:\u003c/p>\n"
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" Infants (0 to 24 months): $1,514 per month",
"Toddlers (24 to 36 months): $1,153 per month",
"Preschoolers (3 to 5 years): $1,058 per month"
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null,
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null,
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli> Infants (0 to 24 months): $1,514 per month\u003c/li>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cli> Infants (0 to 24 months): $1,514 per month\u003c/li>\n"
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"blockName": "core/list-item",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>Toddlers (24 to 36 months): $1,153 per month\u003c/li>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>Preschoolers (3 to 5 years): $1,058 per month\u003c/li>\n",
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"\n\u003cli>Preschoolers (3 to 5 years): $1,058 per month\u003c/li>\n"
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"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "How is income eligibility determined?",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How is income eligibility determined?\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How is income eligibility determined?\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The AMI is based on gross income, which is the amount you earn \u003cem>before \u003c/em>any taxes or other deductions are taken out of your paycheck. Families can submit tax documents from the previous year or their most recent pay stubs. Eligibility is determined based on the documentation provided and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/eligibility-for-free-or-low-cost-preschool-and-child-care\">the family’s household size\u003c/a>, said Jonathan Rubinsky, a spokesman for the Department of Early Childhood.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The AMI is based on gross income, which is the amount you earn \u003cem>before \u003c/em>any taxes or other deductions are taken out of your paycheck. Families can submit tax documents from the previous year or their most recent pay stubs. Eligibility is determined based on the documentation provided and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/eligibility-for-free-or-low-cost-preschool-and-child-care\">the family’s household size\u003c/a>, said Jonathan Rubinsky, a spokesman for the Department of Early Childhood.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "How do I sign up for San Francisco childcare subsidies?",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do I sign up for San Francisco childcare subsidies?\u003c/h2>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>You can sign up yourself on the \u003ca href=\"https://app.mycareconnect.io/carewait3/sfdec/service\">Department of Early Childhood’s online portal\u003c/a> — or you can contact these \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/early-learning-for-all\">three Childcare Resource and Referral agencies \u003c/a>who can help you apply. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>You can sign up yourself on the \u003ca href=\"https://app.mycareconnect.io/carewait3/sfdec/service\">Department of Early Childhood’s online portal\u003c/a> — or you can contact these \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/early-learning-for-all\">three Childcare Resource and Referral agencies \u003c/a>who can help you apply. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>You can also contact a preschool or childcare program in the ELFA network and their staff will help you apply for the subsidy.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>You can also contact a preschool or childcare program in the ELFA network and their staff will help you apply for the subsidy.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "How do I choose among the hundreds of childcare programs and preschools in the ELFA network? ",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do I choose among the hundreds of childcare programs and preschools in the ELFA network? \u003c/h2>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>You can also click on the provider’s state license number to look up details of their health and safety records, state regulators’ inspections of their facilities, and any citations or complaints they received. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Programs based in the provider’s home and licensed to serve up to 14 children are categorized as “Family Child Care.” Larger programs with multiple classrooms and staff are categorized as “centers.” Some families prefer a home environment for their children, while others prefer larger centers — and you can request a tour of the facility to inform your decision. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Some childcare homes or centers have waitlists because the demand for a space in their program is driven by parental choice, according to Meenoo Yashar, deputy director of early learning at the city’s Department of Early Childhood. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>To join the Early Learning For All network, they also must meet the Department of Early Childhood’s \u003ca href=\"https://provider.sfdec.org/wp-content/uploads/Quality-Standard_Updated_6_8_26_ENG.pdf\">quality standards\u003c/a>, which are higher than state and federal requirements, according to an \u003ca href=\"https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/ca-upk-mixed-delivery-systems-report\">analysis by the Learning Policy Institute\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00146_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12076655\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00146_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00146_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00146_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Victoria Golobordko walks a child at Daycare Bumblebee in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2026. San Francisco is expanding access to childcare by offering 50% discounts to middle- and upper-middle-income earners in an effort to tackle affordability issues in one of the most expensive cities in the country. Daycare Bumblebee is trying to get approval to enter the city’s Early Learning For All system.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Yashar said those expectations include providing a “welcoming, culturally responsive environment” to parents, where there are multiple communication channels to tell them what’s going on in the classroom and how their children are developing.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Providers in the ELFA network must also provide data regularly to the Department of Early Childhood. In return, they receive wage supplements for the teaching staff and funding to improve their facilities, including outdoor play areas. Teachers also receive professional development, coaching and access to mental health consultants. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Higher pay has helped stabilize staffing in a sector plagued by workplace burnout due to low wages and lack of support and benefits. Last year, a study by \u003ca href=\"https://cscce.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/state-of-ece-san-francisco-2025-updated-jan2026.pdf\">UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment\u003c/a> found that the turnover rate for teachers and assistant teachers in San Francisco was 17%, which is 23% to 35% lower than in other places in California.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“If you’re getting better paid, hopefully you’re going to stay in your job,” Yashar said. A stable staff is a marker of quality, she said, because it allows children to strengthen relationships with their educator. \u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "San Francisco is the first U.S. city to offer a robust early childhood education program for children under 5. Here’s how families can opt into its Early Learning For All system. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of How We Get By, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>San Francisco is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069711/san-francisco-expands-child-care-subsidies-to-tackle-affordability-issues\">widening access to early childhood education\u003c/a> and care for children from birth to 5 years old — by offering families financial aid.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A few years ago, the city began \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11948690/business-tax-provides-crucial-funding-for-early-childhood-education-and-care-in-san-francisco\">using revenue from a local business tax\u003c/a>, plus state and federal dollars, to fund free childcare and preschool for families with low and moderate incomes. Starting this summer, higher-income families can apply for a 50% tuition discount.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The expansion is expected to take some financial pressure off young families in the city as they grapple with the \u003ca href=\"https://tootris.com/edu/blog/parents/cost-of-child-care-in-california-by-city-age-and-type-of-care-provider/\">highest childcare costs in California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But there’s a catch: financial aid is only available to families who enroll in any of the approximately 560 early learning programs participating in the city’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/early-learning-for-all\">Early Learning For All, also known as ELFA,\u003c/a> network. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what San Francisco families need to know about the system and how they can sign up. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who qualifies for San Francisco’s financial aid for childcare?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Free tuition\u003c/h3>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Free tuition is available for families who live in San Francisco and earn up to\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>110% of the Area Median Income, or AMI. That means a single parent with a child, who makes up to $142,650 per year — or a couple with one child earning $160,500 per year — would qualify for free tuition.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Full tuition credit\u003c/h3>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Families earning between 111% and 150% of the AMI (that’s up to $194,550 for a family of two, and up to $218,850 for a family of three) can get full tuition credit to pay for \u003cem>most \u003c/em>of the cost of childcare or preschool. The subsidy goes directly to the provider, but families might need to cover a co-pay and any extra hours of care.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12076653\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00137_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lyuba Shkolnik teaches children how to bake muffins at her in-home childcare business called Daycare Bumblebee in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Department of Early Childhood, a branch of the city’s government, sets the rates it will reimburse to providers in the ELFA network. \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/Early_Learning_For_All_Rates_FY_26-27_uwckwsW.pdf\">For the 2026-27 fiscal year\u003c/a>, which began July 1, families can save the following amounts in childcare per month for each child in these age categories:\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>Infants (0 to 24 months): $3,027 per month\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Toddlers (24 to 36 months): $2,306 per month\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Preschoolers (3 to 5 years): $2,115 per month\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">50% tuition discount\u003c/h3>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Families earning between 151% and 200% of the AMI (that’s up to $259,400 for a family of two, and up to $291,800 for a family of three) can apply for 50% off the reimbursement rates — but they must pay the rest of the tuition costs set by the provider and any extra hours of care or fees. Here’s how much families can save in childcare per month for children in these age categories:\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli> Infants (0 to 24 months): $1,514 per month\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Toddlers (24 to 36 months): $1,153 per month\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Preschoolers (3 to 5 years): $1,058 per month\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How is income eligibility determined?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The AMI is based on gross income, which is the amount you earn \u003cem>before \u003c/em>any taxes or other deductions are taken out of your paycheck. Families can submit tax documents from the previous year or their most recent pay stubs. Eligibility is determined based on the documentation provided and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/eligibility-for-free-or-low-cost-preschool-and-child-care\">the family’s household size\u003c/a>, said Jonathan Rubinsky, a spokesman for the Department of Early Childhood.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do I sign up for San Francisco childcare subsidies?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>You can sign up yourself on the \u003ca href=\"https://app.mycareconnect.io/carewait3/sfdec/service\">Department of Early Childhood’s online portal\u003c/a> — or you can contact these \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/early-learning-for-all\">three Childcare Resource and Referral agencies \u003c/a>who can help you apply. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>You can also contact a preschool or childcare program in the ELFA network and their staff will help you apply for the subsidy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do I choose among the hundreds of childcare programs and preschools in the ELFA network? \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Families can browse through a \u003ca href=\"https://app.mycareconnect.io/carewait3/sfdec/service/search/list?near=San%20Francisco,%20CA\">centralized list\u003c/a> of childcare and preschool programs in the ELFA network to learn about their locations, hours, prices, available spaces and educational approaches, such as immersing children in specific languages or in a Montessori or play-based curriculum. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>You can also click on the provider’s state license number to look up details of their health and safety records, state regulators’ inspections of their facilities, and any citations or complaints they received. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS64819_015_KQED_EachOneTeachOneChildCare_04262023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with long, black braids and a brown hoodie plays with a baby in a sunhat in the backyard on a sunny day.\" class=\"wp-image-11957186\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS64819_015_KQED_EachOneTeachOneChildCare_04262023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS64819_015_KQED_EachOneTeachOneChildCare_04262023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS64819_015_KQED_EachOneTeachOneChildCare_04262023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS64819_015_KQED_EachOneTeachOneChildCare_04262023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS64819_015_KQED_EachOneTeachOneChildCare_04262023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A little over 50% of family childcare providers in California are 50 years old or older, yet less than a quarter of them have any retirement savings, according to research from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Programs based in the provider’s home and licensed to serve up to 14 children are categorized as “Family Child Care.” Larger programs with multiple classrooms and staff are categorized as “centers.” Some families prefer a home environment for their children, while others prefer larger centers — and you can request a tour of the facility to inform your decision. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Parents of 4-year-olds can also opt for a school-based program called \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989955/what-to-expect-when-enrolling-your-child-in-transitional-kindergarten\">transitional kindergarten\u003c/a>. The pre-kindergarten program is taught at San Francisco Unified School District elementary schools or early education centers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">I really want to enroll my child in a certain program, but they don’t have any openings. What can I do?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Some childcare homes or centers have waitlists because the demand for a space in their program is driven by parental choice, according to Meenoo Yashar, deputy director of early learning at the city’s Department of Early Childhood. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She said parents can contact the provider to find out when they might have an opening and get on their waitlist. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What’s the quality of these programs?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>All of these programs meet the state’s minimum health and safety standards for licensed centers and family childcare homes. These include:\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>Passing staff background checks\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Receiving staff training in pediatric CPR and First Aid\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Maintaining specific staff-to-child ratios\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Ensuring safe indoor and outdoor physical space\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To join the Early Learning For All network, they also must meet the Department of Early Childhood’s \u003ca href=\"https://provider.sfdec.org/wp-content/uploads/Quality-Standard_Updated_6_8_26_ENG.pdf\">quality standards\u003c/a>, which are higher than state and federal requirements, according to an \u003ca href=\"https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/ca-upk-mixed-delivery-systems-report\">analysis by the Learning Policy Institute\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00146_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12076655\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00146_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00146_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260130-sfchildcareaccess00146_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Victoria Golobordko walks a child at Daycare Bumblebee in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2026. San Francisco is expanding access to childcare by offering 50% discounts to middle- and upper-middle-income earners in an effort to tackle affordability issues in one of the most expensive cities in the country. Daycare Bumblebee is trying to get approval to enter the city’s Early Learning For All system. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yashar said those expectations include providing a “welcoming, culturally responsive environment” to parents, where there are multiple communication channels to tell them what’s going on in the classroom and how their children are developing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yashar said members must also provide a “rich learning environment with lots of opportunities for children to do exploratory play.” That means early educators are providing a variety of hands-on learning materials, and they’re also interacting meaningfully with children. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To join ELFA, educators get assessed on the way they engage with children, Yashar said. “Are they asking open-ended questions? Are there opportunities where children are talking to each other, or are they just being talked to?” she said. “We’re looking to see, are the teachers also helping the children understand what’s going to happen in their day?”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Providers in the ELFA network must also provide data regularly to the Department of Early Childhood. In return, they receive wage supplements for the teaching staff and funding to improve their facilities, including outdoor play areas. Teachers also receive professional development, coaching and access to mental health consultants. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The department also covers tuition for educators who want to complete their degrees in early childhood education at local colleges. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This work has to do with optimizing brain development during a critical time, and so we want our educators to have access to higher education and understand the latest research and methodology for working with young kids,” Yashar said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Higher pay has helped stabilize staffing in a sector plagued by workplace burnout due to low wages and lack of support and benefits. Last year, a study by \u003ca href=\"https://cscce.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/state-of-ece-san-francisco-2025-updated-jan2026.pdf\">UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment\u003c/a> found that the turnover rate for teachers and assistant teachers in San Francisco was 17%, which is 23% to 35% lower than in other places in California.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re getting better paid, hopefully you’re going to stay in your job,” Yashar said. A stable staff is a marker of quality, she said, because it allows children to strengthen relationships with their educator. \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "authorities-investigate-babys-death-at-san-francisco-childcare-home",
"title": "Authorities Investigate Baby’s Death at San Francisco Childcare Home",
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"headTitle": "Authorities Investigate Baby’s Death at San Francisco Childcare Home | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Local and state authorities are investigating the death of a 3-month-old girl at a licensed childcare home in San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bayview\">Bayview district\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Fire Department said it responded to a report of a medical emergency at Mama Nida’s Loving Arms Childcare last Friday, shortly after 11 a.m. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After providing medical care at the scene, first responders took the baby to UCSF Medical Center in Mission Bay, where she was pronounced dead.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Police said the medical examiner’s office will investigate the infant’s cause of death.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1236\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12037908\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-800x494.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1020x630.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1536x949.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1920x1187.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay in San Francisco on April 24, 2025. (Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“At this time, there is no evidence of foul play, nor is it suspected,” Officer Eve Laokwansathitaya said Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gwenisha Terrell, the child’s mother, told \u003cem>the San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> that a few hours after dropping off her baby, Cya, and her 2-year-old sister, Cia, the childcare provider’s daughter called to alert her that Cya had choked on milk and stopped breathing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to a GoFundMe \u003ca href=\"https://gofund.me/68b25592a\">post\u003c/a> for Terrell and her husband, the couple was planning to celebrate their older daughter’s birthday later that day. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“In a single day, this loving family experienced unimaginable joy and unimaginable heartbreak,” the post said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“A birthday that should have been filled with laughter, cake, and memories became a day their family will carry with them forever,” it said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Requests to speak with Terrell and other members of the victim’s family have not been returned, and a woman who answered the phone number listed for Mama Nida’s Loving Arms Childcare declined to speak with KQED. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ccld.dss.ca.gov/carefacilitysearch/FacDetail/384002022\">Records show\u003c/a> state regulators received two complaints in 2023 concerning children’s safety at the home. One complaint made on Dec. 13 alleged that the licensed provider, Anita Saulny-Green, left children unattended for an extended period of time, and another complaint made on Dec. 14 alleged that Saulny-Green kicked a child. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The records show that a licensing inspector visited the home, spoke with the provider and parents and reviewed evidence.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Although the allegation may have happened or is valid, there is no preponderance of evidence to prove the alleged violation did or did not occur,” the inspector wrote. “Therefore, the allegation is unsubstantiated.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11999676\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">View of the San Francisco skyline in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood on Nov. 13, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The California Department of Social Services is conducting a separate investigation into what led to baby Cya’s death. A department spokeswoman, Theresa Mier, said she couldn’t comment further on the ongoing investigation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Saulny-Green is licensed to provide care for up to eight children in her home. State law allows one adult to care for up to eight children, provided that no more than two of them are infants and at least two children are older than 6. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Providers typically have a family member or assistant to help them out, depending on capacity and the age of the children. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2024, Saulny-Green was among 21 Black early childhood educators honored by Children’s Council San Francisco, a local childcare resource and referral agency, for caring for children in high-need communities. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On social media, Saulny-Green posted photos of the kids under her care, highlighting their developmental progress and the healthy foods that she served them. One post shows a photo of San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton, whose district includes Bayview, visiting her home in April 2024.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It was such an honor to be able to showcase all that I have accomplished and even learned through the years of experience that I have in childcare and child development,” she wrote in the post. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a suit with a blue tie speaks at a rally in front of a microphone.\" class=\"wp-image-11927447\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton and his fellow supervisors are challenging Mayor Breed and the Navy over Bayview-Hunters Point. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Childcare is more than just giving adequate care to infants, toddlers and children,” it said. “Putting time and effort, dedication and hard work to implement a plan that will help better the future of our youth is what it’s all about.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s not immediately clear whether anyone at the childcare home knew how to administer lifesaving efforts when the baby experienced the medical emergency. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Licensed childcare providers must learn and maintain current certification in pediatric CPR and first aid. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An update to \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB150/id/2425154\">state licensing rules\u003c/a> that went into effect this month requires assistants or other staff members at a family childcare home to also learn pediatric CPR and first aid, including the use of auto-injectors to treat life-threatening allergic reactions.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Local and state authorities are investigating the death of a 3-month-old girl at a licensed childcare home in San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bayview\">Bayview district\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Local and state authorities are investigating the death of a 3-month-old girl at a licensed childcare home in San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bayview\">Bayview district\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Fire Department said it responded to a report of a medical emergency at Mama Nida’s Loving Arms Childcare last Friday, shortly after 11 a.m. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Fire Department said it responded to a report of a medical emergency at Mama Nida’s Loving Arms Childcare last Friday, shortly after 11 a.m. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>After providing medical care at the scene, first responders took the baby to UCSF Medical Center in Mission Bay, where she was pronounced dead.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Police said the medical examiner’s office will investigate the infant’s cause of death.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12037908\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-800x494.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1020x630.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1536x949.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1920x1187.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay in San Francisco on April 24, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12037908\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay in San Francisco on April 24, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“At this time, there is no evidence of foul play, nor is it suspected,” Officer Eve Laokwansathitaya said Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“At this time, there is no evidence of foul play, nor is it suspected,” Officer Eve Laokwansathitaya said Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Gwenisha Terrell, the child’s mother, told \u003cem>the San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> that a few hours after dropping off her baby, Cya, and her 2-year-old sister, Cia, the childcare provider’s daughter called to alert her that Cya had choked on milk and stopped breathing. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Gwenisha Terrell, the child’s mother, told \u003cem>the San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> that a few hours after dropping off her baby, Cya, and her 2-year-old sister, Cia, the childcare provider’s daughter called to alert her that Cya had choked on milk and stopped breathing. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>According to a GoFundMe \u003ca href=\"https://gofund.me/68b25592a\">post\u003c/a> for Terrell and her husband, the couple was planning to celebrate their older daughter’s birthday later that day. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>According to a GoFundMe \u003ca href=\"https://gofund.me/68b25592a\">post\u003c/a> for Terrell and her husband, the couple was planning to celebrate their older daughter’s birthday later that day. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“In a single day, this loving family experienced unimaginable joy and unimaginable heartbreak,” the post said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“A birthday that should have been filled with laughter, cake, and memories became a day their family will carry with them forever,” it said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Requests to speak with Terrell and other members of the victim’s family have not been returned, and a woman who answered the phone number listed for Mama Nida’s Loving Arms Childcare declined to speak with KQED. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Requests to speak with Terrell and other members of the victim’s family have not been returned, and a woman who answered the phone number listed for Mama Nida’s Loving Arms Childcare declined to speak with KQED. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ccld.dss.ca.gov/carefacilitysearch/FacDetail/384002022\">Records show\u003c/a> state regulators received two complaints in 2023 concerning children’s safety at the home. One complaint made on Dec. 13 alleged that the licensed provider, Anita Saulny-Green, left children unattended for an extended period of time, and another complaint made on Dec. 14 alleged that Saulny-Green kicked a child. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ccld.dss.ca.gov/carefacilitysearch/FacDetail/384002022\">Records show\u003c/a> state regulators received two complaints in 2023 concerning children’s safety at the home. One complaint made on Dec. 13 alleged that the licensed provider, Anita Saulny-Green, left children unattended for an extended period of time, and another complaint made on Dec. 14 alleged that Saulny-Green kicked a child. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The records show that a licensing inspector visited the home, spoke with the provider and parents and reviewed evidence.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The records show that a licensing inspector visited the home, spoke with the provider and parents and reviewed evidence.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Although the allegation may have happened or is valid, there is no preponderance of evidence to prove the alleged violation did or did not occur,” the inspector wrote. “Therefore, the allegation is unsubstantiated.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Although the allegation may have happened or is valid, there is no preponderance of evidence to prove the alleged violation did or did not occur,” the inspector wrote. “Therefore, the allegation is unsubstantiated.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11999676\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">View of the San Francisco skyline in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood on Nov. 13, 2022.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11999676\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">View of the San Francisco skyline in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood on Nov. 13, 2022.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The California Department of Social Services is conducting a separate investigation into what led to baby Cya’s death. A department spokeswoman, Theresa Mier, said she couldn’t comment further on the ongoing investigation.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The California Department of Social Services is conducting a separate investigation into what led to baby Cya’s death. A department spokeswoman, Theresa Mier, said she couldn’t comment further on the ongoing investigation.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Saulny-Green is licensed to provide care for up to eight children in her home. State law allows one adult to care for up to eight children, provided that no more than two of them are infants and at least two children are older than 6. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Saulny-Green is licensed to provide care for up to eight children in her home. State law allows one adult to care for up to eight children, provided that no more than two of them are infants and at least two children are older than 6. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Providers typically have a family member or assistant to help them out, depending on capacity and the age of the children. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Providers typically have a family member or assistant to help them out, depending on capacity and the age of the children. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 2024, Saulny-Green was among 21 Black early childhood educators honored by Children’s Council San Francisco, a local childcare resource and referral agency, for caring for children in high-need communities. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 2024, Saulny-Green was among 21 Black early childhood educators honored by Children’s Council San Francisco, a local childcare resource and referral agency, for caring for children in high-need communities. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On social media, Saulny-Green posted photos of the kids under her care, highlighting their developmental progress and the healthy foods that she served them. One post shows a photo of San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton, whose district includes Bayview, visiting her home in April 2024.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>On social media, Saulny-Green posted photos of the kids under her care, highlighting their developmental progress and the healthy foods that she served them. One post shows a photo of San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton, whose district includes Bayview, visiting her home in April 2024.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It was such an honor to be able to showcase all that I have accomplished and even learned through the years of experience that I have in childcare and child development,” she wrote in the post. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“It was such an honor to be able to showcase all that I have accomplished and even learned through the years of experience that I have in childcare and child development,” she wrote in the post. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a suit with a blue tie speaks at a rally in front of a microphone.\" class=\"wp-image-11927447\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton and his fellow supervisors are challenging Mayor Breed and the Navy over Bayview-Hunters Point.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a suit with a blue tie speaks at a rally in front of a microphone.\" class=\"wp-image-11927447\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton and his fellow supervisors are challenging Mayor Breed and the Navy over Bayview-Hunters Point.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Childcare is more than just giving adequate care to infants, toddlers and children,” it said. “Putting time and effort, dedication and hard work to implement a plan that will help better the future of our youth is what it’s all about.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>An update to \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB150/id/2425154\">state licensing rules\u003c/a> that went into effect this month requires assistants or other staff members at a family childcare home to also learn pediatric CPR and first aid, including the use of auto-injectors to treat life-threatening allergic reactions.\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The baby’s mother said her daughter stopped breathing after choking on milk.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Local and state authorities are investigating the death of a 3-month-old girl at a licensed childcare home in San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bayview\">Bayview district\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Fire Department said it responded to a report of a medical emergency at Mama Nida’s Loving Arms Childcare last Friday, shortly after 11 a.m. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After providing medical care at the scene, first responders took the baby to UCSF Medical Center in Mission Bay, where she was pronounced dead.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Police said the medical examiner’s office will investigate the infant’s cause of death.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1236\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12037908\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-800x494.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1020x630.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1536x949.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1920x1187.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay in San Francisco on April 24, 2025. (Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“At this time, there is no evidence of foul play, nor is it suspected,” Officer Eve Laokwansathitaya said Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gwenisha Terrell, the child’s mother, told \u003cem>the San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> that a few hours after dropping off her baby, Cya, and her 2-year-old sister, Cia, the childcare provider’s daughter called to alert her that Cya had choked on milk and stopped breathing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to a GoFundMe \u003ca href=\"https://gofund.me/68b25592a\">post\u003c/a> for Terrell and her husband, the couple was planning to celebrate their older daughter’s birthday later that day. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“In a single day, this loving family experienced unimaginable joy and unimaginable heartbreak,” the post said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“A birthday that should have been filled with laughter, cake, and memories became a day their family will carry with them forever,” it said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Requests to speak with Terrell and other members of the victim’s family have not been returned, and a woman who answered the phone number listed for Mama Nida’s Loving Arms Childcare declined to speak with KQED. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ccld.dss.ca.gov/carefacilitysearch/FacDetail/384002022\">Records show\u003c/a> state regulators received two complaints in 2023 concerning children’s safety at the home. One complaint made on Dec. 13 alleged that the licensed provider, Anita Saulny-Green, left children unattended for an extended period of time, and another complaint made on Dec. 14 alleged that Saulny-Green kicked a child. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The records show that a licensing inspector visited the home, spoke with the provider and parents and reviewed evidence.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Although the allegation may have happened or is valid, there is no preponderance of evidence to prove the alleged violation did or did not occur,” the inspector wrote. “Therefore, the allegation is unsubstantiated.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11999676\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">View of the San Francisco skyline in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood on Nov. 13, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The California Department of Social Services is conducting a separate investigation into what led to baby Cya’s death. A department spokeswoman, Theresa Mier, said she couldn’t comment further on the ongoing investigation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Saulny-Green is licensed to provide care for up to eight children in her home. State law allows one adult to care for up to eight children, provided that no more than two of them are infants and at least two children are older than 6. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Providers typically have a family member or assistant to help them out, depending on capacity and the age of the children. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2024, Saulny-Green was among 21 Black early childhood educators honored by Children’s Council San Francisco, a local childcare resource and referral agency, for caring for children in high-need communities. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On social media, Saulny-Green posted photos of the kids under her care, highlighting their developmental progress and the healthy foods that she served them. One post shows a photo of San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton, whose district includes Bayview, visiting her home in April 2024.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It was such an honor to be able to showcase all that I have accomplished and even learned through the years of experience that I have in childcare and child development,” she wrote in the post. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a suit with a blue tie speaks at a rally in front of a microphone.\" class=\"wp-image-11927447\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS50006_047_SanFrancisco_JuneteenthKickoffRally_06172021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton and his fellow supervisors are challenging Mayor Breed and the Navy over Bayview-Hunters Point. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Childcare is more than just giving adequate care to infants, toddlers and children,” it said. “Putting time and effort, dedication and hard work to implement a plan that will help better the future of our youth is what it’s all about.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s not immediately clear whether anyone at the childcare home knew how to administer lifesaving efforts when the baby experienced the medical emergency. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Licensed childcare providers must learn and maintain current certification in pediatric CPR and first aid. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An update to \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB150/id/2425154\">state licensing rules\u003c/a> that went into effect this month requires assistants or other staff members at a family childcare home to also learn pediatric CPR and first aid, including the use of auto-injectors to treat life-threatening allergic reactions.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "these-advocates-say-black-english-belongs-in-preschool-classrooms",
"title": "These Advocates Say Black English Belongs in Preschool Classrooms",
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"content": "\u003cp>Whether at home or at work as a policy strategist and university lecturer, Ashley Williams said she feels relaxed sliding between Black English and standard English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She didn’t feel comfortable communicating this way growing up in South Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams said that when she was 3 or 4 years old, her grandmother would correct the way she pronounced words like “napkin” whenever she dropped the “p” sound. Her older sister and cousin also told her the way she spoke: “amongst our community wasn’t OK at the schoolhouse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Generations of Black children grew up learning that their home language wasn’t acceptable in school or the workplace. Many internalized the belief that Black English — sometimes referred to as African American Vernacular English, or AAVE, African American language or Ebonics — is bad English, loaded with slang and grammatical errors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But with that comes a lot of shame and embarrassment because you’re being constantly corrected when you’re still in a moment when you’re just learning language,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams wants to change that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As co-founder of Black Californians United for Early Care & Education, she’s part of a movement to get preschool teachers and caregivers to \u003ca href=\"https://blackece.org/blackenglish/\">legitimize Black English\u003c/a> as a way to build children’s early literacy skills and honor their cultural identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work is personal for Williams because she doesn’t want her 2-year-old son to experience what she went through as a child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088575\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12088575\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams, center, her wife Lauren Ford, right, and their son sit together during a portrait session at their home in Contra Costa County, California, on Friday, June 19, 2026. Williams, an educator and a co-founder of Black Californians United for Early Care and Education (BlackECE), works to create equity-minded policies in early childhood care for Black children like her own son. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want my son to walk into any room and feel like his voice is not valued or his perspective can’t be heard because he’s not saying it in one way or the other,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last year and a half, the advocacy group, also known as BlackECE, has offered professional development training to spread the word about the importance of supporting Black English speakers the same way they support dual language learners, children who are learning two or more languages simultaneously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, most children under age 5 are dual language learners and the state’s Master Plan for Early Learning and Care, which was released by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, recognizes \u003ca href=\"https://californiaforallkids.chhs.ca.gov/assets/pdfs/CA%20For%20All%20Kids%20-%20Master%20Plan%20Knowledge%20Brief%20-%20DLL.pdf\">the opportunity to develop bilingualism during the early years\u003c/a>, when children’s brains are developing rapidly. It calls on educators to affirm children’s home language even as they’re learning standard English in the classroom. The 10-year road map lays out specific recommendations, such as training the workforce to support dual language learners to foster bilingualism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BlackECE, along with \u003ca href=\"https://earlyedgecalifornia.org/early-edge-policy-corner-advancing-language-justice-the-black-english-language-workgroup/\">other early childhood advocacy groups\u003c/a> and education experts, said those recommendations should also apply to children who speak Black English.[aside postID=news_12087644 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619_Juneteenth_GC-13.jpg']“We talk about multilinguals, but we don’t include Black children who may be African-American English speakers,” said Xigrid Soto-Boykin, an early childhood language expert at Arizona State University. “We completely miss this subgroup of children that could also benefit from their language backgrounds to be sustained, but also to be leveraged for their own learning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Training educators to recognize the legitimacy of Black English is important, she said, because although elements of the language have been \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw0ifECyfPI\">embraced by young people\u003c/a> and popularized around the world, misperceptions persist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885200623000856\">Soto-Boykin co-authored a 2023 study\u003c/a> that found that white early childhood educators who were familiar with Black English or received training to support children from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds were more likely to have positive views about the language. Those with less knowledge or training were more likely to believe that it hinders students’ achievement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said these beliefs can dramatically affect the lives of Black children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We see it in terms of referrals to special education; we see it in how sometimes teachers correct children and say, ‘We don’t speak like this here in the classroom,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A national study found that Black children are \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30973798/#affiliation-1\">disproportionately diagnosed with speech and language impairments\u003c/a> in 14% of states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soto-Boykin’s study noted that veteran educators were more likely to have negative beliefs about Black English, possibly because they began their careers in the 1990s, around when the Oakland Unified School District’s Board of Education proposed using Ebonics to help Black students learn standard English. The idea sparked nationwide controversy, with critics disparaging the board for trying to dumb down education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088576\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12088576 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams and her son raise their hands up in the air after saying a prayer over food alongside his Williams’ grandmother, Sonja Pollard, and her aunt Sharron Allen, during a family Juneteenth celebration in Contra Costa County, California, on June 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By contrast, early-career educators were more likely to have positive beliefs about Black English because they may have started their careers during the Black Lives Matter movement and have a greater awareness of the broader racial reckoning that followed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the perception of how children speak sits at the intersection of Blackness, that perception is nine times out of 10 negative,” Williams said. “Like, you’re from the hood, you’re not speaking correctly, you’re uneducated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An awareness of Black English as a language is key, Williams said, “because then it allows that educator on the webinar to show up to work the next day and say, ‘There’s something here. … There’s a system behind the way that you speak as a Black child, and I want to learn more about how to support that and help you understand more standard English.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In webinars led by BlackECE, training begins with an explanation that Black English grew out of the English adopted by millions of people captured in Africa and forced into slavery in British colonial America, starting in 1619. Some linguists theorize that because enslaved people had to pick up the language of their captors quickly, they developed a more streamlined version of English. Over centuries of segregation, that speech evolved into a distinct language with its own rules of grammar, usage and pronunciation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some characteristics of Black English include double negation of verbs and the “habitual be,” to describe a repeated or ongoing action, as in “We be playin’ with Legos all the time.” Linguists say this use of “be” is systematic and more nuanced than standard English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088577\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12088577 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams holds her 2-year-old son as she and her family members fill their plates with food during a Juneteenth celebration at her home in Contra Costa County, California, on June 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When children learn that their language is valid and beautiful and follows rules, I can’t even describe the pride they feel with that identity,” said \u003ca href=\"https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/education/faculty-staff/boutte_gloria.php\">Gloria Swindler Boutte\u003c/a>, an early childhood education professor at the University of South Carolina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It keeps children from thinking, ‘I have to speak this way at school and this way at home, so maybe there’s something wrong with the people at home and how they speak,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Educators don’t have to try to speak Black English to affirm the language, she said. They could provide books that feature Black English or identify Black English when they hear children speak it and “expand their repertoire” with alternative words or expressions in standard English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soto-Boykin suggests creating a vocabulary wall that includes words in Black English and standard English, so that children can make meaning with all the languages they know. For example, educators could help children understand that other words to describe something good could be “awesome, great, dope or fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Educators could also invite community members who speak Black English to visit the classroom and tell stories, she said.[aside postID=news_12070361 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/CaliforniaReparationsGetty.jpg']Aisha White, founder of a program at the University of Pittsburgh focused on \u003ca href=\"https://www.racepride.pitt.edu/about-pride/\">helping young Black children develop a positive racial identity\u003c/a>, said Black parents could also benefit from some training around Black English. She said that when she showed segments of a documentary called \u003ca href=\"https://www.talkingblackinamerica.org/\">\u003cem>Talking Black in America\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and held discussions with Black parents, many told her they would stop correcting the way their children speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was one of the most impactful projects because there were parents who came into the sessions with negative attitudes toward AAVE, and then decided they will not correct their children’s language anymore,” she said. “That is remarkable that parents would be willing to change their parenting behaviors based on what they learned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams said this kind of support doesn’t cost anything, but can strengthen educators’ relationships with Black children and their families. On the other hand, the tendency to correct the way they speak comes at a personal cost to the kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she was in third grade, Williams won a scholarship to attend summer camp, where for the first time she was surrounded by mostly white kids. She remembers picking up on some of the ways her campmates talked and listening to Ace of Bass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she came home, she remembers her sister and cousin teasing her for “talking white.” In fourth grade, a teacher who was “adamant about proper English” punished the Black students in her class by making them repeatedly enunciate words like “what” and “why.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It made me feel so insecure, but at the same time that was the language that I needed to be considered in the gifted program in elementary school and be considered the student who always got to lead the Pledge of Allegiance,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Learning to code-switch and “talk white” in school helped her excel academically. Williams went on to study child development at San Francisco State University and earn a doctorate in education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088579\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12088579 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams records her wife Lauren Ford as they dance together during a family Juneteenth celebration at their home in Contra Costa County, California, on Friday, June 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But having to code-switch to fit in could be tiresome and felt inauthentic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I’m in spaces where I feel the need to code-switch, my imposter syndrome is through the roof. I’m already feeling like, ‘I don’t belong here, I shouldn’t belong here,’” she said. “It’s like my throat closes because I am overthinking so much about what I’m saying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As she learned more about Black English, Williams began to feel freer to speak a mix of Black English and standard English wherever she goes. The blending of two languages is called \u003ca href=\"https://wida.wisc.edu/news/guide-translanguaging-classroom\">translanguaging\u003c/a>, a concept increasingly recognized in education as a valuable teaching tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Really at the heart of this, it’s about affirming our identity and our culture and our humanity and not having to perform as something you’re not just to be accepted in a room,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond raising awareness, BlackECE wants to include Black English speakers in California policies mandating state-funded preschools and child care programs to identify dual language learners to better understand their needs and design curriculum to support them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know that with being deemed multilingual learners, there’s resources, there’s supports, there’s teacher training,” Williams said. “And we’re saying, ‘Yes, and we belong in that conversation too.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>***\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Xigrid Soto-Boykin as the director of the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University. She is a researcher and the director of language justice and learning equity at the Children’s Equity Project.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>***\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What Does Repair Look Like? Start Here\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>What does reparations actually mean? Who is pursuing it? What policies are moving forward, and which remain symbolic? As conversations about repair grow across the country, understanding the facts has never been more important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Subscribe to \u003ca href=\"https://airtable.com/appYRab8nOv1F5DoN/pag8qdExQMOokhv5S/form\">A Declaration of Repair\u003c/a>, a weekly newsletter from KQED that follows the people, policies and ideas shaping the reparations movement. Through reporting, accountability tracking and analysis, we help readers understand how past harms continue to shape the present — and explore what efforts to repair them look like today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://airtable.com/appYRab8nOv1F5DoN/pag8qdExQMOokhv5S/form\">SUBSCRIBE HERE\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Generations of Black children grew up learning that their home language isn’t acceptable in school or the workplace. A movement is underway in California to change that.",
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"title": "These Advocates Say Black English Belongs in Preschool Classrooms | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Whether at home or at work as a policy strategist and university lecturer, Ashley Williams said she feels relaxed sliding between Black English and standard English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She didn’t feel comfortable communicating this way growing up in South Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams said that when she was 3 or 4 years old, her grandmother would correct the way she pronounced words like “napkin” whenever she dropped the “p” sound. Her older sister and cousin also told her the way she spoke: “amongst our community wasn’t OK at the schoolhouse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Generations of Black children grew up learning that their home language wasn’t acceptable in school or the workplace. Many internalized the belief that Black English — sometimes referred to as African American Vernacular English, or AAVE, African American language or Ebonics — is bad English, loaded with slang and grammatical errors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But with that comes a lot of shame and embarrassment because you’re being constantly corrected when you’re still in a moment when you’re just learning language,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams wants to change that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As co-founder of Black Californians United for Early Care & Education, she’s part of a movement to get preschool teachers and caregivers to \u003ca href=\"https://blackece.org/blackenglish/\">legitimize Black English\u003c/a> as a way to build children’s early literacy skills and honor their cultural identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work is personal for Williams because she doesn’t want her 2-year-old son to experience what she went through as a child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088575\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12088575\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams, center, her wife Lauren Ford, right, and their son sit together during a portrait session at their home in Contra Costa County, California, on Friday, June 19, 2026. Williams, an educator and a co-founder of Black Californians United for Early Care and Education (BlackECE), works to create equity-minded policies in early childhood care for Black children like her own son. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want my son to walk into any room and feel like his voice is not valued or his perspective can’t be heard because he’s not saying it in one way or the other,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last year and a half, the advocacy group, also known as BlackECE, has offered professional development training to spread the word about the importance of supporting Black English speakers the same way they support dual language learners, children who are learning two or more languages simultaneously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, most children under age 5 are dual language learners and the state’s Master Plan for Early Learning and Care, which was released by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, recognizes \u003ca href=\"https://californiaforallkids.chhs.ca.gov/assets/pdfs/CA%20For%20All%20Kids%20-%20Master%20Plan%20Knowledge%20Brief%20-%20DLL.pdf\">the opportunity to develop bilingualism during the early years\u003c/a>, when children’s brains are developing rapidly. It calls on educators to affirm children’s home language even as they’re learning standard English in the classroom. The 10-year road map lays out specific recommendations, such as training the workforce to support dual language learners to foster bilingualism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BlackECE, along with \u003ca href=\"https://earlyedgecalifornia.org/early-edge-policy-corner-advancing-language-justice-the-black-english-language-workgroup/\">other early childhood advocacy groups\u003c/a> and education experts, said those recommendations should also apply to children who speak Black English.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We talk about multilinguals, but we don’t include Black children who may be African-American English speakers,” said Xigrid Soto-Boykin, an early childhood language expert at Arizona State University. “We completely miss this subgroup of children that could also benefit from their language backgrounds to be sustained, but also to be leveraged for their own learning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Training educators to recognize the legitimacy of Black English is important, she said, because although elements of the language have been \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw0ifECyfPI\">embraced by young people\u003c/a> and popularized around the world, misperceptions persist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885200623000856\">Soto-Boykin co-authored a 2023 study\u003c/a> that found that white early childhood educators who were familiar with Black English or received training to support children from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds were more likely to have positive views about the language. Those with less knowledge or training were more likely to believe that it hinders students’ achievement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said these beliefs can dramatically affect the lives of Black children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We see it in terms of referrals to special education; we see it in how sometimes teachers correct children and say, ‘We don’t speak like this here in the classroom,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A national study found that Black children are \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30973798/#affiliation-1\">disproportionately diagnosed with speech and language impairments\u003c/a> in 14% of states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soto-Boykin’s study noted that veteran educators were more likely to have negative beliefs about Black English, possibly because they began their careers in the 1990s, around when the Oakland Unified School District’s Board of Education proposed using Ebonics to help Black students learn standard English. The idea sparked nationwide controversy, with critics disparaging the board for trying to dumb down education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088576\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12088576 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams and her son raise their hands up in the air after saying a prayer over food alongside his Williams’ grandmother, Sonja Pollard, and her aunt Sharron Allen, during a family Juneteenth celebration in Contra Costa County, California, on June 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By contrast, early-career educators were more likely to have positive beliefs about Black English because they may have started their careers during the Black Lives Matter movement and have a greater awareness of the broader racial reckoning that followed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the perception of how children speak sits at the intersection of Blackness, that perception is nine times out of 10 negative,” Williams said. “Like, you’re from the hood, you’re not speaking correctly, you’re uneducated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An awareness of Black English as a language is key, Williams said, “because then it allows that educator on the webinar to show up to work the next day and say, ‘There’s something here. … There’s a system behind the way that you speak as a Black child, and I want to learn more about how to support that and help you understand more standard English.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In webinars led by BlackECE, training begins with an explanation that Black English grew out of the English adopted by millions of people captured in Africa and forced into slavery in British colonial America, starting in 1619. Some linguists theorize that because enslaved people had to pick up the language of their captors quickly, they developed a more streamlined version of English. Over centuries of segregation, that speech evolved into a distinct language with its own rules of grammar, usage and pronunciation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some characteristics of Black English include double negation of verbs and the “habitual be,” to describe a repeated or ongoing action, as in “We be playin’ with Legos all the time.” Linguists say this use of “be” is systematic and more nuanced than standard English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088577\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12088577 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams holds her 2-year-old son as she and her family members fill their plates with food during a Juneteenth celebration at her home in Contra Costa County, California, on June 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When children learn that their language is valid and beautiful and follows rules, I can’t even describe the pride they feel with that identity,” said \u003ca href=\"https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/education/faculty-staff/boutte_gloria.php\">Gloria Swindler Boutte\u003c/a>, an early childhood education professor at the University of South Carolina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It keeps children from thinking, ‘I have to speak this way at school and this way at home, so maybe there’s something wrong with the people at home and how they speak,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Educators don’t have to try to speak Black English to affirm the language, she said. They could provide books that feature Black English or identify Black English when they hear children speak it and “expand their repertoire” with alternative words or expressions in standard English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soto-Boykin suggests creating a vocabulary wall that includes words in Black English and standard English, so that children can make meaning with all the languages they know. For example, educators could help children understand that other words to describe something good could be “awesome, great, dope or fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Educators could also invite community members who speak Black English to visit the classroom and tell stories, she said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Aisha White, founder of a program at the University of Pittsburgh focused on \u003ca href=\"https://www.racepride.pitt.edu/about-pride/\">helping young Black children develop a positive racial identity\u003c/a>, said Black parents could also benefit from some training around Black English. She said that when she showed segments of a documentary called \u003ca href=\"https://www.talkingblackinamerica.org/\">\u003cem>Talking Black in America\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and held discussions with Black parents, many told her they would stop correcting the way their children speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was one of the most impactful projects because there were parents who came into the sessions with negative attitudes toward AAVE, and then decided they will not correct their children’s language anymore,” she said. “That is remarkable that parents would be willing to change their parenting behaviors based on what they learned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams said this kind of support doesn’t cost anything, but can strengthen educators’ relationships with Black children and their families. On the other hand, the tendency to correct the way they speak comes at a personal cost to the kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she was in third grade, Williams won a scholarship to attend summer camp, where for the first time she was surrounded by mostly white kids. She remembers picking up on some of the ways her campmates talked and listening to Ace of Bass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she came home, she remembers her sister and cousin teasing her for “talking white.” In fourth grade, a teacher who was “adamant about proper English” punished the Black students in her class by making them repeatedly enunciate words like “what” and “why.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It made me feel so insecure, but at the same time that was the language that I needed to be considered in the gifted program in elementary school and be considered the student who always got to lead the Pledge of Allegiance,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Learning to code-switch and “talk white” in school helped her excel academically. Williams went on to study child development at San Francisco State University and earn a doctorate in education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088579\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12088579 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams records her wife Lauren Ford as they dance together during a family Juneteenth celebration at their home in Contra Costa County, California, on Friday, June 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But having to code-switch to fit in could be tiresome and felt inauthentic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I’m in spaces where I feel the need to code-switch, my imposter syndrome is through the roof. I’m already feeling like, ‘I don’t belong here, I shouldn’t belong here,’” she said. “It’s like my throat closes because I am overthinking so much about what I’m saying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As she learned more about Black English, Williams began to feel freer to speak a mix of Black English and standard English wherever she goes. The blending of two languages is called \u003ca href=\"https://wida.wisc.edu/news/guide-translanguaging-classroom\">translanguaging\u003c/a>, a concept increasingly recognized in education as a valuable teaching tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Really at the heart of this, it’s about affirming our identity and our culture and our humanity and not having to perform as something you’re not just to be accepted in a room,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond raising awareness, BlackECE wants to include Black English speakers in California policies mandating state-funded preschools and child care programs to identify dual language learners to better understand their needs and design curriculum to support them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know that with being deemed multilingual learners, there’s resources, there’s supports, there’s teacher training,” Williams said. “And we’re saying, ‘Yes, and we belong in that conversation too.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>***\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Xigrid Soto-Boykin as the director of the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University. She is a researcher and the director of language justice and learning equity at the Children’s Equity Project.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>***\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What Does Repair Look Like? Start Here\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>What does reparations actually mean? Who is pursuing it? What policies are moving forward, and which remain symbolic? As conversations about repair grow across the country, understanding the facts has never been more important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Subscribe to \u003ca href=\"https://airtable.com/appYRab8nOv1F5DoN/pag8qdExQMOokhv5S/form\">A Declaration of Repair\u003c/a>, a weekly newsletter from KQED that follows the people, policies and ideas shaping the reparations movement. Through reporting, accountability tracking and analysis, we help readers understand how past harms continue to shape the present — and explore what efforts to repair them look like today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://airtable.com/appYRab8nOv1F5DoN/pag8qdExQMOokhv5S/form\">SUBSCRIBE HERE\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> will continue expanding subsidized childcare and make public school employees automatically eligible for state-funded preschools under a $352-billion budget signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which begins Wednesday, includes nearly $1.9 billion in funding to relieve the high cost of childcare for low-income families. Most of that funding will be allocated for childcare vouchers, and the state determined there’s enough existing funds to offer school employees access to the California State Preschool Program, which provides free early education in a variety of settings for families who earn \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/ci/mb2603.asp\">up to the state median income\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Providers were disappointed by some elements of the budget that they said don’t reflect the actual cost of providing care, but parents who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12086244/california-parents-on-waitlist-for-subsidized-childcare-anxious-over-proposed-budget-cuts\">have been waiting for a subsidy to help with childcare\u003c/a> were encouraged by the news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can see a light in the tunnel,” said Carmen Perez, a Novato mom who has been waiting more than 18 months for an open slot for her toddler son. “I hope we can get off the waiting list. That would be awesome.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final budget marks a recent reversal for Newsom, who had vowed in 2021 to dramatically increase access to childcare and fund more than 200,000 slots. But after an early push of adding almost 130,000 placements, the state paused the expansion for three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state was supposed to resume the rollout this fiscal year, but in May, Newsom instead proposed cutting 6,800 slots as part of his push to eliminate the state deficit. The Democratic-led legislature countered with a proposal to add 44,000 more before settling on the nearly 23,000 spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089607\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089607\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Danielle Jorgenson, known to students as Teacher Dani, cheers for students as they jump during a preschool class at Los Medanos College Child Study Center in Pittsburg on Feb. 15, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most of that funding will be allocated for vouchers, which families typically use to pay for home-based childcare, with a smaller portion for spaces at childcare centers for children under the age of 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Democratic lawmakers reminded the governor of his commitment to young children and families, and the governor somewhat reluctantly did agree to continue his own momentum to lift young kids,” said Bruce Fuller, an education policy professor at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuller and his colleagues at the university’s Equity and Excellence in Early Childhood alliance found that during the period California expanded access to transitional kindergarten for all 4-year-old children, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082904/as-transitional-kindergarten-grows-hundreds-of-child-care-centers-close\">nearly 10% of community-based childcare programs and preschools shut their doors\u003c/a>. These private nonprofits struggled to maintain enrollment as 4-year-olds left for TK at public and charter schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the shuttered programs relied on state funding to provide the California State Preschool Program. Money for their programs came from the general fund, which can fluctuate depending on the state’s fiscal outlook.[aside postID=news_12086244 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00510_TV-KQED.jpg']To help stabilize these programs, this year’s budget shifts all funding for the state’s preschool program into Proposition 98, a 1988 ballot measure that guarantees minimum spending on education from the state’s general fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California School Board Association and the California Teachers Association opposed the move, saying it would weaken funding for TK-12 graders. Requests for comment from both groups about the final budget have not been returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuller called the compromise to make all public school employees, including those who work for county offices of education and community colleges, eligible for the California State Preschool Program “a pretty good deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A single parent earning $100,000 per year or a family of four earning $136,000 per year qualifies for the program. It prioritizes the lowest-income families, as well as children in child protective services or who have exceptional needs. The new rule means that school districts and community college employees could benefit from free early care and education. The budget also extends paid pregnancy leave for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Democratic lawmakers were able to put in place a sound policy to protect Pre-K dollars from downstream economic troubles,” Fuller said, adding that the compromise with the teachers’ union benefited both their own children and children around the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom and lawmakers also agreed to simplify a couple of eligibility rules: Families who live within a high-poverty school district are eligible for the state-funded programs and children can stay enrolled even if their parents earn more money after meeting income requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089615\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1777px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089615\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1777\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed.jpg 1777w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1777px) 100vw, 1777px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The majority of students enrolled in the transitional kindergarten program at Kingsley Elementary School come from Spanish-speaking families. Teacher Ana Quintanilla helps them learn basic letters and words. \u003ccite>(Ana Tintocalis/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Childcare providers applauded additional funding for the slots but were frustrated that Newsom and lawmakers only offered a 2% cost-of-living adjustment for state-subsidized childcare and preschool workers — less than half of what TK-12th grader teachers will get in the new budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are disappointed that the increase in rates doesn’t match the documented need for providers or the cost-of-living increase offered to our peer educators,” said Max Arias, chief negotiator for Child Care Providers United, a union representing home-based childcare providers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also criticized the state for imposing more mandates for his members — to undergo emergency and disaster preparedness and response training — without accounting for their cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Adding slots alone doesn’t stabilize the childcare system,” said Heather Cleary, CEO of Peninsula Family Service, which runs subsidized childcare programs in San Mateo County. “The bigger challenge is that providers are being asked to do more with funding that doesn’t match the cost of operating high-quality programs, and the budget doesn’t necessarily address this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> will continue expanding subsidized childcare and make public school employees automatically eligible for state-funded preschools under a $352-billion budget signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which begins Wednesday, includes nearly $1.9 billion in funding to relieve the high cost of childcare for low-income families. Most of that funding will be allocated for childcare vouchers, and the state determined there’s enough existing funds to offer school employees access to the California State Preschool Program, which provides free early education in a variety of settings for families who earn \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/ci/mb2603.asp\">up to the state median income\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Providers were disappointed by some elements of the budget that they said don’t reflect the actual cost of providing care, but parents who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12086244/california-parents-on-waitlist-for-subsidized-childcare-anxious-over-proposed-budget-cuts\">have been waiting for a subsidy to help with childcare\u003c/a> were encouraged by the news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can see a light in the tunnel,” said Carmen Perez, a Novato mom who has been waiting more than 18 months for an open slot for her toddler son. “I hope we can get off the waiting list. That would be awesome.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final budget marks a recent reversal for Newsom, who had vowed in 2021 to dramatically increase access to childcare and fund more than 200,000 slots. But after an early push of adding almost 130,000 placements, the state paused the expansion for three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state was supposed to resume the rollout this fiscal year, but in May, Newsom instead proposed cutting 6,800 slots as part of his push to eliminate the state deficit. The Democratic-led legislature countered with a proposal to add 44,000 more before settling on the nearly 23,000 spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089607\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089607\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Danielle Jorgenson, known to students as Teacher Dani, cheers for students as they jump during a preschool class at Los Medanos College Child Study Center in Pittsburg on Feb. 15, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most of that funding will be allocated for vouchers, which families typically use to pay for home-based childcare, with a smaller portion for spaces at childcare centers for children under the age of 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Democratic lawmakers reminded the governor of his commitment to young children and families, and the governor somewhat reluctantly did agree to continue his own momentum to lift young kids,” said Bruce Fuller, an education policy professor at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuller and his colleagues at the university’s Equity and Excellence in Early Childhood alliance found that during the period California expanded access to transitional kindergarten for all 4-year-old children, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082904/as-transitional-kindergarten-grows-hundreds-of-child-care-centers-close\">nearly 10% of community-based childcare programs and preschools shut their doors\u003c/a>. These private nonprofits struggled to maintain enrollment as 4-year-olds left for TK at public and charter schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the shuttered programs relied on state funding to provide the California State Preschool Program. Money for their programs came from the general fund, which can fluctuate depending on the state’s fiscal outlook.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>To help stabilize these programs, this year’s budget shifts all funding for the state’s preschool program into Proposition 98, a 1988 ballot measure that guarantees minimum spending on education from the state’s general fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California School Board Association and the California Teachers Association opposed the move, saying it would weaken funding for TK-12 graders. Requests for comment from both groups about the final budget have not been returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuller called the compromise to make all public school employees, including those who work for county offices of education and community colleges, eligible for the California State Preschool Program “a pretty good deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A single parent earning $100,000 per year or a family of four earning $136,000 per year qualifies for the program. It prioritizes the lowest-income families, as well as children in child protective services or who have exceptional needs. The new rule means that school districts and community college employees could benefit from free early care and education. The budget also extends paid pregnancy leave for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Democratic lawmakers were able to put in place a sound policy to protect Pre-K dollars from downstream economic troubles,” Fuller said, adding that the compromise with the teachers’ union benefited both their own children and children around the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom and lawmakers also agreed to simplify a couple of eligibility rules: Families who live within a high-poverty school district are eligible for the state-funded programs and children can stay enrolled even if their parents earn more money after meeting income requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089615\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1777px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089615\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1777\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed.jpg 1777w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1777px) 100vw, 1777px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The majority of students enrolled in the transitional kindergarten program at Kingsley Elementary School come from Spanish-speaking families. Teacher Ana Quintanilla helps them learn basic letters and words. \u003ccite>(Ana Tintocalis/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Childcare providers applauded additional funding for the slots but were frustrated that Newsom and lawmakers only offered a 2% cost-of-living adjustment for state-subsidized childcare and preschool workers — less than half of what TK-12th grader teachers will get in the new budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are disappointed that the increase in rates doesn’t match the documented need for providers or the cost-of-living increase offered to our peer educators,” said Max Arias, chief negotiator for Child Care Providers United, a union representing home-based childcare providers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also criticized the state for imposing more mandates for his members — to undergo emergency and disaster preparedness and response training — without accounting for their cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Adding slots alone doesn’t stabilize the childcare system,” said Heather Cleary, CEO of Peninsula Family Service, which runs subsidized childcare programs in San Mateo County. “The bigger challenge is that providers are being asked to do more with funding that doesn’t match the cost of operating high-quality programs, and the budget doesn’t necessarily address this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Ever since her 1 ½-year-old son was born, Carmen Perez has been waiting for a subsidy to help with childcare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Novato mom said she didn’t have to wait this long a couple of years ago when she needed to enroll her daughters in preschool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, California \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/07/23/governor-newsom-signs-legislation-supporting-working-families-and-child-care-providers/\">increased funding for subsidized childcare\u003c/a> with the goal of paying for more than 200,000 new slots to support low-income families. Perez got subsidies for her girls, now 7 and 5 years old, which enabled her to work and take classes at College of Marin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was awesome,” she said. “I didn’t apply for [public assistance] because I was working and providing along with my husband.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after adding almost 130,000 slots, the state paused the expansion for three years with \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=10212.6&lawCode=WIC\">a commitment to resume the roll-out \u003c/a>in the 2026-27 fiscal year. But instead of sticking to the plan, Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to cut funding for slots as part of a push to eliminate the state deficit even after his term ends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Assembly opposes the cuts, and the Senate wants to add 44,000 new slots. As state leaders negotiate a budget deal by June 30, parents like Perez are pushing for more childcare support, especially as President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill, H.R. 1, threatens their access to basic needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As the federal government forces work requirements on CalFresh and Medi-Cal, this is when we are supposed to be doubling down on childcare, so that families can not only work, but have their food security, have their health security,” said Mary Ignatius, executive director of the advocacy group Parent Voices California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086168\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086168\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carmen Perez (center left) and her husband Dyson Sanchez (center right) pose for a portrait with their children at Pioneer Park in Novato on May 31, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Julia Forte Frudden, a policy analyst at Child Care Law Center in Berkeley, called Newsom’s proposals, which also include reducing a cost-of-living adjustment for childcare providers, a major setback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we see is the governor not recognizing that childcare has a high return on investment,” she said. “So this could actually help the state’s financial strains that it’s dealing with right now, not add to it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Newsom administration initially proposed in January to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12083461/california-advocates-want-newsom-to-fulfill-promise-to-fund-child-care-spaces\">cut funding for 4,200 “general childcare” slots\u003c/a> in licensed centers and homes when it projected a $2.9 billion shortfall. But in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12083617/newsom-touts-dominance-of-california-in-final-budget-proposal\">revised budget released last month\u003c/a>, it proposed cutting 6,800 slots —mostly vouchers for home-based childcare arrangements and some childcare center slots. Newsom said, despite a recent surge in tax revenue from the booming A.I. industry, he proposed further cuts to balance the budget for two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Administration officials say the cuts are necessary to offset more than $86 million in reductions from the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and Proposition 64, which sets aside a portion of the state’s cannabis tax revenues for early childhood programs. They say the cuts wouldn’t affect families currently receiving subsidies for childcare. Instead, they’re taking back funds that were not spent by community-based agencies responsible for enrolling eligible families and reimbursing providers.[aside postID=news_12083461 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260428-VallejoChildCare-37-BL_qed.jpg']The justification doesn’t make sense to Cristina Alvarado, executive director of Child Care Alliance Los Angeles, which represents 10 agencies that altogether have more than 22,000 kids on waitlists for childcare vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said sometimes agencies that don’t fully spend their funds by the end of the fiscal year can transfer the money to others to enroll as many families as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No L.A. agency has offered any additional funding,” she said, because of the high demand for slots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An analysis of state spending over the last five years shows California dedicates \u003ca href=\"https://www.datawrapper.de/_/rGm2r/?v=5\">only about 2% of its total budget to childcare\u003c/a>. While the additional slots initiated by Newsom have helped tens of thousands of families afford childcare, the California Budget & Policy Center estimates that only 16% of eligible children are enrolled in subsidized childcare programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Marin County, Perez’s son, Dyson, is among nearly 680 children eligible for subsidies who are on a waitlist because there’s no more funding for new slots, according to Aideen Gaidmore, CEO of Marin Child Care Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The promise of additional funding gave Perez hope that she could go back to work and catch up financially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you are in the water and somebody is trying to take you out, but then they push you into the water again, that’s a game. That’s not fun. It’s playing with their feelings, playing with their mental health,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desperate for relief, she joined Parent Voices to advocate for more funding in Sacramento. At a state Assembly budget hearing in April, she held her babbling boy in her arms while testifying about her mounting credit card debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086166\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086166\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED.jpg 1280w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carmen Perez holds her son, Dyson, while testifying about the impact of waiting for a childcare subsidy at a California Assembly Budget Subcommittee hearing on human services on April 8, 2026. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the California State Assembly)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My husband makes $800 a week, and we live in Marin. Everything is expensive. We barely make … afford the rent,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez’s voice began to crack as she wondered how she could “work more to take some pressure off of my husband” and afford extracurricular activities, maybe a trip to Disneyland, for her kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we met at a park near her home recently, Perez said she tried to hire a nanny so she could provide in-home care to an elderly person. But she couldn’t keep up with the nanny’s $35 per hour rate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she resorted to taking Dyson to her gig job and strapping him to her back, but when he cried out of frustration, her employer told her not to come back until she finds childcare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She dreams of obtaining a Certified Nursing Assistant license so she could find a good job providing eldercare. Marin County has the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2023/california-population-age-projections/\">largest elderly population in the Bay Area\u003c/a>, and there’s a future in that career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086167\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086167\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carmen Perez, a mother of four who has been waiting for more than a year for an open subsidized childcare slot for her 18-month-old son, poses for a portrait with her son at Pioneer Park in Novato on May 31, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Perez said waiting for an open childcare slot brings back bad memories of when her eldest son, who is 14, waited for a slot for 10 years until he was too old to qualify for a subsidy. She said she paid neighbors to care for him and enrolled him in preschool part-time. But that arrangement became too expensive, and she eventually pulled him out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He went straight to kindergarten, and it was so hard,” she said. “He struggled with reading and math, and I can still see the hard work he has to do by himself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her daughters, on the other hand, are doing well in school, Perez said, because preschool helped them prepare for kindergarten.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She fears Dyson may have the same struggle as his older brother if he doesn’t get off the waitlist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s very important to invest in the children and provide childcare for all, because a lot of families are on the waiting list,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Newsom administration proposes cutting childcare slots to help balance the budget. But parents and advocates are pushing for more childcare support to bring down their costs of living.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Ever since her 1 ½-year-old son was born, Carmen Perez has been waiting for a subsidy to help with childcare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Novato mom said she didn’t have to wait this long a couple of years ago when she needed to enroll her daughters in preschool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, California \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/07/23/governor-newsom-signs-legislation-supporting-working-families-and-child-care-providers/\">increased funding for subsidized childcare\u003c/a> with the goal of paying for more than 200,000 new slots to support low-income families. Perez got subsidies for her girls, now 7 and 5 years old, which enabled her to work and take classes at College of Marin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was awesome,” she said. “I didn’t apply for [public assistance] because I was working and providing along with my husband.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after adding almost 130,000 slots, the state paused the expansion for three years with \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=10212.6&lawCode=WIC\">a commitment to resume the roll-out \u003c/a>in the 2026-27 fiscal year. But instead of sticking to the plan, Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to cut funding for slots as part of a push to eliminate the state deficit even after his term ends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Assembly opposes the cuts, and the Senate wants to add 44,000 new slots. As state leaders negotiate a budget deal by June 30, parents like Perez are pushing for more childcare support, especially as President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill, H.R. 1, threatens their access to basic needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As the federal government forces work requirements on CalFresh and Medi-Cal, this is when we are supposed to be doubling down on childcare, so that families can not only work, but have their food security, have their health security,” said Mary Ignatius, executive director of the advocacy group Parent Voices California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086168\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086168\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carmen Perez (center left) and her husband Dyson Sanchez (center right) pose for a portrait with their children at Pioneer Park in Novato on May 31, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Julia Forte Frudden, a policy analyst at Child Care Law Center in Berkeley, called Newsom’s proposals, which also include reducing a cost-of-living adjustment for childcare providers, a major setback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we see is the governor not recognizing that childcare has a high return on investment,” she said. “So this could actually help the state’s financial strains that it’s dealing with right now, not add to it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Newsom administration initially proposed in January to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12083461/california-advocates-want-newsom-to-fulfill-promise-to-fund-child-care-spaces\">cut funding for 4,200 “general childcare” slots\u003c/a> in licensed centers and homes when it projected a $2.9 billion shortfall. But in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12083617/newsom-touts-dominance-of-california-in-final-budget-proposal\">revised budget released last month\u003c/a>, it proposed cutting 6,800 slots —mostly vouchers for home-based childcare arrangements and some childcare center slots. Newsom said, despite a recent surge in tax revenue from the booming A.I. industry, he proposed further cuts to balance the budget for two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Administration officials say the cuts are necessary to offset more than $86 million in reductions from the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and Proposition 64, which sets aside a portion of the state’s cannabis tax revenues for early childhood programs. They say the cuts wouldn’t affect families currently receiving subsidies for childcare. Instead, they’re taking back funds that were not spent by community-based agencies responsible for enrolling eligible families and reimbursing providers.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The justification doesn’t make sense to Cristina Alvarado, executive director of Child Care Alliance Los Angeles, which represents 10 agencies that altogether have more than 22,000 kids on waitlists for childcare vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said sometimes agencies that don’t fully spend their funds by the end of the fiscal year can transfer the money to others to enroll as many families as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No L.A. agency has offered any additional funding,” she said, because of the high demand for slots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An analysis of state spending over the last five years shows California dedicates \u003ca href=\"https://www.datawrapper.de/_/rGm2r/?v=5\">only about 2% of its total budget to childcare\u003c/a>. While the additional slots initiated by Newsom have helped tens of thousands of families afford childcare, the California Budget & Policy Center estimates that only 16% of eligible children are enrolled in subsidized childcare programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Marin County, Perez’s son, Dyson, is among nearly 680 children eligible for subsidies who are on a waitlist because there’s no more funding for new slots, according to Aideen Gaidmore, CEO of Marin Child Care Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The promise of additional funding gave Perez hope that she could go back to work and catch up financially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you are in the water and somebody is trying to take you out, but then they push you into the water again, that’s a game. That’s not fun. It’s playing with their feelings, playing with their mental health,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desperate for relief, she joined Parent Voices to advocate for more funding in Sacramento. At a state Assembly budget hearing in April, she held her babbling boy in her arms while testifying about her mounting credit card debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086166\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086166\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED.jpg 1280w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carmen Perez holds her son, Dyson, while testifying about the impact of waiting for a childcare subsidy at a California Assembly Budget Subcommittee hearing on human services on April 8, 2026. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the California State Assembly)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My husband makes $800 a week, and we live in Marin. Everything is expensive. We barely make … afford the rent,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez’s voice began to crack as she wondered how she could “work more to take some pressure off of my husband” and afford extracurricular activities, maybe a trip to Disneyland, for her kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we met at a park near her home recently, Perez said she tried to hire a nanny so she could provide in-home care to an elderly person. But she couldn’t keep up with the nanny’s $35 per hour rate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she resorted to taking Dyson to her gig job and strapping him to her back, but when he cried out of frustration, her employer told her not to come back until she finds childcare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She dreams of obtaining a Certified Nursing Assistant license so she could find a good job providing eldercare. Marin County has the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2023/california-population-age-projections/\">largest elderly population in the Bay Area\u003c/a>, and there’s a future in that career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086167\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086167\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carmen Perez, a mother of four who has been waiting for more than a year for an open subsidized childcare slot for her 18-month-old son, poses for a portrait with her son at Pioneer Park in Novato on May 31, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Perez said waiting for an open childcare slot brings back bad memories of when her eldest son, who is 14, waited for a slot for 10 years until he was too old to qualify for a subsidy. She said she paid neighbors to care for him and enrolled him in preschool part-time. But that arrangement became too expensive, and she eventually pulled him out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He went straight to kindergarten, and it was so hard,” she said. “He struggled with reading and math, and I can still see the hard work he has to do by himself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her daughters, on the other hand, are doing well in school, Perez said, because preschool helped them prepare for kindergarten.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She fears Dyson may have the same struggle as his older brother if he doesn’t get off the waitlist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s very important to invest in the children and provide childcare for all, because a lot of families are on the waiting list,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>On the ground floor of a new affordable housing complex in Redwood City, workers are in the middle of constructing a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/early-childhood-education-and-care\">childcare\u003c/a> center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peninsula Family Service plans to enroll 36 infants and toddlers when the center is scheduled to open next year, using state funds awarded to the nonprofit to provide free or low-cost childcare to income-eligible families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the fate of that plan will depend on state budget negotiations over the next several weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed cutting funding for about 4,200 subsidized childcare spaces — money Peninsula Family Service will need to run the new center. The move would save $98 million, but advocates say it would roll back a pledge he made to expand access to childcare for working families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Newsom really championed and campaigned on being the early learning and care governor, and I think that there are many promises he made as part of that that have not been fulfilled,” said Nina Buthee, executive director of EveryChild California, which advocates for publicly funded childcare programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Newsom presented his spending plan for the next fiscal year in January, the state projected a nearly $3 billion shortfall. The Legislative Analyst’s Office \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5168\">recommended\u003c/a> cutting funding for “general childcare” spaces because they hadn’t been spent yet and therefore won’t affect families currently receiving subsidized childcare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12070630\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12070630\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-32-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-32-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-32-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-32-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference at the Friendship House Association of American Indians in San Francisco on Jan. 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Buthee said at least 16 childcare providers across California haven’t spent the money because they’re still in the process of building or renovating facilities, but meeting state licensing standards and getting approval, especially for the care of infants and toddlers, takes time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Depending on where you are in California, licensing could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to up to six months or nine months,” she said. “Really, the state is not helping contractors expedite the process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the affected contractors include Children’s Paradise, a childcare provider in San Diego County, which planned to open two locations in childcare “deserts” — areas where options are too few to meet the demand. The locations would have been large enough to serve 470 children, according to EveryChild California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peninsula Family Service was awarded $2.7 million to serve nearly 80 children at two new centers, said its CEO, Heather Cleary. If funding from the state goes away, she said, the agency might have to consider charging private tuition.[aside postID=news_12082904 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05214-KQED.jpg']“That’s not our intent. We really want to do everything we can to bring a subsidized program to this county, and that involves the state,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Subsidized childcare slots were not mentioned in the proposed 2026-2027 state budget, known as the “May Revision,” Newsom released on Thursday. He said the plan would balance California’s budget for the next two years, long after he leaves office. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We’re not going to walk away from this state and put the next Legislature and the next governor in a difficult spot,” he said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Newsom’s updated plan will set off a busy period of negotiations leading to a final budget that the Legislature must pass by June 15. State Senate leaders have indicated they would not only reject cutting child care slots, but that they’d rather \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://democrats.senate.ca.gov/sites/democrats.senate.ca.gov/files/iu/FINAL-FFTF-Budget.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">increase\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> funding to subsidize 44,000 spaces. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, Newsom pledged to add more than 200,000 subsidized childcare slots, both in contracted centers and in the form of vouchers for low-income families. His administration has funded 130,000 of those slots while making other huge investments in early childhood education and care, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082904/as-transitional-kindergarten-grows-hundreds-of-child-care-centers-close\">expanding access to transitional kindergarten\u003c/a> for all 4-year-old children and allowing in-home childcare providers who receive the subsidies to unionize. The move has led to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051737/child-care-union-strikes-deal-to-preserve-benefits-bump-up-pay\">healthcare and retirement funds \u003c/a>for a workforce that has historically been underpaid, and the state is slowly working toward improving their wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had the most significant childcare expansion subsidies in the United States. Should be better known. It’s not,” Newsom told MSN in a January interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2019 and 2024, enrollment in subsidized childcare programs grew by 63%, according to an analysis by the \u003ca href=\"https://calbudgetcenter.org/app/uploads/2026/04/2026-Child-Care-Chart-Book-Designed.pdf\">California Budget & Policy Center\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081820\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12081820 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-23-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-23-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-23-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-23-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Brianda Casillas works with children in a classroom at Rise Vallejo, an early education center, in Vallejo, on April 28, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Laura Pryor, a research director at the center, said while the Newsom administration deserves credit for making unprecedented investments in early childhood education, it has fallen short in some areas — like the slots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She estimates that about 1.77 million children qualify for subsidized childcare, but are not enrolled in these programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For every individual that gets access to a space, it’s thousands and thousands of dollars saved that expands their budget,” Pryor said. “If our goal is to fund all children that are eligible, we are moving in the right direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there’s this additional cut, we’re not only walking back on the progress, but walking back on this positive trend that we’ve been seeing in the past several years,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On the ground floor of a new affordable housing complex in Redwood City, workers are in the middle of constructing a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/early-childhood-education-and-care\">childcare\u003c/a> center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peninsula Family Service plans to enroll 36 infants and toddlers when the center is scheduled to open next year, using state funds awarded to the nonprofit to provide free or low-cost childcare to income-eligible families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the fate of that plan will depend on state budget negotiations over the next several weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed cutting funding for about 4,200 subsidized childcare spaces — money Peninsula Family Service will need to run the new center. The move would save $98 million, but advocates say it would roll back a pledge he made to expand access to childcare for working families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Newsom really championed and campaigned on being the early learning and care governor, and I think that there are many promises he made as part of that that have not been fulfilled,” said Nina Buthee, executive director of EveryChild California, which advocates for publicly funded childcare programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Newsom presented his spending plan for the next fiscal year in January, the state projected a nearly $3 billion shortfall. The Legislative Analyst’s Office \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5168\">recommended\u003c/a> cutting funding for “general childcare” spaces because they hadn’t been spent yet and therefore won’t affect families currently receiving subsidized childcare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12070630\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12070630\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-32-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-32-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-32-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-32-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference at the Friendship House Association of American Indians in San Francisco on Jan. 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Buthee said at least 16 childcare providers across California haven’t spent the money because they’re still in the process of building or renovating facilities, but meeting state licensing standards and getting approval, especially for the care of infants and toddlers, takes time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Depending on where you are in California, licensing could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to up to six months or nine months,” she said. “Really, the state is not helping contractors expedite the process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the affected contractors include Children’s Paradise, a childcare provider in San Diego County, which planned to open two locations in childcare “deserts” — areas where options are too few to meet the demand. The locations would have been large enough to serve 470 children, according to EveryChild California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peninsula Family Service was awarded $2.7 million to serve nearly 80 children at two new centers, said its CEO, Heather Cleary. If funding from the state goes away, she said, the agency might have to consider charging private tuition.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“That’s not our intent. We really want to do everything we can to bring a subsidized program to this county, and that involves the state,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Subsidized childcare slots were not mentioned in the proposed 2026-2027 state budget, known as the “May Revision,” Newsom released on Thursday. He said the plan would balance California’s budget for the next two years, long after he leaves office. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We’re not going to walk away from this state and put the next Legislature and the next governor in a difficult spot,” he said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Newsom’s updated plan will set off a busy period of negotiations leading to a final budget that the Legislature must pass by June 15. State Senate leaders have indicated they would not only reject cutting child care slots, but that they’d rather \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://democrats.senate.ca.gov/sites/democrats.senate.ca.gov/files/iu/FINAL-FFTF-Budget.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">increase\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> funding to subsidize 44,000 spaces. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, Newsom pledged to add more than 200,000 subsidized childcare slots, both in contracted centers and in the form of vouchers for low-income families. His administration has funded 130,000 of those slots while making other huge investments in early childhood education and care, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082904/as-transitional-kindergarten-grows-hundreds-of-child-care-centers-close\">expanding access to transitional kindergarten\u003c/a> for all 4-year-old children and allowing in-home childcare providers who receive the subsidies to unionize. The move has led to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051737/child-care-union-strikes-deal-to-preserve-benefits-bump-up-pay\">healthcare and retirement funds \u003c/a>for a workforce that has historically been underpaid, and the state is slowly working toward improving their wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had the most significant childcare expansion subsidies in the United States. Should be better known. It’s not,” Newsom told MSN in a January interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2019 and 2024, enrollment in subsidized childcare programs grew by 63%, according to an analysis by the \u003ca href=\"https://calbudgetcenter.org/app/uploads/2026/04/2026-Child-Care-Chart-Book-Designed.pdf\">California Budget & Policy Center\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081820\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12081820 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-23-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-23-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-23-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-23-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Brianda Casillas works with children in a classroom at Rise Vallejo, an early education center, in Vallejo, on April 28, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Laura Pryor, a research director at the center, said while the Newsom administration deserves credit for making unprecedented investments in early childhood education, it has fallen short in some areas — like the slots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She estimates that about 1.77 million children qualify for subsidized childcare, but are not enrolled in these programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For every individual that gets access to a space, it’s thousands and thousands of dollars saved that expands their budget,” Pryor said. “If our goal is to fund all children that are eligible, we are moving in the right direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there’s this additional cut, we’re not only walking back on the progress, but walking back on this positive trend that we’ve been seeing in the past several years,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "As Transitional Kindergarten Grows, Hundreds of Child Care Centers Close",
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"content": "\u003cp>As public school enrollment \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2026/declining-school-enrollment-california/756174\">continues\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12041122/california-public-school-enrollment-continues-post-pandemic-decline\">decline across California\u003c/a>, a remarkable thing is happening in districts: More \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12052609/as-transitional-kindergarten-opens-to-all-4-year-olds-sf-parents-compete-for-seats\">students are entering\u003c/a> transitional kindergarten. But that growth has come at a cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community-based preschools across the state have struggled to compete with free TK, and many have shuttered — worsening the shortage of licensed child care spaces for children younger than 4 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2019 and 2025, around 1,100 preschools have closed their doors across California, representing just under 10% of the total, according to research published Monday by UC Berkeley’s Equity and Excellence in Early Childhood. They were licensed to serve around 32,000 young children, and experts say their closures will likely increase prices in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12075761/when-child-care-costs-half-a-paycheck-bay-area-parents-must-choose-kids-or-career\">state where the average annual cost of infant care surpasses $20,000\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These centers are not coming back. We’re going to lose these places forever,” said Bruce Fuller, an education professor at UC Berkeley and co-author of the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closures were not what policymakers had in mind in 2021, when they decided to implement a four-year, multibillion-dollar plan to roll out the largest universal pre-kindergarten program in the nation. Enrollment grew from nearly 117,000 students in the 2022-23 school year to 213,000 students this year. State leaders had hoped the move would free up space in preschools for 3-year-olds and that centers would pivot to caring for more infants and toddlers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is making progress, \u003ca href=\"https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/ca-universal-prek-expansion-enroll-brief\">though at a slower pace than TK\u003c/a>, in enrolling 3-year-olds into the California State Preschool Program, a subsidized program that can either be provided by school districts or community-based organizations for \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/ci/mb2603.asp\">income-eligible families\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Fuller said fewer than one-third of 3-year-olds are enrolled in preschool of any kind, and he’s worried about their shrinking access to early education. Research shows that \u003ca href=\"https://nieer.org/research-library/new-jersey-abbott-preschool-program-longitudinal-effects-study-through-grade-10\">two years of high-quality preschool\u003c/a> is especially beneficial to children from low-income households.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12083046\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12083046 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05194-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05194-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05194-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05194-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heather Posner (center), executive director of Carquinez Garden School, does arts and crafts with children in the school yard of Carquinez Garden School in Crockett on May 8, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Corey Jackson, a Democrat from Riverside County who chairs a state subcommittee on human services, said legislators are aware that TK pulled children from community-based programs and are trying to address the issue as they negotiate next year’s state budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to recognize and learn from the lessons of the pandemic,” he said. “There may come a time where we might have to close our schools down again, so what happens when we have decimated our community infrastructure, when we still may need places for our children to go safely?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community-based preschools \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11893791/why-californias-universal-transitional-kindergarten-plan-poses-a-threat-to-some-early-childhood-ed-providers\">had long warned they might not be able to survive financially\u003c/a> if they lose 4-year-olds to TK. Their business models are shaped by laws that mandate a ratio of one teacher for every four infants or toddlers, and one teacher for every dozen 4-year-olds. Tuition from the older children helps offset the more expensive care of children under 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A similar scenario bore out more than a dozen years ago in New York City, when it provided free preschool for 4-year-olds in a “mixed delivery system” that included public schools, private or community-based preschools. Many providers shifted to serving the older kids for the stable income it provided and \u003ca href=\"https://ideas.repec.org/p/pri/indrel/626.html\">cut back on infant and toddler care\u003c/a>.[aside postID=news_12070762 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/240911-CHILDCARE-REAX-MD-01_qed.jpg']“We have seen such large benefits of public pre-K that I think it should be a good investment, but you want to be aware of the unintended consequences on the ability to find care for those younger kids, and trying to make sure that the market can still sustain that and that it’s affordable for parents,” said Jessica H. Brown, an economist at the University of South Carolina who studied the impact of New York’s “Pre-K For All” initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, community-based preschools or child care centers must reconfigure classrooms and meet higher fire safety standards, for example, to serve children younger than 2 years old. These \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017819/huge-lack-of-communication-how-a-building-code-update-disrupted-child-care-centers-in-california\">regulatory and financial hurdles\u003c/a> often hinder their ability to shift to infant care, or even shift to providing after-school care, because the cost of transportation and insurance is often prohibitively expensive, said Erin Freschi, director of resource and referral at CoCo Kids, an agency that connects families to child care providers in Contra Costa County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of the response has been, ‘Oh, just serve infants and toddlers or just do after-school care,’ and it’s not that easy,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at UC Berkeley found that community-based preschools most vulnerable to closure were based in churches, were small programs serving 30 to 50 children, or ones that relied on state and federal funds to provide subsidized care to lower-income families. Only about 15% made the transition lawmakers had initially envisioned and switched to serving infants and toddlers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had expected that a lot of the closures were tuition-charging places in middle or upper middle-class communities, and that is true. Three in five of the places that closed were charging tuition, but two in five were actually publicly financed,” Fuller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12083053\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12083053 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05237-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05237-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05237-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05237-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A class schedule written on a white board at Carquinez Garden School in Crockett on May 8, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Transitional kindergarten isn’t the only contributor to these programs’ demise. The pandemic, followed by rising costs of living, destabilized their operations. Centers that provide subsidized care are competing with increased state funding for vouchers, which allow low-income families to choose between licensed care or unlicensed care at home by a family, friend or neighbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An analysis by the California Budget & Policy Center found that between 2021 and 2024, families increasingly chose unlicensed care, which grew by 110%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No single program tells the whole story,” said Patricia Lozano, director of the advocacy group Early Edge California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She suggested giving public funds to help more community-based programs pivot to serving babies and toddlers “to make sure no one is left behind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As budget negotiations get underway in Sacramento, there’s talk of moving some $120 million in funding from Prop 98, which guarantees a minimum funding level for public schools each year, to support community-based organizations in the California State Preschool Program and permanently fund seats for 2-year-olds in that program.[aside postID=news_12069711 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260115-SFCHILDCARESUBSIDIES00057_TV-KQED.jpg']“We are serious about child care, and we know it’s expensive, but that also means that more and more families need relief, and it’s a part of making California affordable again,” Jackson said. “We have to provide these services in order to be able to make sure families are able to make it here and thrive here in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A combination of these forces are playing out in preschools like Carquinez Garden School, the only licensed child care center in Crockett, a Bay Area community of 3,600. The school will close on June 12 after enrollment dwindled from more than 30 children two years ago to just 10 this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve lost essentially a class of kids every year to TK,” said Heather Posner, the school’s director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she expected to serve fewer 4-year-olds as TK rolled out, and that more 2-year-olds would take their spots. The preschool was in a so-called \u003ca href=\"https://www.americanprogress.org/feature/child-care-deserts/\">child care desert\u003c/a> with an insufficient supply of licensed care. The monthly cost for full-time care — $1,870 — didn’t seem to deter demand; the school had a waitlist and enrolled families who qualified for subsidies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But it seems like the low birth rate is causing a lot of schools to be underenrolled on both ends,” she said. “You’re not getting a lot of 2-year-olds and then you’re not getting any 4-year-olds … so with 10 kids, there’s just no way to really cover the overhead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trying to keep the school open felt like performing CPR on a patient, she said, and she barely broke even.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I basically have not paid myself in two years. Literally, I cannot pay my own salary,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuller said researchers took California’s declining child population into account when they calculated the effect of TK expansion on thousands of communities. They concluded that for every 200 students who enrolled in public TK, there would be a reduction of 38 seats at community-based programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12083048\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12083048 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05201-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05201-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05201-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05201-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grace Dare (center) supervises children digging in the dirt of a planter in the school yard of Carquinez Garden School in Crockett on May 8, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Berkeley, a surge in public TK enrollment during the last four years caused The Berkeley School’s early childhood program to lose more than two-thirds of its students, dropping from 90 to about 25. It will close in July after serving local children for more than six decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a loss for our community, it’s a loss for our school as a whole,” said Mitch Bostian, head of the private school, which serves kids aged 4 to 14 and practices the Montessori philosophy of mixing children of different ages in the classroom so that younger children learn from observing older peers, and older students develop leadership skills by mentoring younger peers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That model unraveled when the local school district added more TK classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Really what we saw was the bottom dropped out of our 4- and 5-year-olds,” Bostian said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the school began enrolling younger children, including 2-year-olds, added year-round options and extended its hours to attract working families, but couldn’t bring enrollment up to a sustainable level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12083052\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12083052 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The interior of a classroom at Carquinez Garden School in Crockett on May 8, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Posner, the shuttering of Carquinez Garden School represents the loss of a tight-knit community she formed with families. Every Friday, parents hang out in the yard when they come to pick up their children. Once a month, they gather for a potluck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school takes advantage of being right next to a regional park and lets children learn through playing outdoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re running, they’re digging, they’re riding bikes, they’re hanging from the climbing structure, they’re being active, they’re using their brains and bodies and they’re with their friends,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Posner fears that when the kids enter TK, they’ll have less time to play outside and develop friendships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything’s truncated,” she said. “And I feel the gift that I can give them is just that languishing outside in the sunshine\u003cem>.\u003c/em>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Correction:\u003c/strong> An earlier version of this story misstated the date Carquinez Garden School will close. It is June 12, not July. The story has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As public school enrollment \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2026/declining-school-enrollment-california/756174\">continues\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12041122/california-public-school-enrollment-continues-post-pandemic-decline\">decline across California\u003c/a>, a remarkable thing is happening in districts: More \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12052609/as-transitional-kindergarten-opens-to-all-4-year-olds-sf-parents-compete-for-seats\">students are entering\u003c/a> transitional kindergarten. But that growth has come at a cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community-based preschools across the state have struggled to compete with free TK, and many have shuttered — worsening the shortage of licensed child care spaces for children younger than 4 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2019 and 2025, around 1,100 preschools have closed their doors across California, representing just under 10% of the total, according to research published Monday by UC Berkeley’s Equity and Excellence in Early Childhood. They were licensed to serve around 32,000 young children, and experts say their closures will likely increase prices in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12075761/when-child-care-costs-half-a-paycheck-bay-area-parents-must-choose-kids-or-career\">state where the average annual cost of infant care surpasses $20,000\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These centers are not coming back. We’re going to lose these places forever,” said Bruce Fuller, an education professor at UC Berkeley and co-author of the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closures were not what policymakers had in mind in 2021, when they decided to implement a four-year, multibillion-dollar plan to roll out the largest universal pre-kindergarten program in the nation. Enrollment grew from nearly 117,000 students in the 2022-23 school year to 213,000 students this year. State leaders had hoped the move would free up space in preschools for 3-year-olds and that centers would pivot to caring for more infants and toddlers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is making progress, \u003ca href=\"https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/ca-universal-prek-expansion-enroll-brief\">though at a slower pace than TK\u003c/a>, in enrolling 3-year-olds into the California State Preschool Program, a subsidized program that can either be provided by school districts or community-based organizations for \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/ci/mb2603.asp\">income-eligible families\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Fuller said fewer than one-third of 3-year-olds are enrolled in preschool of any kind, and he’s worried about their shrinking access to early education. Research shows that \u003ca href=\"https://nieer.org/research-library/new-jersey-abbott-preschool-program-longitudinal-effects-study-through-grade-10\">two years of high-quality preschool\u003c/a> is especially beneficial to children from low-income households.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12083046\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12083046 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05194-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05194-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05194-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05194-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heather Posner (center), executive director of Carquinez Garden School, does arts and crafts with children in the school yard of Carquinez Garden School in Crockett on May 8, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Corey Jackson, a Democrat from Riverside County who chairs a state subcommittee on human services, said legislators are aware that TK pulled children from community-based programs and are trying to address the issue as they negotiate next year’s state budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to recognize and learn from the lessons of the pandemic,” he said. “There may come a time where we might have to close our schools down again, so what happens when we have decimated our community infrastructure, when we still may need places for our children to go safely?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community-based preschools \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11893791/why-californias-universal-transitional-kindergarten-plan-poses-a-threat-to-some-early-childhood-ed-providers\">had long warned they might not be able to survive financially\u003c/a> if they lose 4-year-olds to TK. Their business models are shaped by laws that mandate a ratio of one teacher for every four infants or toddlers, and one teacher for every dozen 4-year-olds. Tuition from the older children helps offset the more expensive care of children under 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A similar scenario bore out more than a dozen years ago in New York City, when it provided free preschool for 4-year-olds in a “mixed delivery system” that included public schools, private or community-based preschools. Many providers shifted to serving the older kids for the stable income it provided and \u003ca href=\"https://ideas.repec.org/p/pri/indrel/626.html\">cut back on infant and toddler care\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We have seen such large benefits of public pre-K that I think it should be a good investment, but you want to be aware of the unintended consequences on the ability to find care for those younger kids, and trying to make sure that the market can still sustain that and that it’s affordable for parents,” said Jessica H. Brown, an economist at the University of South Carolina who studied the impact of New York’s “Pre-K For All” initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, community-based preschools or child care centers must reconfigure classrooms and meet higher fire safety standards, for example, to serve children younger than 2 years old. These \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017819/huge-lack-of-communication-how-a-building-code-update-disrupted-child-care-centers-in-california\">regulatory and financial hurdles\u003c/a> often hinder their ability to shift to infant care, or even shift to providing after-school care, because the cost of transportation and insurance is often prohibitively expensive, said Erin Freschi, director of resource and referral at CoCo Kids, an agency that connects families to child care providers in Contra Costa County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of the response has been, ‘Oh, just serve infants and toddlers or just do after-school care,’ and it’s not that easy,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at UC Berkeley found that community-based preschools most vulnerable to closure were based in churches, were small programs serving 30 to 50 children, or ones that relied on state and federal funds to provide subsidized care to lower-income families. Only about 15% made the transition lawmakers had initially envisioned and switched to serving infants and toddlers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had expected that a lot of the closures were tuition-charging places in middle or upper middle-class communities, and that is true. Three in five of the places that closed were charging tuition, but two in five were actually publicly financed,” Fuller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12083053\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12083053 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05237-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05237-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05237-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05237-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A class schedule written on a white board at Carquinez Garden School in Crockett on May 8, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Transitional kindergarten isn’t the only contributor to these programs’ demise. The pandemic, followed by rising costs of living, destabilized their operations. Centers that provide subsidized care are competing with increased state funding for vouchers, which allow low-income families to choose between licensed care or unlicensed care at home by a family, friend or neighbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An analysis by the California Budget & Policy Center found that between 2021 and 2024, families increasingly chose unlicensed care, which grew by 110%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No single program tells the whole story,” said Patricia Lozano, director of the advocacy group Early Edge California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She suggested giving public funds to help more community-based programs pivot to serving babies and toddlers “to make sure no one is left behind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As budget negotiations get underway in Sacramento, there’s talk of moving some $120 million in funding from Prop 98, which guarantees a minimum funding level for public schools each year, to support community-based organizations in the California State Preschool Program and permanently fund seats for 2-year-olds in that program.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We are serious about child care, and we know it’s expensive, but that also means that more and more families need relief, and it’s a part of making California affordable again,” Jackson said. “We have to provide these services in order to be able to make sure families are able to make it here and thrive here in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A combination of these forces are playing out in preschools like Carquinez Garden School, the only licensed child care center in Crockett, a Bay Area community of 3,600. The school will close on June 12 after enrollment dwindled from more than 30 children two years ago to just 10 this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve lost essentially a class of kids every year to TK,” said Heather Posner, the school’s director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she expected to serve fewer 4-year-olds as TK rolled out, and that more 2-year-olds would take their spots. The preschool was in a so-called \u003ca href=\"https://www.americanprogress.org/feature/child-care-deserts/\">child care desert\u003c/a> with an insufficient supply of licensed care. The monthly cost for full-time care — $1,870 — didn’t seem to deter demand; the school had a waitlist and enrolled families who qualified for subsidies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But it seems like the low birth rate is causing a lot of schools to be underenrolled on both ends,” she said. “You’re not getting a lot of 2-year-olds and then you’re not getting any 4-year-olds … so with 10 kids, there’s just no way to really cover the overhead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trying to keep the school open felt like performing CPR on a patient, she said, and she barely broke even.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I basically have not paid myself in two years. Literally, I cannot pay my own salary,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuller said researchers took California’s declining child population into account when they calculated the effect of TK expansion on thousands of communities. They concluded that for every 200 students who enrolled in public TK, there would be a reduction of 38 seats at community-based programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12083048\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12083048 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05201-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05201-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05201-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05201-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grace Dare (center) supervises children digging in the dirt of a planter in the school yard of Carquinez Garden School in Crockett on May 8, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Berkeley, a surge in public TK enrollment during the last four years caused The Berkeley School’s early childhood program to lose more than two-thirds of its students, dropping from 90 to about 25. It will close in July after serving local children for more than six decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a loss for our community, it’s a loss for our school as a whole,” said Mitch Bostian, head of the private school, which serves kids aged 4 to 14 and practices the Montessori philosophy of mixing children of different ages in the classroom so that younger children learn from observing older peers, and older students develop leadership skills by mentoring younger peers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That model unraveled when the local school district added more TK classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Really what we saw was the bottom dropped out of our 4- and 5-year-olds,” Bostian said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the school began enrolling younger children, including 2-year-olds, added year-round options and extended its hours to attract working families, but couldn’t bring enrollment up to a sustainable level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12083052\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12083052 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The interior of a classroom at Carquinez Garden School in Crockett on May 8, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Posner, the shuttering of Carquinez Garden School represents the loss of a tight-knit community she formed with families. Every Friday, parents hang out in the yard when they come to pick up their children. Once a month, they gather for a potluck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school takes advantage of being right next to a regional park and lets children learn through playing outdoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re running, they’re digging, they’re riding bikes, they’re hanging from the climbing structure, they’re being active, they’re using their brains and bodies and they’re with their friends,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Posner fears that when the kids enter TK, they’ll have less time to play outside and develop friendships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything’s truncated,” she said. “And I feel the gift that I can give them is just that languishing outside in the sunshine\u003cem>.\u003c/em>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Correction:\u003c/strong> An earlier version of this story misstated the date Carquinez Garden School will close. It is June 12, not July. The story has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Struggling Bay Area Schools Get New Life as Badly Needed Child Care Centers",
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"content": "\u003cp>Over the past six years, a shuttered Vallejo elementary school stood vacant, serving as a visual reminder of the Bay Area city’s declining student population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whenever a bell rings, residents around the former Beverly Hills Elementary School know that it isn’t the sound of classes starting, but of an alarm triggered by vandals breaking in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But starting earlier this month, a new sound could be heard in the neighborhood: preschoolers playing in the yard. After undergoing a major overhaul, the campus reopened as an early learning center for up to 200 young kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new \u003ca href=\"https://www.risevallejo.com/\">Rise Vallejo Early Education center\u003c/a> is the latest example of a school repurposed to provide child care, following similar moves in San Jose and Hayward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California school districts continue to grapple with rising expenses and falling enrollment — with \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2026/declining-school-enrollment-california/756174\">the sharpest drop since the pandemic \u003c/a>recorded this year — education leaders and child care providers say this kind of conversion could help revitalize communities and create sorely-needed child care spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s definitely a project that is scalable in all communities that really want to help meet the need of providing child care,” said Juan Cisneros, executive director of Child Start Inc., which operates Head Start classrooms in the center alongside four other early childhood education and care programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just have to have the resources and the community will to do something like that,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081808\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081808\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-37-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-37-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-37-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-37-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Children play in an outdoor area at Rise Vallejo, an early education center, in Vallejo on April 28, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Across the Bay Area, other school districts facing declining enrollment, such as Alum Rock and Berryessa Union school districts in San Jose and Hayward Unified School District, are leasing underutilized classrooms to child care operators and family resource centers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This summer, the child care organization Kidango plans to open an early learning center in partnership with the Ravenswood City School District in East Palo Alto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And just last week, the education board of the\u003ca href=\"https://media.edlio.net/4e6ffa79/cb3c8c98/895cb4aa/fd33c949db26461d800dcfc3beb0d387?_=04-21-26RegBdOBpostRev.pdf\"> Los Angeles Unified School District approved\u003c/a> placing more preschool classrooms on elementary school campuses as part of an ambitious plan to open more space for infants and toddlers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district saw the steepest decline in enrollment in California over the last year — 4.5% compared to 1.3% statewide — and is hoping that families who send their child to a publicly-subsidized preschool program will stay in the same campus when they begin elementary school.[aside postID=news_12075761 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00263_TV-KQED.jpg']But unlike these arrangements, Solano County transferred ownership of Vallejo Rise to Child Start, allowing the nonprofit to operate five classrooms and lease ten others to privately-owned child care providers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $20 million project began in 2020, when Child Start needed to vacate a building it was leasing from the county. The agency had a tough time finding a facility in Vallejo that met the needs of its existing students, not to mention a space big enough to accommodate the long waitlist of families hoping to join.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Responding to the severe shortage of licensed child care spaces — which were only available for 23% of Solano County children, \u003ca href=\"https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/asr1451/viz/SolanoCountyCommunityIndicators/Home?publish=yes\">according to a 2023 study\u003c/a> — county leaders asked the Vallejo City Unified School District for a few spare rooms. As it happened, the district had an entire school available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All over the state and nation, a declining birth rate and slowing immigration rates have contributed to enrollment loss. In Vallejo, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fcmat.org/PublicationsReports/Vallejo%20City%20FHRA%202025%20final.pdf#:~:text=Between%20the%202014%2D15%20and%202023%2D24%20school%20years%2C%20noncharter%20school%20enrollment%20decreased%20by%2031%25.\">school enrollment fell 30% \u003c/a>between the 2014-15 and 2023-24 school years. The plummeting enrollment fueled a fiscal crisis that has forced the district to downsize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First 5 Solano County, which distributes funds from a statewide tobacco tax to support local early childhood programs, worked with county leaders to buy the school for $2.8 million. Then, they pulled together county, state and federal dollars, along with private donations, to fund the rest of the redesign and renovation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers outfitted the classrooms with tiny toilets, sinks and kitchenettes, resurfaced the yards with artificial turf, and installed smaller-scale playgrounds and shade structures. In the hallways, new murals of animals greet the children at their eye level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081819\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081819\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-17-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-17-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-17-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-17-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A classroom at Rise Vallejo, an early education center, in Vallejo on April 28, 2026. The center recently opened, repurposing a former elementary school into a campus with classrooms, outdoor areas, and childcare space specifically designed for young children. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It really makes sense to take a public asset, make a one-time investment and turn it into something that you know isn’t just sitting empty but can really feed the community,” said Michele Harris, executive director of First 5 Solano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The providers don’t pay facility fees. Instead, they share the costs of utilities and staff to manage the day-to-day operations of the center, allowing them to run their businesses at about half the cost, Cisneros said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>It helps them expand their business, but it also builds the workforce,” he said. “People who want to teach in this environment now have this space to be able to do it, and it’s going to bring a lot of new jobs into this community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cisneros said Vallejo Rise is the only early learning center he knows of that houses multiple programs with their own early education philosophies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081818\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081818\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-28-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-28-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-28-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-28-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A classroom at Rise Vallejo, an early education center, in Vallejo on April 28, 2026. The center recently opened, repurposing a former elementary school into a campus with classrooms, outdoor areas, and childcare space specifically designed for young children.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Dionna Perkins, the new center is giving her a chance to grow her home-based Montessori preschool, Joyful Journeys, into something much bigger. She’s currently licensed to serve up to 14 children and often has a waitlist of seven to 10 families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s crazy because I get a lot of parents that [sign up] when their child is in the womb,” Perkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, she’ll have three classrooms that can serve up to 48 kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can happily say that we do have at least half available right now,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081809\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081809\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-36-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-36-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-36-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-36-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Janet Walton, known as Ms. Janet, holds a child at Rise Vallejo, an early education center, in Vallejo on April 28, 2026. The center recently opened, repurposing a former elementary school into a campus with classrooms, outdoor areas, and childcare space specifically designed for young children. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The providers will share the cost of other resources, like the laundry machines, and save on big purchases, like cribs and classroom furniture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a huge benefit because if you’re expanding, you have to find all of the funds for that by yourself,” Perkins said. “And in this economy, it’s hard, you know?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fundraising is underway to build a family resource center near the parking lot for anyone in the community seeking child care, a food pantry, and social services. The county’s Office of Education will also provide on-site coaching to early childhood educators who might need help supporting a child with special needs or developmental concerns, Harris said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To have that professional development on site where [the coaches] can respond right away, it’s just such a tremendous difference than being in isolation by yourself all day, every day,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081812\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081812\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-43-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-43-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-43-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-43-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of Rise Vallejo, an early education center, in Vallejo on April 28, 2026. The center recently opened, repurposing a former elementary school into a campus with classrooms, outdoor areas, and childcare space specifically designed for young children. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Ruben Aurelio, the superintendent of Vallejo City Unified School District, the partnerships that were formed to create the center give him hope for the future of Vallejo. In its heyday, long before he led the district, more than 22,000 students were enrolled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re currently sitting around 9,000 students,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closure of Mare Island Naval Shipyard in 1996 devastated the local economy, and the 2008 financial crisis led the city to declare bankruptcy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A high crime rate, police misconduct scandals and neglected infrastructure gave Vallejo a bad reputation. Declining enrollment and overspending also brought the school district to the brink of bankruptcy. After receiving a $60 million bailout from the state, it lost local control for 20 years and is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046637/vallejo-city-unified-takes-back-local-control-of-schools-after-21-years\">emerging from state oversight\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081814\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12081814 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-12-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-12-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-12-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-12-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play at Rise Vallejo, an early education center, in Vallejo on April 28, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Aurelio said the district will close three more elementary schools by the end of this school year as it seeks to “right-size” itself, and is looking at ways to reopen vacant or surplus facilities to benefit the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>We just don’t like seeing them sit empty,” he said. “That’s a blight on the community, and it diminishes that sort of pride that the community has.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After touring Rise Vallejo on its opening day celebration, Aurelio said he was heartened to see the school reimagined into something that brings value to the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, there’s another benefit, he said, “Those preschoolers will hopefully feed my schools one day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "As school districts across California grapple with falling enrollment and rising expenses, experts say this kind of conversion could help revitalize communities and increase access to child care.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Over the past six years, a shuttered Vallejo elementary school stood vacant, serving as a visual reminder of the Bay Area city’s declining student population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whenever a bell rings, residents around the former Beverly Hills Elementary School know that it isn’t the sound of classes starting, but of an alarm triggered by vandals breaking in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But starting earlier this month, a new sound could be heard in the neighborhood: preschoolers playing in the yard. After undergoing a major overhaul, the campus reopened as an early learning center for up to 200 young kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new \u003ca href=\"https://www.risevallejo.com/\">Rise Vallejo Early Education center\u003c/a> is the latest example of a school repurposed to provide child care, following similar moves in San Jose and Hayward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California school districts continue to grapple with rising expenses and falling enrollment — with \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2026/declining-school-enrollment-california/756174\">the sharpest drop since the pandemic \u003c/a>recorded this year — education leaders and child care providers say this kind of conversion could help revitalize communities and create sorely-needed child care spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s definitely a project that is scalable in all communities that really want to help meet the need of providing child care,” said Juan Cisneros, executive director of Child Start Inc., which operates Head Start classrooms in the center alongside four other early childhood education and care programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just have to have the resources and the community will to do something like that,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081808\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081808\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-37-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-37-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-37-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-37-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Children play in an outdoor area at Rise Vallejo, an early education center, in Vallejo on April 28, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Across the Bay Area, other school districts facing declining enrollment, such as Alum Rock and Berryessa Union school districts in San Jose and Hayward Unified School District, are leasing underutilized classrooms to child care operators and family resource centers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This summer, the child care organization Kidango plans to open an early learning center in partnership with the Ravenswood City School District in East Palo Alto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And just last week, the education board of the\u003ca href=\"https://media.edlio.net/4e6ffa79/cb3c8c98/895cb4aa/fd33c949db26461d800dcfc3beb0d387?_=04-21-26RegBdOBpostRev.pdf\"> Los Angeles Unified School District approved\u003c/a> placing more preschool classrooms on elementary school campuses as part of an ambitious plan to open more space for infants and toddlers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district saw the steepest decline in enrollment in California over the last year — 4.5% compared to 1.3% statewide — and is hoping that families who send their child to a publicly-subsidized preschool program will stay in the same campus when they begin elementary school.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But unlike these arrangements, Solano County transferred ownership of Vallejo Rise to Child Start, allowing the nonprofit to operate five classrooms and lease ten others to privately-owned child care providers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $20 million project began in 2020, when Child Start needed to vacate a building it was leasing from the county. The agency had a tough time finding a facility in Vallejo that met the needs of its existing students, not to mention a space big enough to accommodate the long waitlist of families hoping to join.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Responding to the severe shortage of licensed child care spaces — which were only available for 23% of Solano County children, \u003ca href=\"https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/asr1451/viz/SolanoCountyCommunityIndicators/Home?publish=yes\">according to a 2023 study\u003c/a> — county leaders asked the Vallejo City Unified School District for a few spare rooms. As it happened, the district had an entire school available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All over the state and nation, a declining birth rate and slowing immigration rates have contributed to enrollment loss. In Vallejo, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fcmat.org/PublicationsReports/Vallejo%20City%20FHRA%202025%20final.pdf#:~:text=Between%20the%202014%2D15%20and%202023%2D24%20school%20years%2C%20noncharter%20school%20enrollment%20decreased%20by%2031%25.\">school enrollment fell 30% \u003c/a>between the 2014-15 and 2023-24 school years. The plummeting enrollment fueled a fiscal crisis that has forced the district to downsize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First 5 Solano County, which distributes funds from a statewide tobacco tax to support local early childhood programs, worked with county leaders to buy the school for $2.8 million. Then, they pulled together county, state and federal dollars, along with private donations, to fund the rest of the redesign and renovation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers outfitted the classrooms with tiny toilets, sinks and kitchenettes, resurfaced the yards with artificial turf, and installed smaller-scale playgrounds and shade structures. In the hallways, new murals of animals greet the children at their eye level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081819\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081819\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-17-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-17-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-17-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-17-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A classroom at Rise Vallejo, an early education center, in Vallejo on April 28, 2026. The center recently opened, repurposing a former elementary school into a campus with classrooms, outdoor areas, and childcare space specifically designed for young children. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It really makes sense to take a public asset, make a one-time investment and turn it into something that you know isn’t just sitting empty but can really feed the community,” said Michele Harris, executive director of First 5 Solano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The providers don’t pay facility fees. Instead, they share the costs of utilities and staff to manage the day-to-day operations of the center, allowing them to run their businesses at about half the cost, Cisneros said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>It helps them expand their business, but it also builds the workforce,” he said. “People who want to teach in this environment now have this space to be able to do it, and it’s going to bring a lot of new jobs into this community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cisneros said Vallejo Rise is the only early learning center he knows of that houses multiple programs with their own early education philosophies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081818\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081818\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-28-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-28-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-28-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-28-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A classroom at Rise Vallejo, an early education center, in Vallejo on April 28, 2026. The center recently opened, repurposing a former elementary school into a campus with classrooms, outdoor areas, and childcare space specifically designed for young children.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Dionna Perkins, the new center is giving her a chance to grow her home-based Montessori preschool, Joyful Journeys, into something much bigger. She’s currently licensed to serve up to 14 children and often has a waitlist of seven to 10 families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s crazy because I get a lot of parents that [sign up] when their child is in the womb,” Perkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, she’ll have three classrooms that can serve up to 48 kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can happily say that we do have at least half available right now,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081809\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081809\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-36-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-36-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-36-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-36-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Janet Walton, known as Ms. Janet, holds a child at Rise Vallejo, an early education center, in Vallejo on April 28, 2026. The center recently opened, repurposing a former elementary school into a campus with classrooms, outdoor areas, and childcare space specifically designed for young children. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The providers will share the cost of other resources, like the laundry machines, and save on big purchases, like cribs and classroom furniture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a huge benefit because if you’re expanding, you have to find all of the funds for that by yourself,” Perkins said. “And in this economy, it’s hard, you know?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fundraising is underway to build a family resource center near the parking lot for anyone in the community seeking child care, a food pantry, and social services. The county’s Office of Education will also provide on-site coaching to early childhood educators who might need help supporting a child with special needs or developmental concerns, Harris said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To have that professional development on site where [the coaches] can respond right away, it’s just such a tremendous difference than being in isolation by yourself all day, every day,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081812\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081812\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-43-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-43-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-43-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-43-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of Rise Vallejo, an early education center, in Vallejo on April 28, 2026. The center recently opened, repurposing a former elementary school into a campus with classrooms, outdoor areas, and childcare space specifically designed for young children. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Ruben Aurelio, the superintendent of Vallejo City Unified School District, the partnerships that were formed to create the center give him hope for the future of Vallejo. In its heyday, long before he led the district, more than 22,000 students were enrolled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re currently sitting around 9,000 students,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closure of Mare Island Naval Shipyard in 1996 devastated the local economy, and the 2008 financial crisis led the city to declare bankruptcy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A high crime rate, police misconduct scandals and neglected infrastructure gave Vallejo a bad reputation. Declining enrollment and overspending also brought the school district to the brink of bankruptcy. After receiving a $60 million bailout from the state, it lost local control for 20 years and is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046637/vallejo-city-unified-takes-back-local-control-of-schools-after-21-years\">emerging from state oversight\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081814\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12081814 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-12-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-12-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-12-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260428-VallejoChildCare-12-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play at Rise Vallejo, an early education center, in Vallejo on April 28, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Aurelio said the district will close three more elementary schools by the end of this school year as it seeks to “right-size” itself, and is looking at ways to reopen vacant or surplus facilities to benefit the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>We just don’t like seeing them sit empty,” he said. “That’s a blight on the community, and it diminishes that sort of pride that the community has.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After touring Rise Vallejo on its opening day celebration, Aurelio said he was heartened to see the school reimagined into something that brings value to the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, there’s another benefit, he said, “Those preschoolers will hopefully feed my schools one day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "bay-area-nature-camp-fights-bureaucracy-and-nimbyism-ahead-of-key-vote",
"title": "Bay Area Nature Camp Wins Key Approval for New Home After Fighting ‘Bureaucracy and NIMBYism’",
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"content": "\u003cp>Alameda County Supervisors have approved an outdoor education program’s plan to build a permanent campsite for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> school children in the rolling hills of Castro Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For 25 years, the Mosaic Project has been bringing tens of thousands of fourth and fifth graders from different backgrounds together for a week of learning in nature, renting land in Napa and Santa Cruz counties — locations that require long bus rides for the kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization spent $3 million and 10 years developing plans for a permanent home in Alameda County and hopes to serve up to 100 students per week, for about 130 days out of the year. It applied for a conditional land use permit to replace a former car storage building with cabins, a dining hall and staff residence on a piece of land off Cull Canyon Road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>School leaders and parents praise its mission of teaching the students to resolve conflicts peacefully, and numerous students inspired by the experience come back as youth leaders or counselors. But the Oakland-based nonprofit faced an uncertain future due to fierce opposition by a small, but influential group of Castro Valley residents over its plans to establish the camp near their rural properties. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We give kids the experience of living in a welcoming, inclusive and joyful community. We’re the only ones that we know of that are doing this, and we’re in danger of not existing because of bureaucracy and NIMBYism,” Lara Mendel, co-founder of the project, said ahead of Thursday’s vote. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Board members voted 3-1 to allow the project to move forward. The only ‘no’ vote came from Nate Miley, the longtime supervisor who represents Castro Valley, an unincorporated community of 66,000 wedged between suburban sprawl and picturesque open spaces. Supporters of the outdoor recreation facility had questioned whether he can vote independently given that he appointed members of a municipal advisory council that unanimously rejected county staff recommendations to approve the project last August. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080109\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1014px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080109\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1014\" height=\"657\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-02-KQED.jpg 1014w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-02-KQED-160x104.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1014px) 100vw, 1014px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mosaic Project’s proposed new facility would replace a former car storage building with cabins, a dining hall and staff residence on a piece of land off Cull Canyon Road in Castro Valley. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Mosaic Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The MAC has, I would say, not very diverse appointments, and amplifies a Castro Valley that I don’t think is Castro Valley writ large,” said Michael Kusiak, a school board member who wants to provide local students convenient access to the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the appointees overwhelmingly represent “legacy voices” in the community who want to preserve the status quo in Castro Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those voices tend to get amplified a bit more than others, and that’s frustrating, particularly when you hear people make these comments that makes you go, ‘What are we really talking about here, people? Maybe you want to say what you really mean,’” he said. “I haven’t found the arguments against the project to be very credible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miley also nominated the majority of a five-member zoning board that voted against the proposal in December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://alamedacounty.granicus.com/player/clip/9984?view_id=3&redirect=true\">At that meeting\u003c/a>, members of the governing board said they were worried the facility would increase traffic and wildfire danger in the boxed canyon, as well as strain the local water supply, which depends on wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Thursday’s board meeting, Miley said he wasn’t convinced by expert assessments that the project met fire safety requirements. He also worried about putting children close to a winery where alcohol consumption is permitted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me it’s important that I put authenticity on the people who have lived in the canyon, who have experienced these issues and concerns, not academically, not by study, but by everyday existence,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teddy Seibert, vice-chair of the West County Board of Zoning Adjustments, recused herself from voting in the December meeting because she owns a winery that shares boundaries with the Mosaic Project’s property. But in a letter submitted to the board, she called the proposal “a thinly-veiled attempt at urban expansion.” Her husband, Keith Seibert, said in public comments that he feared losing the winery’s license to serve alcohol if a youth facility moved in next door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080113\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080113\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-06-KQED-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-06-KQED-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-06-KQED-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-06-KQED-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This rendering shows plans for the Mosaic Project’s proposed permanent home in Alameda County, which it hopes will serve up to 100 students per week, for about 130 days out of the year, at a proposed new permanent facility in Castro Valley. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Mosaic Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chuck Shipman, a resident of the Sequoians nudist club at the end of the road, said: “I would kind of feel concerned if somebody comes in there and says, ‘Well, I don’t want my kids around a nudist resort.’ That would affect our business also.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another resident worried about additional noise from “100 fourth and fifth graders at an evening campfire or tromping through the hills collecting forest products.” Several others sought to redefine the program as a school, which would violate Measure D, a 26-year-old initiative Miley championed to restrict urban development in rural parts of Alameda County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the Mosaic Project’s land use attorney, David Smith, said an environmental review and scientific studies by outside consultants have addressed these concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the facility, which would cover just two acres of the 37-acre property, will be built with fire-resistant materials that would create a break in the canyon in the event of a conflagration. Water tanks at the site would be reserved for fire suppression that everyone in the canyon can use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have put in exhaustive modeling from fire experts of all possible scenarios,” Smith said. “It’s undisputed that the wildfire risk for the canyon as a whole is materially improved with the project than without it.”[aside postID=news_12078183 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/031626_PINNACLESFORTHEDAY-_GH_040-KQED.jpg']Hydrologists also discovered a plentiful and drinkable water source on the site. As for the winery’s concern, Smith pointed out that a state law that refuses alcohol licenses for businesses near youth facilities doesn’t apply to those seeking a renewal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They herald [the Mosaic Project] but say it’s the wrong place for it, because a winery is the right place for parties but not for kids next door? That’s just hard to accept,” Smith said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Email messages seeking comments from the Seiberts, owners of the TwiningVine Estate Winery, have not been returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grace Russell, an eighth grade student at Oakland School of the Arts, said the long rides to the Santa Cruz Mountains created “a lot of anticipating” when she went on her first-ever overnight camp with the Mosaic Project four years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think having Mosaic closer to where most of the schools are [located] would make a big impact because not only is it easier to get there, but then on the first day there’s more time for doing ‘get to know you’ activities, and there’s time on the last day for people to say their goodbyes,” Russell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Russell plans to return to Mosaic in the fall as a youth leader.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a little bit hard to understand why people don’t want Mosaic in their community, just because of how much it helps people,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendel said the rental locations also create unsustainable commutes for the staff, who mostly live in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We go away for six weeks, and people give up their life for this,” she said. “We’ve lost amazing staff because they fall in love and they want a family and they can’t be leaving for six, seven weeks a session.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A permanent location in Castro Valley would keep the program going in the long term, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 to allow the Mosaic Project to move forward with plans to build an outdoors education facility in Castro Valley, amid fierce opposition from a cohort of residents. \r\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Alameda County Supervisors have approved an outdoor education program’s plan to build a permanent campsite for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> school children in the rolling hills of Castro Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For 25 years, the Mosaic Project has been bringing tens of thousands of fourth and fifth graders from different backgrounds together for a week of learning in nature, renting land in Napa and Santa Cruz counties — locations that require long bus rides for the kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization spent $3 million and 10 years developing plans for a permanent home in Alameda County and hopes to serve up to 100 students per week, for about 130 days out of the year. It applied for a conditional land use permit to replace a former car storage building with cabins, a dining hall and staff residence on a piece of land off Cull Canyon Road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>School leaders and parents praise its mission of teaching the students to resolve conflicts peacefully, and numerous students inspired by the experience come back as youth leaders or counselors. But the Oakland-based nonprofit faced an uncertain future due to fierce opposition by a small, but influential group of Castro Valley residents over its plans to establish the camp near their rural properties. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We give kids the experience of living in a welcoming, inclusive and joyful community. We’re the only ones that we know of that are doing this, and we’re in danger of not existing because of bureaucracy and NIMBYism,” Lara Mendel, co-founder of the project, said ahead of Thursday’s vote. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Board members voted 3-1 to allow the project to move forward. The only ‘no’ vote came from Nate Miley, the longtime supervisor who represents Castro Valley, an unincorporated community of 66,000 wedged between suburban sprawl and picturesque open spaces. Supporters of the outdoor recreation facility had questioned whether he can vote independently given that he appointed members of a municipal advisory council that unanimously rejected county staff recommendations to approve the project last August. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080109\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1014px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080109\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1014\" height=\"657\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-02-KQED.jpg 1014w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-02-KQED-160x104.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1014px) 100vw, 1014px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mosaic Project’s proposed new facility would replace a former car storage building with cabins, a dining hall and staff residence on a piece of land off Cull Canyon Road in Castro Valley. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Mosaic Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The MAC has, I would say, not very diverse appointments, and amplifies a Castro Valley that I don’t think is Castro Valley writ large,” said Michael Kusiak, a school board member who wants to provide local students convenient access to the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the appointees overwhelmingly represent “legacy voices” in the community who want to preserve the status quo in Castro Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those voices tend to get amplified a bit more than others, and that’s frustrating, particularly when you hear people make these comments that makes you go, ‘What are we really talking about here, people? Maybe you want to say what you really mean,’” he said. “I haven’t found the arguments against the project to be very credible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miley also nominated the majority of a five-member zoning board that voted against the proposal in December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://alamedacounty.granicus.com/player/clip/9984?view_id=3&redirect=true\">At that meeting\u003c/a>, members of the governing board said they were worried the facility would increase traffic and wildfire danger in the boxed canyon, as well as strain the local water supply, which depends on wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Thursday’s board meeting, Miley said he wasn’t convinced by expert assessments that the project met fire safety requirements. He also worried about putting children close to a winery where alcohol consumption is permitted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me it’s important that I put authenticity on the people who have lived in the canyon, who have experienced these issues and concerns, not academically, not by study, but by everyday existence,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teddy Seibert, vice-chair of the West County Board of Zoning Adjustments, recused herself from voting in the December meeting because she owns a winery that shares boundaries with the Mosaic Project’s property. But in a letter submitted to the board, she called the proposal “a thinly-veiled attempt at urban expansion.” Her husband, Keith Seibert, said in public comments that he feared losing the winery’s license to serve alcohol if a youth facility moved in next door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080113\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080113\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-06-KQED-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-06-KQED-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-06-KQED-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-Mosaic-Project-06-KQED-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This rendering shows plans for the Mosaic Project’s proposed permanent home in Alameda County, which it hopes will serve up to 100 students per week, for about 130 days out of the year, at a proposed new permanent facility in Castro Valley. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Mosaic Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chuck Shipman, a resident of the Sequoians nudist club at the end of the road, said: “I would kind of feel concerned if somebody comes in there and says, ‘Well, I don’t want my kids around a nudist resort.’ That would affect our business also.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another resident worried about additional noise from “100 fourth and fifth graders at an evening campfire or tromping through the hills collecting forest products.” Several others sought to redefine the program as a school, which would violate Measure D, a 26-year-old initiative Miley championed to restrict urban development in rural parts of Alameda County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the Mosaic Project’s land use attorney, David Smith, said an environmental review and scientific studies by outside consultants have addressed these concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the facility, which would cover just two acres of the 37-acre property, will be built with fire-resistant materials that would create a break in the canyon in the event of a conflagration. Water tanks at the site would be reserved for fire suppression that everyone in the canyon can use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have put in exhaustive modeling from fire experts of all possible scenarios,” Smith said. “It’s undisputed that the wildfire risk for the canyon as a whole is materially improved with the project than without it.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Hydrologists also discovered a plentiful and drinkable water source on the site. As for the winery’s concern, Smith pointed out that a state law that refuses alcohol licenses for businesses near youth facilities doesn’t apply to those seeking a renewal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They herald [the Mosaic Project] but say it’s the wrong place for it, because a winery is the right place for parties but not for kids next door? That’s just hard to accept,” Smith said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Email messages seeking comments from the Seiberts, owners of the TwiningVine Estate Winery, have not been returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grace Russell, an eighth grade student at Oakland School of the Arts, said the long rides to the Santa Cruz Mountains created “a lot of anticipating” when she went on her first-ever overnight camp with the Mosaic Project four years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think having Mosaic closer to where most of the schools are [located] would make a big impact because not only is it easier to get there, but then on the first day there’s more time for doing ‘get to know you’ activities, and there’s time on the last day for people to say their goodbyes,” Russell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Russell plans to return to Mosaic in the fall as a youth leader.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a little bit hard to understand why people don’t want Mosaic in their community, just because of how much it helps people,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendel said the rental locations also create unsustainable commutes for the staff, who mostly live in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We go away for six weeks, and people give up their life for this,” she said. “We’ve lost amazing staff because they fall in love and they want a family and they can’t be leaving for six, seven weeks a session.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A permanent location in Castro Valley would keep the program going in the long term, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "when-child-care-costs-half-a-paycheck-bay-area-parents-must-choose-kids-or-career",
"title": "When Child Care Costs Half a Paycheck, Bay Area Parents Must Choose: Kids or Career",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">How We Get By\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">full series here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Annie Malekzadeh was shopping at a Joanne Fabrics store in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/concord\">Concord\u003c/a> a couple of years ago when she had an encounter that stung her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An older woman who saw her pregnant while pushing her toddler son in a shopping cart, told her: “I don’t know why you would want more than two [children]. It’s basically impossible in the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the time I was like, how dare she?” she said. “But now I’m like, oh, [she] was right. It’s really hard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh wound up having another baby, and the decision to have three kids pushed her child care expenses to roughly $56,000 a year and ultimately changed the course of her career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061802/how-are-child-care-costs-affecting-the-lives-of-bay-area-families-you-told-us\">Rising child care costs in the Bay Area\u003c/a> are forcing parents to make painful tradeoffs, either by passing up career opportunities, cutting back work hours, or quitting altogether. For families with multiple young children, these expenses can surpass a parent’s entire salary, disproportionately affecting mothers and shaping their long-term economic security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh’s story is just one example of how the gap between what families can afford and the actual cost of care is pushing parents to find creative solutions — and prompting calls for systemic change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Child care has long been expensive for parents, but recently it’s been even more so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078461\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078461\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annie Malekzadeh, a mom who quit her teaching job to save on child care and is now pursuing her master’s degree in mathematics, studies at Pleasant Hill Library in Pleasant Hill on April 1, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Prices shot up almost 30% between 2020 and 2024, outpacing inflation by 7 percentage points, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.childcareaware.org/price-landscape24/\">a survey of child care resource and referral organizations \u003c/a>around the country. In just the last year, 40% of child care programs in California \u003ca href=\"https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/wysiwyg/user-174467/2026_survey_brief.pdf\">reported raising tuition \u003c/a>to offset rising operating costs like insurance and food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four years ago, Malekzadeh was a math teacher at a private middle school, earning roughly $32,000 annually and working 25 hours per week. At the time, her son was in kindergarten and her daughter in preschool. Her husband is a psychiatrist, she said, and because he earned more money and worked more hours, most of the parenting responsibilities went to her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With their joint income, the cost of preschool and before- and afterschool care was manageable for the Pleasant Hill couple. But when their baby boy came along in July 2022, and needed full-time infant care, the amount for all three kids’ care — about $4,700 per month — was almost double her teacher’s salary.[aside postID=news_12070762 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/240911-CHILDCARE-REAX-MD-01_qed.jpg']“It didn’t make sense,” she said. “My job wasn’t really making enough of a contribution to justify that kind of expense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the school year ended, Malekzadeh decided to quit, even though she didn’t want to leave a profession she loved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My grandparents were both educators,” she said. “They were beloved by their community, and they were really excited when I chose to become a teacher. So that was my plan, and I didn’t ever expect to deviate from that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move is saving about $600 a week in child care. The older two are in public school, and the youngest is still in preschool. While he’s in care, Malekzadeh takes classes at Diablo Valley College as she pursues a master’s degree in math, which she hopes will ultimately lead to a higher-paying job to make up for time away from the labor market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you quit to stay home with your kids, it creates gaps in your resume that a lot of places don’t necessarily look nicely at,” Melakzadeh said. “You have to have some kind of explanation for that, which might translate into less pay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Child care prices vary by region and depend on a child’s age and the type of provider. In California, full-time infant care in 2024 cost an average of $22,628, which is 16% of the average married couple’s income and 50% of a single parent’s. Bay Area families pay the highest child care prices \u003ca href=\"https://tootris.com/edu/blog/parents/cost-of-child-care-in-california-by-city-age-and-type-of-care-provider/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">compared to other parts of California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078462\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12078462 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annie Malekzadeh plays a card game with her daughter as they wait for her older son to finish school at Valhalla Elementary School in Pleasant Hill on April 1, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The spike in prices came as companies began mandating employees return to work and \u003ca href=\"https://rapidsurveyproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/arpa-funding-factsheet-aug2023.pdf\">child care providers lost federal funds\u003c/a> meant to help them recover from the pandemic. Less flexibility and high costs led to a decline in labor force participation for moms of children under the age of 5, and college-educated moms in particular, according to\u003ca href=\"https://kpmg.com/us/en/articles/2025/october-2025-the-great-exit.html\"> an analysis by the financial firm KPMG.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their labor force participation declined by 2.3 percentage points, while the number of college-educated dads of young children who were working or seeking a job continued to increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Families are facing child care prices that are higher than the price of rent or mortgage. So this is a huge problem. It’s one of the biggest expenses in a family’s budgets,” said Julie Kashen, a researcher at The Century Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078476\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078476\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nolan Cruz eats oatmeal for breakfast in the morning on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The progressive think tank conducted an October survey of 1,400 voters about their affordability concerns. Kashen said that while all families are facing rising costs, it’s women who experience a greater threat to their economic security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Women are faring worse in terms of taking on debt to cover their basics, borrowing from friends and families to pay the bills,” she said. “So when you add child care on top of that, I think it’s incredibly challenging.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those challenges led Amy Cruz to walk away from a six-figure nursing job to freelance as a dance teacher and care for her 3-year-old son, Nolan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078474\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078474\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1346\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED-1536x1034.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brandon and Nolan Cruz cook oatmeal for breakfast on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Until he was about two years old, Cruz paid $3,000 per month to share a nanny with another family for just four days a week of child care (on the fifth day, she leaned on family members to look after him). While child care wasn’t the only reason she left her job, it was a significant factor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Essentially, half of my monthly income was going to child care,” Cruz said. “Watching that much money leave our account every month was tough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once Nolan was old enough to start preschool, she enrolled him in a three-day program near her Berkeley home, which cut her child care costs in half. When he’s there, she teaches dance — something she did professionally before going to nursing school — to afford his tuition. With a second baby on the way, she also figured that it was “worth it to make a little less money but be able to be with my kids more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078475\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078475\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amy Cruz picks raspberries for her son Nolan’s breakfast in the morning on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Economists call child care a broken market because the actual cost of providing care is a lot more than what families can afford to pay. In California, \u003ca href=\"https://rrnetwork.org/assets/general-files/California.pdf\">the demand for licensed infant care exceeds supply\u003c/a> because it’s the most expensive and labor-intensive. Babies need constant care, and California has strict rules limiting the number of children each adult can care for in a licensed child care home or center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, low pay and benefits have made it tough for child care providers to attract or retain early educators. In January, nearly half of providers said they didn’t have enough staff to enroll children at capacity, according to a survey by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For providers, energy costs, food, insurance have all gone up,” said Matthew Nestler, senior economist at KPMG. “They can’t necessarily raise their workers’ wages to the degree that they would like to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078473\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078473\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Brandon, Amy and Nolan Cruz prepare breakfast and pack a lunch for Nolan in the morning on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The shortage can cause parents to weave in and out of the workforce. Malezadeh first left her job when her eldest child was born eight years ago, and she couldn’t find an open infant care slot when her maternity leave ended. She didn’t know she had to reserve months in advance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t actually find any kind of daycare spot for him until he was two, and by then, I was already expecting my second child,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh stayed out of teaching for four years and went back to work when her first two kids were a little older.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after a year, the costs of infant care for her youngest, combined with her older children’s care, were too great, and she left her job again.[aside postID=news_12078480 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/AffordabilitySeriesIntro_Lede.jpg']Kashen, from The Century Foundation, said public investment can help close the gap between what parents like Malekzadeh and Cruz can afford and what it actually costs to provide child care. As an example, she pointed to New Mexico’s recent move to offer free child care for all residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When governments invest in child care, that is the biggest thing that we can do because right now what we have is essentially a DIY, do-it-yourself, system for families where everyone’s on their own,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, Cruz gave birth to a daughter. During her pregnancy, she considered becoming a nanny so she could take care of her baby alongside someone else’s, allowing her to make some money. She also thought about continuing to teach dance part-time, and while she’s at work, trading child care responsibilities with other parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been thinking about it more and more, because I can make more money teaching dance than doing my own nanny share,” Cruz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Building a community with other parents has helped Malekzadeh get by when she’s in a child care pinch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re gonna be five minutes late to pick up, you have to have someone else that you can text, and be like, ‘Can you grab my kid for me real quick?’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078901\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078901\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annie Malekzadeh walks her kids home after school in Pleasant Hill on April 1, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh tutors on the side to make some money and said she’s constantly revising the family budget as grocery and health insurance prices go up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m looking at where can we cut costs and what bundle can I use or coupon can I use to save money? I do most of our shopping at Costco now because buying in bulk is usually cheaper,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her family is also taking fewer trips, but Malezadeh said, despite these compromises, she’s grateful she has been able to afford raising three kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel very fortunate that I got through having our second kid and didn’t feel done,” she said. “Instead of living with the potential of regretting it for the rest of my life, I was able to say, ‘Hey, can we have another one? Can we work that into the budget?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">How We Get By\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">full series here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Annie Malekzadeh was shopping at a Joanne Fabrics store in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/concord\">Concord\u003c/a> a couple of years ago when she had an encounter that stung her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An older woman who saw her pregnant while pushing her toddler son in a shopping cart, told her: “I don’t know why you would want more than two [children]. It’s basically impossible in the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the time I was like, how dare she?” she said. “But now I’m like, oh, [she] was right. It’s really hard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh wound up having another baby, and the decision to have three kids pushed her child care expenses to roughly $56,000 a year and ultimately changed the course of her career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061802/how-are-child-care-costs-affecting-the-lives-of-bay-area-families-you-told-us\">Rising child care costs in the Bay Area\u003c/a> are forcing parents to make painful tradeoffs, either by passing up career opportunities, cutting back work hours, or quitting altogether. For families with multiple young children, these expenses can surpass a parent’s entire salary, disproportionately affecting mothers and shaping their long-term economic security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh’s story is just one example of how the gap between what families can afford and the actual cost of care is pushing parents to find creative solutions — and prompting calls for systemic change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Child care has long been expensive for parents, but recently it’s been even more so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078461\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078461\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annie Malekzadeh, a mom who quit her teaching job to save on child care and is now pursuing her master’s degree in mathematics, studies at Pleasant Hill Library in Pleasant Hill on April 1, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Prices shot up almost 30% between 2020 and 2024, outpacing inflation by 7 percentage points, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.childcareaware.org/price-landscape24/\">a survey of child care resource and referral organizations \u003c/a>around the country. In just the last year, 40% of child care programs in California \u003ca href=\"https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/wysiwyg/user-174467/2026_survey_brief.pdf\">reported raising tuition \u003c/a>to offset rising operating costs like insurance and food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four years ago, Malekzadeh was a math teacher at a private middle school, earning roughly $32,000 annually and working 25 hours per week. At the time, her son was in kindergarten and her daughter in preschool. Her husband is a psychiatrist, she said, and because he earned more money and worked more hours, most of the parenting responsibilities went to her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With their joint income, the cost of preschool and before- and afterschool care was manageable for the Pleasant Hill couple. But when their baby boy came along in July 2022, and needed full-time infant care, the amount for all three kids’ care — about $4,700 per month — was almost double her teacher’s salary.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It didn’t make sense,” she said. “My job wasn’t really making enough of a contribution to justify that kind of expense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the school year ended, Malekzadeh decided to quit, even though she didn’t want to leave a profession she loved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My grandparents were both educators,” she said. “They were beloved by their community, and they were really excited when I chose to become a teacher. So that was my plan, and I didn’t ever expect to deviate from that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move is saving about $600 a week in child care. The older two are in public school, and the youngest is still in preschool. While he’s in care, Malekzadeh takes classes at Diablo Valley College as she pursues a master’s degree in math, which she hopes will ultimately lead to a higher-paying job to make up for time away from the labor market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you quit to stay home with your kids, it creates gaps in your resume that a lot of places don’t necessarily look nicely at,” Melakzadeh said. “You have to have some kind of explanation for that, which might translate into less pay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Child care prices vary by region and depend on a child’s age and the type of provider. In California, full-time infant care in 2024 cost an average of $22,628, which is 16% of the average married couple’s income and 50% of a single parent’s. Bay Area families pay the highest child care prices \u003ca href=\"https://tootris.com/edu/blog/parents/cost-of-child-care-in-california-by-city-age-and-type-of-care-provider/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">compared to other parts of California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078462\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12078462 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annie Malekzadeh plays a card game with her daughter as they wait for her older son to finish school at Valhalla Elementary School in Pleasant Hill on April 1, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The spike in prices came as companies began mandating employees return to work and \u003ca href=\"https://rapidsurveyproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/arpa-funding-factsheet-aug2023.pdf\">child care providers lost federal funds\u003c/a> meant to help them recover from the pandemic. Less flexibility and high costs led to a decline in labor force participation for moms of children under the age of 5, and college-educated moms in particular, according to\u003ca href=\"https://kpmg.com/us/en/articles/2025/october-2025-the-great-exit.html\"> an analysis by the financial firm KPMG.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their labor force participation declined by 2.3 percentage points, while the number of college-educated dads of young children who were working or seeking a job continued to increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Families are facing child care prices that are higher than the price of rent or mortgage. So this is a huge problem. It’s one of the biggest expenses in a family’s budgets,” said Julie Kashen, a researcher at The Century Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078476\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078476\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nolan Cruz eats oatmeal for breakfast in the morning on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The progressive think tank conducted an October survey of 1,400 voters about their affordability concerns. Kashen said that while all families are facing rising costs, it’s women who experience a greater threat to their economic security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Women are faring worse in terms of taking on debt to cover their basics, borrowing from friends and families to pay the bills,” she said. “So when you add child care on top of that, I think it’s incredibly challenging.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those challenges led Amy Cruz to walk away from a six-figure nursing job to freelance as a dance teacher and care for her 3-year-old son, Nolan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078474\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078474\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1346\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED-1536x1034.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brandon and Nolan Cruz cook oatmeal for breakfast on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Until he was about two years old, Cruz paid $3,000 per month to share a nanny with another family for just four days a week of child care (on the fifth day, she leaned on family members to look after him). While child care wasn’t the only reason she left her job, it was a significant factor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Essentially, half of my monthly income was going to child care,” Cruz said. “Watching that much money leave our account every month was tough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once Nolan was old enough to start preschool, she enrolled him in a three-day program near her Berkeley home, which cut her child care costs in half. When he’s there, she teaches dance — something she did professionally before going to nursing school — to afford his tuition. With a second baby on the way, she also figured that it was “worth it to make a little less money but be able to be with my kids more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078475\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078475\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amy Cruz picks raspberries for her son Nolan’s breakfast in the morning on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Economists call child care a broken market because the actual cost of providing care is a lot more than what families can afford to pay. In California, \u003ca href=\"https://rrnetwork.org/assets/general-files/California.pdf\">the demand for licensed infant care exceeds supply\u003c/a> because it’s the most expensive and labor-intensive. Babies need constant care, and California has strict rules limiting the number of children each adult can care for in a licensed child care home or center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, low pay and benefits have made it tough for child care providers to attract or retain early educators. In January, nearly half of providers said they didn’t have enough staff to enroll children at capacity, according to a survey by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For providers, energy costs, food, insurance have all gone up,” said Matthew Nestler, senior economist at KPMG. “They can’t necessarily raise their workers’ wages to the degree that they would like to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078473\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078473\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Brandon, Amy and Nolan Cruz prepare breakfast and pack a lunch for Nolan in the morning on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The shortage can cause parents to weave in and out of the workforce. Malezadeh first left her job when her eldest child was born eight years ago, and she couldn’t find an open infant care slot when her maternity leave ended. She didn’t know she had to reserve months in advance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t actually find any kind of daycare spot for him until he was two, and by then, I was already expecting my second child,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh stayed out of teaching for four years and went back to work when her first two kids were a little older.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after a year, the costs of infant care for her youngest, combined with her older children’s care, were too great, and she left her job again.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kashen, from The Century Foundation, said public investment can help close the gap between what parents like Malekzadeh and Cruz can afford and what it actually costs to provide child care. As an example, she pointed to New Mexico’s recent move to offer free child care for all residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When governments invest in child care, that is the biggest thing that we can do because right now what we have is essentially a DIY, do-it-yourself, system for families where everyone’s on their own,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, Cruz gave birth to a daughter. During her pregnancy, she considered becoming a nanny so she could take care of her baby alongside someone else’s, allowing her to make some money. She also thought about continuing to teach dance part-time, and while she’s at work, trading child care responsibilities with other parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been thinking about it more and more, because I can make more money teaching dance than doing my own nanny share,” Cruz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Building a community with other parents has helped Malekzadeh get by when she’s in a child care pinch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re gonna be five minutes late to pick up, you have to have someone else that you can text, and be like, ‘Can you grab my kid for me real quick?’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078901\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078901\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annie Malekzadeh walks her kids home after school in Pleasant Hill on April 1, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh tutors on the side to make some money and said she’s constantly revising the family budget as grocery and health insurance prices go up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m looking at where can we cut costs and what bundle can I use or coupon can I use to save money? I do most of our shopping at Costco now because buying in bulk is usually cheaper,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her family is also taking fewer trips, but Malezadeh said, despite these compromises, she’s grateful she has been able to afford raising three kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel very fortunate that I got through having our second kid and didn’t feel done,” she said. “Instead of living with the potential of regretting it for the rest of my life, I was able to say, ‘Hey, can we have another one? Can we work that into the budget?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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},
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"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
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},
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"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"order": 1
},
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "WNYC"
},
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
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"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
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