Amid pandemic, infants especially need quality child care, reformers say

Most of an infant's brain growth occurs before kindergarten; A Senate bill aims to target infants with quality care

Children are born ready to learn. In the first year of life, the brain doubles, with about 90% of brain growth happening before kindergarten.

However, only 1 in 3 eligible children under 5 years old take part in California’s publicly funded early learning and care programs. To make matters worse this year, 3 out of 4 California parents with children under 5 are worried their education and development will suffer because of the pandemic, according to a recent survey.

That’s why there’s a push in California to get more children, especially infants and toddlers from low-income families, into quality child care at a time when the industry is in crisis because of the pandemic. Senate Bill 50, introduced by state Sen. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, proposes to open access to the state-funded California State Preschool Program (CSPP) and to make it easier for families to access the child care system.

“We know 0-to-5 is such an important, foundational age,” said Limón, “but we also know that it’s difficult for parents to navigate the resources that are available. And unfortunately, with Covid, navigating those challenges has become even more difficult. We really are proposing a way to streamline the resources that are available.”

The move was given further impetus by the Master Plan for Early Learning and Care, a road map for reshaping early childhood care and education in the state through reforms long championed by child advocates.

“Babies are the least served and the most needy of our children,” said Scott Moore, CEO of Kidango, a nonprofit organization that operates child care centers in the San Francisco Bay Area and a co-sponsor of the legislation. “They are the most vulnerable.”

Moore said the goal is “to build off the Master Plan and create a system that is truly birth-to-5. We want to serve more children who are 0-to-3, that’s where the greatest need is and that’s where the greatest impact is.”