Across California, the demand for publicly funded child care far exceeds the supply. In 2024, only 16% of children eligible for publicly funded child care were enrolled. While state spending for publicly funded child care still falls short of the need, access to child care has improved over time, largely due to the expansion of subsidized child care spaces beginning in 2021. Since 2021, increases in child care enrollment have varied across counties, with Santa Barbara County seeing one of the largest gains in the state. Specifically, in 2024, 23% of Santa Barbara County’s children eligible for publicly funded child care were enrolled, an increase from 13% in 2022.
This case study outlines key strategies underscoring Santa Barbara County’s marked improvement in the unmet need for child care and shares lessons learned to highlight promising approaches for bolstering child care enrollment across California.
Santa Barbara County’s Child Care Expansion Strategies Proved Effective
Santa Barbara County is a leading example of successful efforts to boost child care enrollment. Between 2021 and 2024 Santa Barbara County increased enrollment in publicly funded child care by 160%. This was the highest rate of all 58 counties in California.
Underscoring this success are several strategies that supported increased access to child care, including:
Strategy 1: Building Cross-Sector Relationships
Santa Barbara County committed to and fostered intentional relationship-building across key county groups involved in expanding access to child care. For example, the following groups developed clear channels of communication and collaboration: Children’s Resource & Referral of Santa Barbara County (CRR), Santa Barbara County Education Office, the Santa Barbara Foundation, the Child Care Planning Council, First 5 Santa Barbara County, the United Way of Santa Barbara County, local jurisdictions, and many other partners working toward a shared goal of expanding access and strengthening the early childhood system. This coordination helped the county to build upon existing community-based infrastructure rather than duplicating efforts. For example, the two Alternative Payment Program (AP) contractors (CRR and the Santa Barbara County Education Office) intentionally communicated and shared information and clients between their staff in order to maximize AP enrollment. This strategy and other collaboration strategies laid the groundwork to improve child care access.
Strategy 2: Creating a Data-Informed Plan for Addressing Santa Barbara County’s Needs
Several key groups came together to create this data-informed strategy. Building on the Early Care and Education Collective Impact (ECCI) partnership, the Santa Barbara Foundation served as a lead fiscal agent and strategic convener for a portion of Santa Barbara County’s American Rescue Plan Act investment in child care recovery and infrastructure. The Foundation was awarded $1.125 million and directed resources to and supported the leadership of Children’s Resource & Referral, the Child Care Planning Council, Eileen Monahan Consulting, and other child care partners responsible for implementation.
Partners across multiple sectors conducted a Child Care Facilities Needs Assessment and Child Care Land Use Report to quantify unmet need, identify geographic and systemic barriers to child care expansion, and establish a shared evidence base for public and philanthropic decision-making. The resulting findings informed countywide planning, resource allocation, and the development of a Child Care Facilities Tool Kit and Master Plan designed to guide future investments in child care access and infrastructure.
Strategy 3: Focusing on Child Care Facilities
The planning described in Strategy 2 resulted in a comprehensive Master Plan for Child Care Facilities which provided a clear roadmap for how various sectors can support infrastructure development. Specifically, the Master Plan laid out a countywide strategy that focused on strengthening infrastructure for facilities development, easing land use and permitting barriers, identifying and developing viable sites, creating sustainable funding models, and designing facilities that support workforce retention and long-term viability.
The Master Plan proposed a target of creating 3,000 new child care spaces by 2030, and Santa Barbara County is well on its way to meeting that goal. Specifically, the county added more than 2,000 licensed child care spaces between 2020 and 2025, many of which were subsidized spaces. Moreover, between 2021 and 2024, Santa Barbara County increased licensed child care capacity by 15% — the second-highest percentage across all counties and notably higher than the -2% capacity change observed at the statewide level.
Spotlight on Facilities Strategies in Santa Barbara County
Easing the land use and development processes allowed the county to strategically expand facilities. Santa Barbara County identified a gap in access for infants and toddlers as well as a need for providers to shift toward infant/toddler care given the enrollment impacts of Universal Transitional Kindergarten. Therefore, expanding and adapting facilities to accommodate infants and toddlers was a key goal, and the county looked toward land use and development processes to help work toward this goal.
As part of this effort, Santa Barbara child care champions engaged city and county planning departments in four jurisdictions to intentionally include child care in their General Plans. Doing so enabled the following outcomes:
- Santa Barbara County planning departments broadened their understanding of where child care can exist within a jurisdiction and strengthened their resolve to expand child care facilities.
- General Plans created the conditions to allow for zoning and other policies to enable child care facilities development.
- Jurisdictions have streamlined permitting to make it easier for child care facilities to expand.
- Newly proposed housing sites proactively incorporated child care facilities, independent of advocacy from child care champions.
Strategy 4: Prioritizing Child Care Provider Recruitment & Retention to Maximize Family Choice
Santa Barbara County — namely, Children’s Resource & Referral of Santa Barbara County and Child Care Planning Council — provided a combination of funding, hands-on coaching, business and operational guidance, high-quality trainings, and partnerships to move providers “from interest to action.” The county has developed a strong network of child care business owners and a comprehensive system of support that serves both family child care providers and center-based programs. These supports helped providers not only enter the field, but grow, improve quality, and remain sustainable over time — offering individualized support, practical tools, and guidance that meet providers where they are.
These supports undoubtedly contributed to Santa Barbara County’s strong growth in enrollment among family child care and center-based providers. The following chart shows that most families participating in publicly funded child care are enrolling in family child care in Santa Barbara County, reflecting family needs regarding nontraditional hours, cultural and linguistic preferences, and other contextual factors. Santa Barbara County’s efforts to recruit and retain family child care providers reinforces and supports this family choice.
Lessons Learned
As California counties continue to expand access to publicly funded child care, Santa Barbara County’s example offers important lessons for the rest of the state.
- Focusing on the workforce and facilities allowed Santa Barbara County to capitalize on new funding for subsidized spaces. Santa Barbara County advanced policy change, workforce supports, and data-driven planning efforts, which pointed to the need to grow the child care workforce and expand child care facilities. Therefore, when additional public and private funding opportunities came about to increase access to affordable child care, the facilities and the workforce existed to quickly expand access.
- Grounding child care expansion in parent choice is paramount. The work done in Santa Barbara County to expand access to child care reinforces the importance of honoring parental choice by supporting both home-based settings and centers. Families need a range of care options that reflect their realities and cultural and linguistic preferences. Santa Barbara County’s approach ensured child care expansion touched all program settings and reflected the value parents see in both home-based and center-based care.
- Fostering cross-sector relationships is critical for addressing long-standing and enduring challenges. Santa Barbara County’s progress reflects that effectively expanding enrollment in child care cannot happen among isolated interest groups. Despite progress, much more work remains in Santa Barbara County — the shortage of infant and toddler care remains severe, affordability challenges persist, and many providers continue to face barriers related to workforce shortages, aging facilities, and capital needs. To address these challenges, Santa Barbara County must continue to build a stronger and more coordinated system that can support providers, families, and local communities over the long term.
