Expanded Network of City-Funded Early Care and Education Sites

Where children learn and grow has a huge impact on how they learn and grow. Through our historic investments in the quality, curriculum, and environments of San Francisco’s early care and education programs we have been able to expand the number of qualified Early Learning San Francisco (ELS) sites at the highest rate since the program was launched. 

In the last four years, DEC brought 47 additional family child care (FCC) homes and 20 additional centers into the Early Learning San Francisco (ELS) network. Furthermore, there are nearly 100 licensed programs in our pre-ELS pipeline currently working to meet DEC funding requirements so they can begin serving families for free. This substantial growth in our City-funded network of high-quality early care and education programs means more great free options for SF families as they decide which program best meets their needs.

The FCCs and new centers that have joined ELS this year are primarily small businesses owned by women of color. By investing in this important work, we are furthering racial and gender equity for the entire city. The expansion of Family Child Care (FCCs) is especially exciting, given its stark contrast to nationwide trends. Child Care Aware of America found that “there has been an 11% decline in licensed FCC homes since 2019.”

Now, San Francisco boasts over 450 high quality child care programs throughout the neighborhoods of San Francisco showing just how big of a difference local investments can make.