Policy and Planning Documents

San Francisco has a robust history of investing in early childhood education, preparing its youngest residents for their best start on their academic journeys. Originally funded by First 5 San Francisco, the first representative district-wide kindergarten readiness assessment was conducted in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) in 2009.

DEC provides funding and collaborates with the Child Care Planning and Advisory Council to produce a comprehensive needs assessment for early care and education every five years. San Francisco Early Care and Education Needs Assessment – Executive Summary Download Executive Summary San Francisco Early Care and Education Needs Assessment –

The creation of the Department of Early Childhood puts San Francisco at the national forefront of early childhood services, providing unprecedented resources and allowing us to be bold.  The 2023-2027 Strategic Plan helps us catalyze bold action by defining our vision and values, setting clear goals and strategies, and establishing

Per the legislative mandate of the Office of Racial Equity, in 2020 each City department was required to complete a Racial Equity Action Plan providing a blueprint for advancing racial equity in all aspects of the department’s work over the next three years. The two City agencies that merged to form

On June 5, 2018, San Francisco voters passed Proposition C (“Baby” Prop C), a Commercial Rent Tax for Childcare and Early Education, that authorizes an additional tax on the lease of commercial property for landlords with annual gross receipts over $1 million.  The Early Care and Education for All Initiative established a

The coronavirus public health crisis highlighted the challenges of decades of underinvestment in the early care and education (ECE) system, exposing deep inequities and making them worse. During the 2010 recession, early care and education programs took substantial hits in funding, decimating systems that prepare children to enter kindergarten and