Mono County CARES Program

Contact:
Cathy Young, CARES Coordinator
PO Box 130
365 Sierra Park Road, Suite 102
Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546
PH: 760-924-7626
FAX: 760-934-8443

The acronym CARES stands for "Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards." It's a program which awards stipends of up to $2,500 to family child care and center-based providers to encourage them to stay in the field, and therefore, provide consistent, quality child care. Stipends are awarded according to the level of education/training each provider has received.

CARES History

Crisis in Child Care
In 1997 the child care staffing crisis was at an all-time high. Throughout California, child care centers and family child care homes contended with a chronic lack of consistent, qualified staff. As a result, many centers and family child care homes were struggling to stay open. In response, the Center for the Child Care Workforce (CCW), with input from a broad-based coalition of child care organizations and service providers, took the lead in developing a new model for promoting quality and retention among child care workers.

The result was the California CARES (Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards) Initiative, which proposed State funding for a pilot program to be launched in several counties.

Funding CARES with Prop 10 Dollars

While efforts to pass AB212 were taking place in the legislature, California voters passed a ballot initiative in 1998 called proposition 10, "California Children and Families First." Proposition 10 assesses a 50-cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes. Funds made available through "Prop 10" must be spent on programs that focus on children ages zero to five, and must fall into at least one of three general categories: child care and development, parent education and support, and child health. Funds are awarded and distributed through specially designated Children and Families Commissions (also known as "Prop 10 Commissions") in each county. Child care advocates in a number of counties saw this as an opportunity to fund CARES in the non-subsidized sector. Forty-four of California's 58 counties have been successful in securing funds from their local commissions for county-based CARES-type programs. In addition, the State Children and Families Commission (also known as the "State Prop 10 Commission" and the "First 5 California Commission"), which retains 20 percent of the funds generated through the tobacco tax, agreed to provide matching grants to counties that fund their own child care workforce compensation and retention programs.

Mono County’s Program

Research has explicitly drawn the link between the quality of children's experience in child care and the compensation, stability and training of their teachers. Improved services for young children require better compensation and lower turnover in the child care workforce, which typically earns poverty-level wages.

Funding for the CARES 2007-2008 program is sponsored by FIRST 5 Mono County, First 5 California (Prop 10), in collaboration with the Mono County Office of Education.

• CARES is open to home-based, licensed and exempt family child care providers, family child care assistants, and center-based staff in public and private child care programs.
• Stipends reward individuals both for attained education and for continuing education and professional growth.
• Stipend increments are based on the Child Development Permit Matrix, the statewide professional development system for teaching and administrative staff.
• Stipends reward individuals who have been at their current job for a minimum of nine months during the program year.
• Stipends for those with higher levels of education seek to bridge the gap between child care and elementary school salaries.

Eligibility

• Work as an early childhood educator in a licensed or license-exempt center or family child care home.
• Work with children ages birth to five years old or a state-funded after school program.
• Work with or directly supervise someone who works with a majority of children at least 15 hours per week.
• Work in the same child care program in Mono County for at least nine months within the year ending June 30, 2008.

This Project also assists with:

• Obtaining a Child Care License.
• Professional Growth Planning.
• Obtaining a Child Development Permit.
• Environmental Rating Scale assessment tools.
• Quality Improvement Plan

Program Forms
All files are .pdf documents unless noted.

• FCCERS-R Rating Sheet
• ITERS-R Rating Sheet
• ECERS-R Rating Sheet
• SACERS Rating Sheet
• Mono County CARES Application (English, .doc)
• Mono County CARES Application (Spanish, .doc)
• Mono County Family, Friends and Neighbor Application (English, .doc)
• Mono County Family, Friends and Neighbor Application (Spanish, .doc)
• CARES Stipend Levels (English,.xls)
• CARES Stipend Levels (Spanish, .xls)
• CARES Consent Form (English, .doc)
• CARES Consent Form (Spanish, .doc)
• Research Subjects' Bill of Rights (English)
• Research Subjects' Bill of Rights (Spanish)
• W-9 Form