CalWORKs Child Care Consolidation

The Master Plan for Early Learning and Care (MPELC) established an action plan for California to create a simplified and aligned system of care for infants, toddlers, and other young children. The plan includes consolidating the California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) Child Care stages, and clarifying local and regional administration responsibilities. A consolidated, coherent system will promote continuity of care and bring children and their early learning and care professionals the support they need to thrive.

This spring, the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) will collect feedback on how to improve CalWORKs child care from focus groups of parents and child care providers. In the fall, the CDSS will convene a workgroup of county and child care and development agency administrators to further develop recommendations towards a consolidated CalWORKs Child Care system. The CDSS will consolidate the feedback from the parent and provider focus groups and the recommendations developed in the administrator workgroup into a final proposal for the consolidation of CalWORKs child care.

How Can I get Involved?

If you administer the CalWORKs child care program at the local level, we invite you to apply to join our workgroup. During workgroup meetings, we will ask workgroup members to develop recommendations towards a consolidated CalWORKs Child Care system. The CDSS will consolidate earlier feedback from the parent and provider focus groups and the recommendations developed in the administrator workgroup into a final proposal for the consolidation of CalWORKs child care.

The workgroup will meet monthly from September 2025 through February 2026 for two and half hours. All meetings will be virtual, with an optional in-person meeting at the conclusion of the series.

This application will be open until July 25, 2025. All applicants will be notified of the selection of workgroup members via email by August 18, 2025. If you have additional questions, please email us at CWconsolidation@dss.ca.gov.

Contact Information

If you have feedback or questions about this work, please contact CWconsolidation@dss.ca.gov.

CalWORKs Consolidation Workgroup Meetings and Materials