Like most of the country, the city of Thousand Oaks and the county of Ventura are experiencing a childcare crisis when it comes to their infants and toddlers. It is not uncommon for families of infants and toddlers to be on multiple waiting lists for programs and to settle for programs that are of lower quality than they desire simply because there are not enough spaces to match the demand.

Factors that contribute to limited availability for infant and toddler care are the unique demands that programs face in accommodating this age group. The ratio must be lower. Legally, it is one caregiver per four infants (“infants” are defined by the state as anyone under the age of two). For high-quality care, it is two or three infants per one caregiver. There are also restrictions on how many infants or toddlers total can be in one space, regardless of the number of adults. For in-home childcare, the limit is four infants. Caregivers must have additional training and education to accommodate the age group. There are also special rules and restrictions for safety issues, including the draft version of the State’s “Safe Sleep” regulations, which require strict monitoring of sleeping infants. Meeting these requirements has prompted many in-home providers to decide to no longer accommodate infants in their programs as they cannot afford the additional risk.

Historically, the City of Thousand Oaks listened to the demand from residents and strove to provide high-quality early care and education in partnership with CVUSD. However, due to the increased cost in light of the above considerations, the District closed their infant and toddler program and now offers only preschool for ages 2-5.

Governor Newsom has heard the demand for high-quality care and education in the State and has begun signing into law several bills to support early educators and to help meet the needs of families. One such bill is SB 234, which requires cities to make it easier for in-home childcare providers to expand their programs from “small” to “large.” Small family childcare programs, as per California law, can accommodate three infants (children under the age of two). Large family childcare programs can accommodate four. Small family childcare programs can accommodate a total of six young children, while large can accommodate a total of twelve. (They can accommodate eight and fourteen respectively when they have fewer infants and more school-age children enrolled.)

Expanding to large license requires childcare providers to meet additional requirements put in place by Community Care Licensing for safety, including a fire safety inspection. Before the passage of SB 234, cities could put additional requirements in place. In the City of Thousand Oaks, for example, family childcare providers are required to apply for a Special Use Permit and pay a non-refundable fee of $1234.00 and submit a Notice of Application to all residents within five hundred feet of the residential home. The burden that this places on small businesses run by families for families has meant that few programs within Thousand Oaks have recently expanded. In fact, Thousand Oaks has seen the closure of several childcare programs over the past two years, further limiting the already limited options for families of young children.

According to the Local Planning Council (LPC) of Ventura County’s Child Care Needs Assessment of 2015, Thousand Oaks was then home to a total of 50 childcare centers and 36 family childcare homes. Of the center-based programs, five were said to offer care to infants in 2015. Thirty-four of the family childcare homes offered infant care at that time. (LPC’s Needs Assessment is repeated every five years, so the data will be updated in 2020.) One of the key trends that LPC reported in 2015 was that Ventura County lost 1,712 total childcare spaces between 2010 and 2015.

SB 234 has passed and will become law in January of 2020, but many cities have already begun to allow for the expansion of family childcare programs in response to the childcare crisis. Stephen Kearns, the Planning Division Manager in the Thousand Oaks Community Development Department, has said that Thousand Oaks will not allow for such exemptions until SB 234 is put into effect. Stonewalling the efforts of small family childcare programs hoping to expand has a butterfly effect on the overall well-being of the community.

While SB 234 goes into effect on January 1, 2020, small family childcare programs cannot simply go from “small” to “large” at that time. They must apply for the necessary inspections and then wait for the government agencies to follow through. There are programs within Thousand Oaks that have already been waiting months or years for their inspections to be scheduled.

For the small business owners who have set in motion the expansion process, this stonewalling could mean it will be another year or more before they can obtain a large license. For parents of infants and toddlers who require childcare, this further perpetuates the childcare crisis. The City of Thousand Oaks could choose to be forward-thinking in their approach and grant small family childcare owners the exemptions required to move forward in advance of the January law so that families would know they are guaranteed quality care in 2020.