The Santa Barbara County Child Care Facilities Master Plan (2025–2030) is a comprehensive, strategic guide developed by Children’s Resource & Referral of Santa Barbara County (CRR), in partnership with the Santa Barbara Foundation, the Child Care Planning Council, and other stakeholders. It aims to address the severe shortage of high-quality, licensed child care facilities, especially for infants and toddlers, throughout the county.

Executive Summary Highlights

• Urgent Need: Only 1 in 10 infants and toddlers in the county has access to licensed child care. The gap is widest in low-income and rural communities.
• Goal: Create 3,000 new licensed child care spaces by June 2030.
• Past Success: Between 2020 and 2025, over 2,000 new child care spaces were created thanks to collaborative efforts.
• Call to Action: Urges alignment among government agencies, planners, funders, developers, and child care providers.

Key Findings

• Barriers: Include land use restrictions, permitting challenges, infrastructure costs, and lack of funding.
• Opportunities: Over 130 providers expressed readiness to expand if given the right support.
• Equity Concerns: Child care access remains highly unequal, with the greatest barriers facing families in North County, where child poverty is highest.

Five Strategic Pillars

1. Build Infrastructure: Form a staffed coalition, centralize guidance, and provide technical assistance.
2. Ease Land Use and Permitting: Streamline regulatory processes and zoning updates.
3. Identify and Develop Locations: Use data to target high-need areas and co-locate with housing developments.
4. Create Sustainable Funding Models: Leverage public-private investments, tax credits, grants, and shared services.
5. Design for Quality and Workforce Support: Emphasize developmentally appropriate, staff-friendly, and financially sustainable facility design.

Implementation Plan

The Master Plan outlines a phased 5-year action roadmap, including:

• Coalition-building and staffing
• Technical assistance rollouts
• Site expansion and renovation
• Alignment with local housing development and general plans

Success Stories and Case Studies

• The document includes real-life examples of child care centers and FCC expansion across the county, including facilities in Lompoc, Goleta, and Santa Barbara, highlighting creative problem-solving and partnerships.

Toolkit

An accompanying Toolkit provides templates, assessment tools, funding strategies, land use glossaries, facility planning guides, and more, to aid jurisdictions and providers in executing the plan.

Overall Message

This Master Plan is not a theoretical framework; it is a practical, data-driven roadmap backed by stakeholder insight and policy momentum. Its vision is clear: a coordinated, well-supported, and equity-focused expansion of early childhood infrastructure across Santa Barbara County.