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• The city has a diverse mix of public and private early and school-age care providers in home-based and center-based settings.
• The city funds its child care subsidies using tiered reimbursement, which gives providers an incentive to improve quality.
• The city and school district work together to provide before- and after-school offerings on every elementary- and middle-school campus.
• Many parents are positive about their experiences with care programs; they value the services the city offers.
• Parents are often unaware of the full range of care options and can find the system of care subsidies challenging to navigate.
• There is strong support for greater economic diversity of families in child care programs, particularly those that receive public funding.
• Parents indicated that the lack of flexible payment options (e.g., pay only for days attended) limited participation in after-school programs for children with nonstandard schedules.
• Moreover, parents often feel constrained in their choices by a lack of transportation for their school-age children to off-campus program options.
• There is a perceived need to improve the quality of early and school-age care programs, but objective measures of program quality are not routinely collected.
• The mixed public-private delivery system can result in a lack of alignment between early learning programs and elementary schools and between the school day and out-of-school programming.
• Some sources of public funds for early and school-age care may be underutilized, including tax system child care subsidies.

The landscape of early learning and out-of-school-time programs in the City of Santa Monica is complex, with numerous providers and funding streams. This complexity reflects its evolution in response to changes in federal, state, and local priorities and initiatives. Future shifts in funding levels, program auspices, and other features are likely. In July 2012, the City of Santa Monica Human Services Division and the Santa Monica–Malibu Unified School District contracted with the RAND Corporation to conduct an assessment of child care programs in Santa Monica. The study was motivated in part by the perception of some stakeholders that the system of care had become fragmented and complex. Additional motivations were the uncertainty of resource streams stemming from recent and anticipated state and federal budget cuts and a desire to ensure youth well-being in the community. The project sought to assess how well Santa Monica's child care programs meet the needs of families, including child care and early education programs serving children from birth to kindergarten entry, as well as care for school-aged children (focusing on kindergarten through eighth grade) in the hours before and after school and in the summer. Overall, recommendations for improvement focused on advancing access, quality, service delivery, and financial sustainability.

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