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Supervisors Hear Broad Support for Independent Office of Early Childhood Education; Item Continued for Mayor—udget Coordination
Summary
Supervisors held a lengthy hearing on creating an independent Office of Early Childhood Education, with department staff and dozens of community providers urging consolidation to reduce administrative burdens and protect services amid state cuts. The committee continued the item to the call of the chair to allow a mayor's office progress report and department coordination before the budget.
Supervisors on the Budget & Finance Subcommittee heard strong, repeated support for creating an independent Office of Early Childhood Education during a public hearing called by Supervisor John Avalos on May 8.
Avalos, the items sponsor, described a multi-year visioning process with providers, school-district officials and city departments and said the goal is to unify fragmented early-care and education functions to raise quality and reduce duplication. "We're looking at how we might create this office," Avalos said, calling for an office that "would be independent" while drawing on expertise from DCYF, the Human Services Agency and First 5.
Hydra Mendoza, the mayors education and family services adviser, told supervisors the mayor's office is coordinating department heads this month, expects to include the new office in the mayors budget proposal in June and hopes to post a job description for an executive director in late June. "Our hope is to hire a new director and to launch a new office between, sometime after October," Mendoza said.
Speakers from First 5, the Child Care Planning and Advisory Council (CPAC), the San Francisco Child Care Providers Association, the San Francisco Unified School District and numerous community organizations described the proposal as urgent amid looming state funding cuts and long waiting lists for subsidized childcare. Norman Yee, president of the Board of Education, backed the plan and said he supported housing the office at the Human Services Agency (HSA) to leverage existing infrastructure.
Advocates and providers emphasized that consolidating oversight and reporting would reduce administrative burden for providers and improve service delivery. "The office of ECE will include all of these aspects of early care and education because it will be an office of early care and education," Amanda Montague of the San Francisco Child Care Providers Association said.
Supervisors pressed for clarity about where the office would "live" administratively. Avalos and others said they favored deciding the offices functions and vision first, then determining the best administrative home. Supervisor Carmen Chu said the mayors office is best placed to coordinate department inputs and directed staff to return with a progress report.
Action: Committee members moved to continue the item to the call of the chair (to allow coordination with the mayor's budget submission and a progress report from the mayors office). The hearing was continued without objection.
What happens next: Departments will continue interagency work and the mayor's office will aim to include the proposed office in its June budget planning; the committee expects a progress report before final budget decisions.
