Services Provided
CEL is a statewide Centralized Eligibility List that all counties in California must operate to provide a more efficient way to connect families to subsidized child care and preschool services through one application.

San Joaquin County CEL allows the programs below to utilize the CEL list in order to fill open vacancies for child care and preschool services:

General Child Care and Development
Are state and federally funded programs that use centers and family child care home networks operated or administered by either public or private agencies and local educational agencies. These agencies provide child development services for children from birth through 12 years of age and older children with exceptional needs. These programs may provide full day child care, before and after school care, evening and weekend care. These programs provide an educational component that is developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate for the children served.

Migrant Child Care and Development
Serve the children of agricultural workers while their parents are at work. The centers are open for varying lengths of time during the year, depending largely on the harvest activities in the area.

State Preschool
Are part-day (3 to 3 1/2 hours only) comprehensive developmental programs for three- to five-year-old children from low-income families. The programs emphasize parent education and encourage parent involvement. In addition to preschool education activities that are developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate for the children served, the state preschool programs provide meals or snacks to children, referrals to health and social services for families, and staff development opportunities to employees.

State Preschool Full-Day Program
The Budget Act of 1997 allowed state preschool program contractors the opportunity to extend their half-day programs to full-day programs with certain restrictions. Some current state preschool providers chose this wrap-around of their existing half-day programs to provide families with the extended services parents needed to maintain employment, meet work participation requirements, or to participate in education or job training. Agencies providing full-day services continue to operate in a half-day mode as a state preschool program but must follow general child care rules and regulations for the remainder of the program day.

Prekindergarten and Family Literacy
These programs, operating between 175 and 180 days, and designed to facilitate a child's transition to kindergarten, provide part-day age and developmentally appropriate activities the year before they are eligible to be enrolled in kindergarten. The programs provide a literacy component and encourage parents to work on interactive literacy activities both in the classroom and at home with their children. The programs also include a parenting education and staff development component. Families must meet income eligibility criteria, however, after all income eligible children are served, 20% of children may be from families whose income exceeds the income eligibility limits.

School Age Community Child Care Services (Latchkey)
School-age community child care programs provide a safe environment with age- and developmentally appropriate activities for school-age children during the hours immediately before and after the normal school day and during school vacations.

Alternative Payment Program
Alternative payment programs (APPs), funded with state and federal funds, offer an array of child care arrangements for parents, such as in-home care, family child care, and center-based care. The APP helps families arrange child care services and makes payment for those services directly to the child care provider selected by the family. The APP is intended to increase parental choice and accommodate the individual needs of the family.

CalWORKs Child Care
Stage 2 is administered by CDE through its APPs. CalWORKs families are transferred into Stage 2 when the CWD deems the family to be stable. Participation in Stage 1 and/or Stage 2 is limited to two years after the family stops receiving a CalWORKs grant. In addition to the services that CDE provides, small portions of the services in Stage 2 are administered by the California community colleges through its centers or an AP delivery system for the benefit of students.

Stage 3 is also administered by CDE through its APPs. A family can move to this stage when it has exhausted its two-year limit in Stage 1 and/or Stage 2 (referred to as timing out), and for as long as the family remains otherwise eligible for child care programs.

Resource and Referral
Resource and referral programs provide information to all parents and the community about the availability of child care in their area. The programs assist potential providers in the licensing process; provide direct services, including training; and they coordinate community resources for the benefit of parents and local child care providers.

Head Start Child Development Council, Inc. (HSCDC)
HSCDC is headquartered in Stockton, California, and operates approximately 65 child care centers throughout the county, both alone and in partnership with other community organizations.

HSCDC employs over 600 persons in its State Child Development, Child Care Food, Part day, Full day, Home Base, Early Head Start (infants and toddlers) and Migrant Head Start programs. HSCDC has a funded enrollment more than 3,000 children across all programs.