Community Resources

Children’s Council offers many resources for a variety of family and community needs. To learn more about community resources, support and helpful services, visit our Online Help Center.

To learn more about your rights as a parent with a child in a child care setting, visit our Online Help Center.

For resources specific to for immigrant families and families with mixed-citizen status, refer to our immigrant families resources page.

Child Care and Education

Community Care Licensing: Community Care Licensing is the state agency responsible for licensing and monitoring family child care homes and child care centers to ensure that they provide safe and healthy environments for children.

TrustLine: TrustLine is California’s registry of in-home child care providers who have passed a background screening. All caregivers listed with TrustLine have been cleared through a fingerprint check of records at the California Department of Justice. This means they have no disqualifying criminal convictions or substantiated child abuse reports in California. Licensed providers in the state of California have to go through an in-depth background check; families are able to TrustLine their nanny or other caregiver. To learn more, this article discusses Nanny Checks: Why TrustLine is the Gold Standard for California.

California Child Care Resource and Referral Network: The statewide membership organization of California’s child care resource and referrals. Provides information and resources for California families seeking child care, profiles the supply and demand of child care in each California county and offers opportunities for parents interested in advocating for affordable child care.

Child Care Aware of America: Child Care Aware is a national membership organization of all child care resource and referrals in the country. Child Care Aware of America works to advocate for child care policies that positively impact the lives of children and families.  This site assists parents in identifying high-quality child care and provides other information and supportive resources for families, such as tips for parents topics including choosing child care, evaluating a provider, licensing, types of care, and other resources.

San Francisco Unified School District School Finder: The SFUSD School Finder can help you create the best list of schools for your family. SFUSD encompasses 13 early education schools, 72 elementary schools (including eight K-8 schools), 13 middle schools, and 14 high schools. While every school uses the same high academic standards to teach students, each school has unique programs and services that may fit your child’s specific interests and your family’s needs. 

A Parents Guide to Introducing Children to Libraries: There is more to your library than just books! The library is a living encyclopedia of useful information and materials from both the past and present. Libraries offer services and programs for parents and children based on their own experiences and what they know about early literacy. The library is a space that enables parents and children to share books and resources while benefiting from the help of the librarians and library staff.

Government Agencies

California Department of Education: This site offers resources and information for child development contractors, families, and community members regarding child development programs funded by the state.

First 5 California: Seeks to improve the lives of California’s young children and their families through a comprehensive system of education, health services, childcare and other crucial programs.  This site provides information and resources related to children from birth to age 5, visit the local First 5 San Francisco www.first5sf.org to learn about local services.

First 5 San Francisco: Receives local and state funds that it invests back into the community through more than 200 community grant programs dedicated to the well-being of children and families. Their initiatives increase access to and raise the quality of valuable services in our focus areas: family support, child development, and child health. First 5 San Francisco operates primarily as a grant-making organization, distributing allocated funds to support services and activities for children, caregivers, teachers and other providers identified through strategic planning. Initiatives often include technical assistance and other supports to enhance the quality of their services.

Head Start: A national program that promotes school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services to enrolled children and families.

San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families: This site includes information on San Francisco child care, health, educational, social, and recreational programs for children and families, as well as advocacy activities, volunteer opportunities and special events.

The San Francisco Office of Early Care and Education: Leverages federal and state funding, aligns local resources, supports the early care and education workforce and increases capacity to build a high quality, affordable, data driven and streamlined early care and education system for children 0-5 and their families.

San Francisco Human Services Agency: The Human Services Agency provides qualifying San Franciscans with food assistance, financial assistance, child welfare services, health care assistance, housing assistance, employment and job training and other services.

San Francisco Department of Child Support Services: The San Francisco Department of Child Support Services works with parents and legally acknowledged guardians to ensure children and families receive court-ordered financial and medical support. Services offered by the Department include establishing paternity (fatherhood), locating absent parents, requesting child support orders from the court, requesting medical support orders from the court, enforcing child support orders, modifying child support orders, and enforcing spousal support orders in conjunction with child support.

Employment and Job Training

JVS: Jewish Vocational Services is a San Francisco-based organization offering free employment search assistance, training, job placement and other resources for jobseekers.

Affordable Colleges Online: A guide to attending and paying for college as a student-parent.

General Assistance for Families

211 Bay Area: 211 in San Francisco County can help you find food, housing, health care, senior services, legal aid and much more.

Covered California: The Covered California™ mission is to increase the number of Californians with health insurance, improve the quality of health care for all of us, reduce health care coverage costs and make sure California’s diverse population has fair and equal access to quality health care. You will have the ability to choose the health plan that offers the best services at the greatest value for you & insurance that can’t be dropped or denied if you have a pre-existing medical condition.

Earned Income Tax Credit: The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a refundable federal income tax credit for low- to moderate-income working individuals and families.  This site features a calculator allowing families to determine if they qualify for the credit.

Our Family Coalition: LGBT family and parenting support for the San Francisco Bay Area.

Support for Families for Children with Disabilities: Support for Families of Children with Disabilities has offered information, education, and parent-to-parent support for free of charge to families of children with special needs or special health care need in San Francisco.

Health and Wellness

Ataxic Cerebral Palsy Source: Support and information for families facing a diagnosis of Ataxic Cerebral Palsy.

Birth Injury Guide: Educates families on many different types of birth injuries, what the symptoms are, how birth injuries are caused, how they can be diagnosed, what the available treatment is, what the prognosis is, and what assistance programs are available.

ConsumerSafety.org: strives to make information about recalls and safety-related news about drugs, medical devices, food and consumer products accessible to everyone in a transparent, easily understandable way.

Healthy Children: Sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics, this site offers a comprehensive guide to children’s development, health and mental health.

KidsHealth: Provides information for parents on child health, nutrition, safety and development.

San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium: SFCCC sponsors a network of health clinics throughout San Francisco that offer health, mental health, pediatric, prenatal and dental services.  Services are often free or low-cost.

Legal

Child Care Law Center: Provides information on child care legal issues. Their website contains a vast number of informative publications for families and child care providers.

Law Help California: Law Help California, from the Public Interest Clearinghouse, is a statewide, searchable database of resource and referral information on legal topics, such as housing, public benefits, health, work, immigration, civil rights, family and kids, protection from abuse and Native American issues.

Legal Aid Society – Employment Law Center: Legal services for low-income workers throughout the Bay Area. Numerous fact sheets on the rights of California workers.

Immigration and Citizenship: Children’s Council has created a list of various resources for immigrant families.

Parent Groups

Parent Voices: Children’s Council sponsors the local chapter of Parent Voices, a parent-led grassroots organization working to make quality child care affordable and accessible to all families. Parent Voices members lead child care awareness campaigns through media appearances and interviews, testimony at budget hearings, meeting with legislators, and by organizing local and state rallies. For more information, contact Maria Luz Torre at 415.343.3383 or parentvoices@childrenscouncil.org.

Golden Gate Mothers Group: Founded in 1996, this volunteer organization is run for moms, by moms.  GGMG hosts play groups for families, parenting workshops, assistance for new moms and social events for parents.

Parents for Public Schools: Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco (PPS-SF) promotes the fundamental value of public education and supports the success of every public school by sharing knowledge, bridging communities and informing policy. They offer kindergarten enrollment workshops in multiple languages to help families navigate the complicated SFUSD enrollment process.

San Francisco Parents of Multiples: This volunteer-based non-profit organization was formed to offer support to parents and expectant parents of multiples. SFPOM’s goal is to provide its members and their families with friendship, support and information on parenting multiples.