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Early Childhood Care and Education

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Most Quality-Rated Sites Score Highest Possible Rating  

Research on school readiness and children’s brain development confirms the importance of high-quality early education and care programs for children’s future success in school and life. In addition, affordable child care is essential for working families to maintain economic self-sufficiency and contribute their skills to the labor market. Early care and education has been shown to be an efficient and effective investment for economic and workforce development, with an estimated return of $7 for every $1 invested.[1] This indicator measures child care availability by tracking the supply and demand of licensed child care spaces, the availability of subsidies for low-income families, and average annual child care costs. Also measured is participation in Quality Start San Bernardino (QSSB), which is San Bernardino County’s early care and education quality rating and improvement system. QSSB serves California State Preschool Programs (CSPP), family child care programs, private and public centers, alternative sites, and family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) care.  

TREND

Child Care Capacity

The pandemic severely impacted the number of licensed child care spaces in the county; however, in 2025, the county achieved a notable milestone, exceeding the pre-pandemic number of center-based spaces by 7%.  Family child care homes, referred to as home-based settings, saw a 13% increase between 2021 and 2023, the most recent year of available data.

NUMBER OF CENTER-BASED CHILD CARE SPACES CONTINUES TO INCREASE
Number of Licensed Child Care Spaces in San Bernardino County, 2019-2025

Note: Family child care home data for 2025 were not available at time of publication. 
Source: The California Child Care Portfolio, California Child Care Resource and Referral Network (www.rrnetwork.org/) for 2019-2023 data, and Community Care Licensing Facilities Data Portal https://data.ca.gov/dataset/community-care-licensing-facilities for 2025 data 

Quality Start San Bernardino

In 2024/25, there were 343 programs and 10,636 children served by Quality Start San Bernardino (QSSB). Of the 343 programs, 156 were CSPP sites eligible for a Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) rating, and 153 had received a rating. A rating of ‘Highest Quality’ is the best possible rating, which 104 sites, or 68% of rated sites, received. The remaining rated sites (49) received the next highest rating of ‘Quality Plus.’ Among the children served by QSSB, 76% were preschool-age, 14% were toddlers, and 5% were infants.

What is QSSB?

Quality Start San Bernardino (QSSB) works to increase the quality of local early learning programs for San Bernardino County’s youngest children through the development of a Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). Participating sites are rated every three or five years and receive support and incentives to gain and maintain the highest ratings through the system. As of 2021/22, QSSB only rates California State Preschool Program (CSPP) sites.

MORE THAN TWO-THIRDS OF CSPP SITES EARN HIGHEST QRIS RATING
CSPP Program Site Ratings in San Bernardino County, 2024/25

Source: Child Care Resource Center California Quality Start San Bernardino Data Request 
OVER 300 PROGRAMS AND 10,000 CHILDREN SERVED BY QSSB 
Number of Programs and Children Served by Quality Start San Bernardino (QSSB), 2024/25 
Number of Programs Served
Number of Children Served

Source: Child Care Resource Center California, Quality Start San Bernardino data request 

[1] National Institute for Early Childhood Education Research (http://nieer.org)

1National Institute for Early Childhood Education Research (http://nieer.org)