City of San Francisco Early Learning For All System

September 04, 2024

San Francisco’s Early Learning Scholarship (ELS) rolled out on July 1, 2017 and expanded into Early Learning For All on July 1, 2024. The Department of Early Childhood is funding Children’s Council and Wu Yee Children’s Services to provide an array of support services to families and child care providers in our community.

For more information on services being offered by the Department of Early Childhood visit their website or email sfdec@sfgov.org

For more information on services being offered by Wu Yee Children’s Services visit their website or call 415.677.0100.

More About the Early Learning For All System

The Early Learning For All system:

Targets children most at risk of not being ready for kindergarten, while stretching local dollars to serve more children by better leveraging state and federal funding.

Increases access to high-quality care; all participating child care providers engage in continuous quality improvement and are paid at higher rates than the prior system.

Children’s Council in collaboration with Wu Yee Children’s Services strives to improve the way families access subsidized child care, and work towards increasing child care providers’ quality.

What Parents Need to Know:

The Early Learning For All system consolidates a patchwork of early care and education subsidy programs into Early Learning For All funding.

Eligibility depends on family size, income, child’s age (ages 0-5), and San Francisco residency. Visit Department of Early Childhood’s website for information about Early Learning For All income eligibility thresholds.

Eligible families have a choice ofover 500 child care providers across the city, all of which are participating in quality improvement efforts.

Families apply for Early Learning For All through the Early Learning For All Application Portal.

Families experience more seamless services:

Once a child has an Early Learning For All subsidy, the city will continue to provide child care funding until the child ages out at the age of 5.

Children’s Council case workers will guide parents through the child care search process, follow them on their child care journey, and connect them to the community services they need.

What Providers Need to Know:

The process for interested providers to become Early Learning For All-qualified can be found on Department of Early Childhood’s website. The Department of Early Childhood manages the application and approval process for Early Learning For All providers.