The Child Care Coordination Office provides a variety of services to support children and families in the City of Irvine.
Finding Child Care
Choosing child care is one of the most important decisions a parent can make. Finding the care most suitable for your child will take time, but learning about the types of child care available and how to determine quality in a child care program will help your search to be successful.
Financial Assistance
Several programs within Orange County may be able to provide financial assistance with your child care needs.
Child Resource Center (CRC)
The CRC offers resources and materials to support your child’s early learning and development.
Children with Special Needs & Child Care
Children come with many types of health and developmental needs. All early care and education centers are expected to make every effort to accommodate children with special needs. There are many resources available to support families in finding quality care and education programs, to support teachers and caregivers including a child with special needs, and to link children who have or may have a disability with intervention services.
Your Child's Development
Height and weight are often used to measure a child's growth. A child's development can be measured by how a child learns, speaks, moves, behaves and relates. Skills such as smiling, waving, talking and walking are developmental milestones. Progress on these milestones can be found with regular developmental screening through childhood. A screening tool is often a questionnaire, such as the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ), that is completed by a parent or caregiver. A professional works with the family in reviewing the results. All children birth through age 5 should be screened regularly prior to school entry. Learn more about developmental screening from Help Me Grow Orange County.
Developmental screening is available at the IUSD Early Childhood Learning Center.
Pretend City Children's Museum and Help Me Grow offer FREE ASQ Online for Orange County families. Also, in person developmental screening is conducted monthly through the Family Support Network, click here to view the schedule of upcoming screening events.
Parenting Resources
The Child Care Coordination Office has compiled a list of resources to support you on your parenting journey from birth through the elementary years. Whether you’re wondering how to support your child’s learning, address a specific challenge, or just figuring out your child-raising approach, time invested in developing your parenting skills will help you achieve all of the above.
Getting Your Child Ready for School
Curious about school readiness and making sure your child is on track? Check out the resources below to learn what skills your child needs to be successful in school and beyond and how to support your child's development of these skills.
Early Development Index – The EDI is a population-based measure of a child’s development in five key developmental areas: physical health, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development and communications skills and general knowledge. Orange County is currently the only county in the nation to gather these data from every public school and school district that has a kindergarten population. To learn more about the EDI, why it’s important and the individual domains please click here.
To view the most recent Irvine Unified School District EDI data please, click here. This data identifies strengths and vulnerabilities of children throughout Irvine.
Getting Your Child Ready for School: A Parent’s Toolkit created by First 5 OC (formerly the Children & Families Commission of Orange County) based on the EDI provides tips and information for each of the five EDI areas of development.
Irvine Unified School District’s Parent Education and Family Resources On Demand presentations, in-person/virtual presentation schedule, tip sheets and links to a variety of other community resources.
Health Insurance Enrollment Assistance
The Irvine Children's Health Program is a partnership between the City of Irvine and the Coalition of Orange County Community Health Centers. Certified Enrollment Counselors from the Coalition help families and individuals enroll in health insurance programs. Assistance is available at no cost.