County Resources | California Making Access Possible (MAP)

San Diego County

San Diego County, officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of California, north to its border with Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634; it is the second-most populous county in California and the fifth-most populous in the United States. Its county seat is San Diego.

Regional Centers are nonprofit private corporations that contract with the Department of Developmental Services to provide or coordinate services and supports for individuals with developmental disabilities. They have offices throughout California to provide a local resource to help find and access the many services available to individuals and their families. For more information, please see the California Department of Developmental Services page on Regional Centers.

San Diego Regional Center

Executive Director: Mark Klaus
Phone: 858-576-2996
TTY: N/A
Fax: 858-576-2873
Early Start Intake: 858-496-4318
Address: 4355 Ruffin Road, Suite 200 San Diego, CA 92123-1648

Counties Served: Imperial and San Diego counties

Implementation of Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act mandates states to implement a comprehensive early intervention service system for all infants and toddlers with disabilities or at risk, and their families. Family support services are included in these systems.

In California, Early Start Family Resource Centers are part of the Early Start Program. Staffed by families of children with special needs, family resource centers offer parent-to-parent support and help parents, families, and children locate and use needed services. They offer support services and resources in many languages, which may include newsletters, resource libraries, websites, parent-to-parent groups, sibling support groups, warmlines, and information and referral for parents and professionals.

Exceptional Family Resource Center

6367 Alvarado Court, Suite 350
San Diego, CA 92120
(619) 594-7416

In 1977, all school districts and county school offices were mandated to form consortiums in geographical regions of sufficient size and scope to provide for all special education service needs of children residing within the region boundaries. Each region, Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA), developed a local plan describing how it would provide special education services.

SELPAs are dedicated to the belief that all students can learn and that special needs students must be guaranteed equal opportunity to become contributing members of society. SELPAs facilitate high quality educational programs and services for special needs students and training for parents and educators. The SELPA collaborates with county agencies and school districts to develop and maintain healthy and enriching environments in which special needs students and families can live and succeed.

East County SELPA

924 East Main Street
El Cajon, CA 92021

619-590-3920 (direct)

North Coastal Consortium SELPA

255 Pico Avenue, Suite 101/Room 22
San Marcos, CA 92069

760-307-1486

North Inland SELPA

1710 Montecito Road
Ramona, CA 92065

760-788-4671

Poway Unified SELPA

15250 Avenue of Science
San Diego, CA 92128

858-521-2822

San Diego Unified SELPA

4100 Normal Street, Annex 6a
San Diego, CA 92103

619-725-7389 (direct)
619-725-7700 (main office)

South County SELPA

800 National City Boulevard, Suite 202
National City, CA 91950

619-470-5224

Child Care Resource and Referral (R&R) agencies are located in every county in California. Over the last four decades, R&R services have evolved from a grassroots effort to help parents find child care, to a well-developed system that supports parents, providers, and local communities in finding, planning for, and providing affordable, quality child care. The state, through the California Department of Education, Early Education & Support Division, has supported these efforts since 1976.

YMCA Childcare Resource Service

4451 30th Street
San Diego, CA 92116
(800) 481-2151
Mon. – Fri., 8am – 5pm
Services in Arabic, English, Spanish, Other

The primary mission of the Local Child Care and Development Planning Councils (LPCs) is to plan for child care and development services based on the needs of families in the local community. LPCs are intended to serve as a forum to address the child care needs of all families in the community for all types of child care, both subsidized and non-subsidized. There are currently LPCs representing each county in California. (See Education Code, Chapter 2.3, Article 1, Section 8499 and Article 2, Sections 8499.3, 8499.5 and 8499.7.)

San Diego County Office of Education

Dezerie Martinez
6401 Linda Vista Road, Room 315
San Diego, CA 92111
Phone: 858-298-2050
Email: dezerie.martinez@sdcoe.net

The County First 5 Commissions work to improve the lives of the county’s youngest children and their families through an effective, coordinated, and inclusive implementation of the California Children and Families Act also known as Proposition 10, which was enacted in 1998. The ultimate goal is to enhance the health and early growth experiences of children, enabling them to be more successful in school and to give them a better opportunity to succeed in life.

First 5 San Diego

9655 Granite Ridge Dr. #120
San Diego, CA 92123
1-888-5 FIRST 5 or 1-888-534-7785

Early Head Start is a federally funded community-based program for low-income families with pregnant women, infants, and toddlers up to age 3. It is a program that came out of the Head Start Program. In addition to providing or linking families with needed services—medical, mental health, nutrition, and education—Early Head Start can provide a place for children to experience consistent, nurturing relationships and stable, ongoing routines.

Early Head Start Programs offer three different options and programs may offer one or more to families. The three options are: a home-based option, a center-based option, or a combination option in which families get a set number of home visits and a set number of center-based experiences, There are also locally designed options, which in some communities include family child care.

Espiscopal Community Services

410 Mile of Cars Way, Suite 350
San Diego, CA 91950
619-228-2800

Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee (MAAC)

800 West Los Vallecitos Boulevard, Suite J
San Marcos, CA 92069
760-471-4210

Neighborhood House Association of San Diego County

5660 Copley Drive
San Diego, CA 92111
858-715-2642

The Family Empowerment Centers (FECs) serve families of children with disabilities from age three to twenty-two. They were established in Chapter 690 of the Statutes of 2001 (Senate Bill 511, Alpert), enacted as Education Code (EC) 56400-5641. The intent of the Legislature is to ensure that parents, guardians, and families of children and young adults with disabilities have access to accurate information, specialized training, and peer-to-peer support.

Many of the parent organizations that receive FEC grants also receive federal, state, or local funding from other affiliations such as Parent Training and Information Center, Family Resource Center, and varied direct Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) or Local Educational Agency (LEA) grants and contracts.

Exceptional Family Resource Center

Phone: 619-594-7416
Serves: Imperial, San Diego Counties

The State Council on Developmental Disabilities is established by state and federal law as an independent state agency to ensure that people with developmental disabilities and their families receive the services and supports they need.

Consumers know best what supports and services they need to live independently and to actively participate in their communities. Through advocacy, capacity building and systemic change, SCDD works to achieve a consumer and family-based system of individualized services, supports, and other assistance. Regional offices serve communities throughout California.

San Diego Imperial Regional Office

8880 Rio San Diego Drive, Suite 1015
San Diego, CA 92108-1634
(619) 688-3323
sandiego@scdd.ca.gov
Serves: Imperial, San Diego Counties

School districts, preschool programs and county collaboratives that are implementing the CA Teaching Pyramid approach system wide are listed here with a brief description. The implementation sites listed have a leadership team that meets regularly, staff trained on all modules of the CA Teaching Pyramid, and have received coaching. For more information, contact teachingpyramid@wested.org.

Child Development Center at Mira Costa College

The Child Development Center at Mira Costa College serves as a campus-based child development program providing both academic instruction to students enrolled in child development/early childhood education courses and childcare services to student, staff, and community families. The center houses 5 classroom serving 100 children ages 18-months to 5-years old. They are also a fully inclusive program and partner with HOPE Infant Family Support Program and local school districts and service providers.

They began implementing the CA Teaching Pyramid Framework in 2019 and became a Partner Site in 2023. “As a college lab school, we train assistant teachers (Apprentices) as well as student teacher/interns which means we have a lot of change within our teaching teams. This helps to remind us how important the foundational levels of the pyramid are. It feels like we are always learning something new alongside our support staff.”

Grossmont College Child Development Center

Grossmont College Child Development Center is part of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, and is located in San Diego County. The college serves children from infancy through preschool-age and has been a demonstration program with WestED Program for Infant Toddler Care since 1999.

The Child Development Center is a fully inclusive center serving all age eligible children within the community. In addition to creating a model Child Development program that mirrors the teaching of the community college Child Development and Family Studies classes, the center has three purposes:

Provide for the care and education of young children while their parents attend school or are employed by Grossmont College.
Serve as an observation and participation lab for Grossmont College students.
Provide a model childcare center for the community.

The Center is a model training site for the California Department of Education Program for Infant Toddler Caregivers and an Early Head Start Partner.

The facility opened on January 30, 1989, and in the Spring of 2000 became a demonstration site for PITC, and functions as a model site for high-quality infant and toddler childcare. PITC and the Teaching Pyramid Framework go hand-in-hand in delivering a relationship-based focused curriculum for all children and families who attend the center.

Lemon Grove School District

The Lemon Grove School District has preschools at 6 of their 7 elementary schools. All preschool programs are part-day programs with sessions from 8 to 11 and 12 to 3. The school district has 6 Quality Preschool Initiative (QPI) classrooms, 7 state preschool classrooms, and 2 special-day classrooms. They are a small but mighty family-oriented community. The preschool’s mission is to work collaboratively with the families and community to build a community of learners by providing children with enriching experiences to develop self-confidence, independence, and strong social and cognitive skills.

Lemon Grove has been a Partner Site since the 2013-14 program year. They have dedicated some of their staff development times to reviewing the Inventory of Practice and assessing where they are in implementation and what areas they would like to focus on more. The teaching team in the Partner Site classroom excels with their teaming and works together like a “well-oiled machine.” They have focused on building strong relationships with each other and the children and families, which is evidenced by the level of comfort the children have in the program. They use Positive Descriptive Acknowledgement (PDA) throughout their day to teach social skills and naturally link their PDA’s to the Program-wide Expectations.

San Diego County Child Development Associates (CDA)

The Child Development Associates (CDA) mission is to encourage and support the success and well-being of children, families, and the childcare community. CDA was founded in 1974 when it opened one small subsidized childcare center. Today, CDA operates three state-subsidized full-day preschool centers in the southern area of San Diego County and an Alternative Payment Program throughout San Diego County.

Opening in July of 2013, CDA Hilltop is their newest center, including 4 classrooms providing care for up to 104 children. This center is currently working on becoming a certified outdoor classroom site. Also, through collaboration with the Chula Vista School District, this center has successfully become an inclusive center supporting all children, including those with disabilities and other special needs.

Their commitment to their mission is evidenced by their vision for including all children in all environments, promoting family engagement, and their continued implementation of the Teaching Pyramid framework. CDA has witnessed the powerful effects of the Teaching Pyramid framework, and therefore are committed to sustaining their efforts. Teachers at CDA are becoming expert in supporting children in social and emotional competence by engaging them in rich critical thinking conversations, and by helping the children work through various social situations that may arise throughout their day. They became a partner site in the 2013-14 program year, and have continued to focus on implementation by incorporating the Teaching Pyramid into their program practices at various levels.