County Resources | California Making Access Possible (MAP)

Santa Clara County

Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259 as of the 2020 census. The county seat and largest city with a population of 971,233 is San Jose, the 13th-most populous city in the nation, California’s third-most populous city.

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 Andreas Regional Center

Executive Director: Javier Zaldivar
Phone: 408-374-9960
TTY: N/A
Fax: 408-376-0586
Early Start Intake: Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Benito
Counties: 1-844-700-9889 | Monterey County: 1-831-443-1279
Address: 6203 San Ignacio Avenue, Suite #200, San Jose, CA 95119

Counties Served: Monterey, San Benito, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz

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.

Parents Helping Parents, Inc.

1400 Parkmoor Ave., Suite 100
San Jose, CA 95126
(408) 727-5775
(866) 747-4040

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.

Santa Clara North West SELPA

1290 Ridder Park Drive – MC 277
San Jose, CA 95131-2398

408-453-6566

Santa Clara South East SELPA

3434 Marten Avenue
San Jose, CA 95148

408-223-3776

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.

Santa Clara County Office of Education

1290 Ridder Park Drive, Mail Code 261
San Jose, CA 95131
(669) 212-5437
M-F: 8-5
Services in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, 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.)

Santa Clara County Office of Education

Michael Garcia
1290 Ridder Park Drive, MC 261
San Jose, CA 95131
Phone: 408-453-6649
Email: migarcia@sccoe.org

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 Santa Clara

4000 Moorpark Ave #200
San Jose, CA 95117
(408) 260-3700
info@first5kids.org

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.

Community Child Care Council of Santa Clara County Inc

150 River Oaks Parkway, Suite F-1
San Jose, CA 95124
408-487-0747

Santa Clara County Office of Education

1290 Ridder Park Drive, Mail Code 225
San Jose, CA 95131
408-453-6900

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.

Parents Helping Parents Inc.

Phone: 408-727-5775

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.

Central Coast Regional Office

2580 North First Street, Suite 240
San Jose, CA 95131
(408) 324-2106
centralcoast@scdd.ca.gov
Serves: Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Ventura 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.

Campbell Union School District (CUSD)

Campbell Union School District (CUSD) is a PreK-8 school district that includes parts of 6 cities in Santa Clara County. CUSD serves more than 7,500 students, including 560 preschoolers in 8 centers.

CUSD was an early adopter of the Teaching Pyramid and was one of the first Partner Sites, recognized in 2010-11. Because the framework fits with the district goal of provide a nurturing and caring environment that equips young children with the tools necessary for social, emotional and academic success, CUSD staff have incorporated the Pyramid approach into the overall school culture. Reviewing progress and challenges in implementation is a standing agenda item in teacher meetings, they have designated a teacher on assignment as a Pyramid Coach and Trainer, and have successfully blended Teaching Pyramid practices into other academic initiatives. Another notable feature of this Partner Site is that they have sustained Leadership Team activities over a number of years and have enacted almost all of the Program-wide Benchmarks of Quality. They have a Mentor Classroom operating with high fidelity to the Teaching Pyramid framework.

De Anza Child Development Center (De Anza CDC)

As part of the De Anza Community College Child Development (De Anza CDC) and Education Department, the De Anza Child Development Center (De Anza CDC) is a laboratory school that provides quality learning experiences for over 100 children and their families each year. De Anza CDC serves children from families affiliated with De Anza College as well as the general public and who range in age from 18 months to 5 years.

Like many of the Teaching Pyramid “pioneers,” their implementation of the framework began with a core group of teachers who attended training and saw the impact of the program on children’s social and emotional competence. The entire staff was trained in the 2012-13 program year and was also recognized as a Partner Site that same year, due to their earlier implementation effort and the ongoing work of their Leadership Team. A unique feature of this Partner Site is that the De Anza CDC serves as a laboratory/demonstration school for De Anza Child Development students, as well as for those in other disciplines. As part of this focus, the team is engaged in evolving new ways of communicating and demonstrating the Teaching Pyramid framework and strategies for interns and student teachers.

Parkway Child Development Center

Parkway Child Development Center (CDC) is a State Preschool and Head Start program operated by the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE). SCCOE provides Head Start services to 2,150 Head Start eligible preschool-age children in Santa Clara and San Benito Counties and state-funded preschool programs to 700 low-income children, ages 18 months to five years, at five locations in San Jose.

Parkway Child Development Center is one of the first Partner Site programs, recognized in 2010. One of the ways that Parkway has been able to sustain implementation over this period of time is through support from SCCOE’s Inclusion Collaborative. The focus of the Collaborative is the successful inclusion of children with special needs (including children with behavioral challenges) in childcare and preschool. As part of this focus, the Collaborative’s CA CSEFEL Authorized Trainers provide training in the four Teaching Pyramid modules each year. In this way, Parkway is able to train new teachers and provide refreshers for current staff. Parkway has also kept the program going through participation in an on-going County-wide Leadership Team.

St. Elizabeth’s Day Home (SEDH)

St. Elizabeth’s Day Home (SEDH) was the first childcare center of its kind when the Sisters of the Holy Family established it in downtown San Jose in 1907. Today, St. Elizabeth’s Day Home serves children (ages 18 months to 5 years old) from a diverse range of cultural and economic backgrounds.

SEDH staff participated in the Teaching Pyramid Module training, coaching, and Leadership Team in the 2013-14 program year. A number of classroom teams were enthusiastic adopters and they developed a Mentor Classroom–operating with high fidelity to the framework–within their first year of implementation. This team employs a wide variety of strategies and uses key strategies with intensity. For example, teachers mastered the use of Positive Descriptive Acknowledgement (PDA) in teaching behavioral Expectations (we are safe-friendly-respectful) and began to use PDA to prepare “graduating” preschoolers for kindergarten by helping them see themselves as learners, as independent, as holders and sharers of knowledge, and as creative problem solvers.