When the Amador Child Care Council identified the lack of child care facilities in the county, it went to work.

The council has coupled with other organizations in Amador and Calaveras counties to learn from groups that have been successful in establishing care programs for kids not quite age-ready for school.

The council determined the need for child care centers in the county after conducting a needs assessment in 2004. The county is also in need of licensed infant and toddler care and a center that offers non-traditional hours for parents who work odd shifts at hospitals or parents who are emergency workers like firefighters and police officers, according to Joyce Stone, manager of the Amador Child Care Council.

On Thursday morning, the Amador and Calaveras child care councils held a collaborative partnership meeting to discuss school expansion and partnering opportunities to create child care facilities.

The five panelists present, which included Calaveras and Amador school officials, discussed some of the requirements for opening a child care facility.

"I think it's a key element to have your own building and if you can't have your own building, then it's key to have a designated space," said Calaveras County Office of Education, Extended Day Program Director Chris Shultz.

One solution to that need was to plan for extra rooms in any classroom building expansion, according to Calaveras Unified School District Superintendent Jim Frost. Frost said Valley Springs Elementary School is planning for 17 classrooms, some of which will be used for a preschool.

Currently, the Amador County school system has an extended learning program and a preschool program that was once struggling but is now at capacity, according to Amador County Unified School District Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Barbara Murray. One challenge with the extended learning program, Murray said, is maintaining staff.

Murray also mentioned that because of anticipated declining enrollment at Pioneer Elementary School, the school will lose students and staff, which could free up space for a preschool program.

There are four sites for state preschools in the county located at the elementary schools in Jackson, Ione, Plymouth and Pioneer. Those preschools, as well as the Head Start program, are income eligible programs, which means that for a parent to qualify for that type of child care, the family's income cannot be more than 75 percent of the state's median income.

Head Start eligibility is based on the federal poverty line.

Finding a child care center in the county may be hard, but a lack of available, child appropriate buildings makes starting one just as difficult, according to Stone.

Stone said the council is working with developers to see if one of them will be willing to provide a child care center.

The council is also encouraging the county and its cities to include a need for child care centers in the General Plan language, which would make a stronger case for zoning ordinances to include places for child care.

"If it's made official, then new developers coming in will see it's an institutionalized need in the county," Stone said.

While two of the issues identified were the need to find staff for a child care facility and a location for one, where to find funding was another issue the panel addressed.

Looking for money from future developments is a possible source, Frost said. He suggested school districts write after school care and preschools into their school development plan, which would give school districts a stronger justification for raising developer's fees within legal requirements.

ACUSD Board Trustee Chuck Anderson agreed that schools should look for more from future developers because "the cost of school construction far, far outweighs the amount of money coming in from developer fees." Currently, the school district can charge developers $2.63 per square foot of residential construction.

Incentives programs through First 5 Amador were also suggested as a way to get stipends for care facilities with extended hours or weekend time, said First 5 Amador Executive Director Nina Machado.