On April 5, 2018, California State Auditor Elaine M. Howle released a 63-page report detailing questionable and unfair practices by the Community Child Care Council of Santa Clara County (4Cs). In the wake of the audit, the California Department of Education (CDE) issued 4Cs a Notice of Proposed Action that same day informing them they would not be offered continued funding for child care for Fiscal Year 2018-2019.
4Cs is the largest non-profit agency in the County of Santa Clara that serves as a link between families and child care providers.
“It is heartbreaking how 4Cs has abused the trust of our community and deprived our families and children of the quality child care they need and deserve,” said Riko Mendez, Chief Elected Officer of SEIU 521.“We believe the County should play a leadership role in ensuring that Santa Clara families get the child care services they deserve and look forward to working with whichever agency takes over these critical services to ensure this type of tragedy never occurs in our community again.”
The results of the audit reinforce what 4Cs employees, child care providers, and parents have been saying for years.
The report details how 4Cs:
- Unfairly disrupted and terminated services to some families;
- Terminated a preschool program to seemingly avoid further scrutiny;
- Misused state funds;
- Paid providers late, creating unnecessary financial hardship for them;
- Engaged in questionable management of its employee retirement plans.
Here are the links to the state audit documents:
Child care workers, parents and employees of 4Cs attended a Joint Committee on Legislative Audit (JLAC) hearing on June 28, 2017, demanding a state audit of the agency. Watch the video recording on Facebook.
The agency is undergoing other audits for its alleged misconduct. For more information, visit this page: www.seiu521.org/4cs
“We’d like to thank Senator Jim Beall and Assemblymember Ash Kalra for bringing forward the request for this audit, as it clearly shows that the families in Santa Clara are not being served and that our concerns are valid. By working together as a union, 4Cs employees are the ones who first flagged these problems. Along with providers and parents, we must have a voice in finding solutions to the problems unearthed by this audit.”
– Virgilio Gonzalez, Family Fee Specialist at 4Cs and SEIU 521 member
For more details, read the press release.
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