Our providers offer Respite/Child Care (day or night) in the family’s home, in a licensed family day care home, or at community sites. Services are available to RFA parents and relative caregivers. Services are also available to CalWORKs parents who are attending work, school, or training and who need emergency back-up child care or care for a mildly-ill child.
The San Francisco Respite Child Care Program has provided child care services since 1994.
The Respite Child Care (RFA) Program in San Francisco is a free service available to all San Francisco certified RFA parents who reside in and outside San Francisco city and county. The Respite/Child Care Program largely provides respite/child care, most often outside of the family’s home at licensed family day care homes, day or night, including holidays and weekends. Services can also be provided during the day in a family’s home by one of our program’s Family Support Specialist staff. All care providers are trained to provide services for children with special needs.
Our RFA program serves birth parents, foster parents and relative caregivers who are caring for children with special needs. Children in the program may include those who are developmentally disabled, prenatally substance exposed, abused or neglected, HIV affected, or at risk of abuse or neglect.
Presently, the San Francisco RFA Respite/Child Care program provides services in East Bay Counties not limited to Alameda, Contra Costa, Stanislaus, Solano and Santa Clara.
Through the San Francisco Respite/Child Care program, as of June 2018, we now guarantee immediate respite/child care services to a specific number of RFA families, Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00am – 5:00pm.
Emergency Backup Program
The Emergency Backup Program has provided child care services since 1999. It provides emergency back-up child care for families who are actively engaged in school, work and/or training within the CalWORKs and Rapid Response programs and whose regular child care is unavailable. The EB program also provides child care for families attending appointments at one of the four SFHSA drop-in center offices
The EB Program supports parents and other caregivers by offering intermittent childcare so that parents can meet their family needs and recoup their strength to continue fulfilling their caregiving responsibilities
The Emergency Back-Up (CalWORKs) program recently extended services to include Alameda and San Mateo Counties.
Mildly Ill Program
Our Mildly Ill program (as a special component to the EB program) is designed to provide child care for children who cannot attend their regular child care due to illness. Children in the Mildly Ill program may also include children who are developmentally disabled, prenatally substance exposed, abused or neglected, HIV affected, or at risk of abuse or neglect.
Respite Child Care services in our San Francisco program are provided by a pool of out-of-home providers (i.e., licensed family day care homes/Certified RFA Caregivers) and in-home providers (Family Support Specialists staff). Our current pool of providers resides in San Francisco and other outlying counties to provide services within the Bay Area.
In Fiscal Year 2017-18 the San Francisco Respite Child Care (combined) Programs provided
- 38,426.50 hours of respite/childcare
For more information, or to make a referral:
Please call our Respite Coordinators at (415) 861-4284.